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By Rolynda Jonathan
The Marshall Islands have dismissed the U.S. Trafficking In Persons report that placed them on a global watch as a sex trafficking destination.
Phillip Muller, RMI’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat that there is no human trafficking in the Marshall Islands.
He says there may be one or two isolated incidents, but there’s no prostitution in bars and no human trafficking.
The 2013 TIP report claims that foreign women were reportedly forced into prostitution in bars that are frequented by crewmembers of foreign fishing vessels.
But Muller dismissed the claims saying boat captains sometimes bring in their families to the Marshalls.
He says he does not understand where the report is coming from, and further revealed to the Pacific Beat that the report went without input from the RMI Government.
He says the report is premature and baseless.
The annual U.S. State Department report was released early last month.