The Marshall Islands foreign minister has questioned a US government report which said the country wasn't doing enough to combat human trafficking.
John Silk, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, speaks at a press briefing of representatives from the "high ambition coaltion" gathered at UN Headquarters. Photo: UN/Fred Fath
The US State Department has demoted the Marshalls to its Tier 2 Watchlist, the last step before being blacklisted.
This is because the department said the government hadn't done enough to sort issues around a Majuro brothel that may have employed underage girls, which is an automatic trafficking offence.
There were also allegations of complicity involving senior government officials.
But the Marshall Islands Foreign Minister, John Silk, said there has been no let up in the government's efforts to rein in human trafficking.
RNZ Pacific's correspondent Giff Johnson said the Marshall Islands believes it's meeting the US requirements.
"The challenge is like the prostitution question which arose over a year ago, well the US report says this was still under investigation nine months later when their reporting period ended. So it's like these investigations seem sometimes to be just unending."