The yearly Trafficking in Persons Report (Tip) report is an important and useful tool to compare human trafficking – as defined by the United States. But for academic researchers, the report could be more valuable if it was accompanied by qualitative up-to-date research to allow for meaningful evaluation and analysis of the trends on human trafficking.
Thailand, for example, was granted a second waiver from an automatic downgrade to Tier 3 in this year's report, keeping it on the Tier 2 watch list. Unfortunately, the narratives on Thailand in the report don't add significant information to the previous reports.