[Senate Hearing 108-105]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 108-105
TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN EAST ASIA AND BEYOND: A REVIEW OF
U.S. POLICY
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EAST ASIAN
AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
APRIL 9, 2003
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/
senate
____________________________________________________________________________
For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Internet: bookstore.gpr.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; (202) 512�091800
Fax: (202) 512�092250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402�090001
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana, Chairman
CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware
LINCOLN CHAFEE, Rhode Island PAUL S. SARBANES, Maryland
GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut
SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin
GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio BARBARA BOXER, California
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee BILL NELSON, Florida
NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West
JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire Virginia
JON S. CORZINE, New Jersey
Kenneth A. Myers, Jr., Staff Director
Antony J. Blinken, Democratic Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EAST ASIAN
AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS
SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas, Chairman
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts
CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West
GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia Virginia
GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin
JON S. CORZINE, New Jersey
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Haugen, Mr. Gary A., president and CEO, International Justice
Mission, Washington, DC........................................ 26
Prepared statement........................................... 30
Hughes, Dr. Donna M., professor and Carlson Endowed Chair in
Women's Studies, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI...... 19
Prepared statement........................................... 23
Miller, Hon. John R., Senior Advisor and Director, Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Department of State,
Washington, DC................................................. 4
Prepared statement........................................... 7
U.S. Government's International Anti-Trafficking Programs for
Fiscal Year 2002........................................... 9
Response to an additional question for the record from
Senator Feingold........................................... 42
Voinovich, Hon. George V., U.S. Senator from Ohio, prepared
statement...................................................... 3
(iii)
TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN EAST ASIA AND BEYOND: A REVIEW OF
U.S. POLICY
----------
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2003
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on East Asian
and Pacific Affairs,
Committee on Foreign Relations,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:45 p.m. in
room SD-106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Sam Brownback
(chairman of the subcommittee), presiding.
Present: Senator Brownback.
Senator Brownback. I call the hearing to order. Thank you
all for being here today, and I can't start this hearing
without really recognizing the events that are taking place
half a world away in Baghdad, with the celebration of liberty
that is occurring in that country. We have all watched for some
period of time the developments taking place, and hoping and
praying for the fall of that regime and liberty to be able to
spread, and it's taking place now. It's flourishing in a great
way.
I say that from watching the developments and also from
talking to the parents of a sergeant from Kansas who was killed
in the conflict about a week ago. I spoke to his parents this
morning about him, about his life, about the contributions that
he had made, and they noted that it all is in the cause of
liberty, and liberty is a very expensive thing, and that they
hated losing him, but in this cause they as a family are
honored and recognize what his contribution is doing today,
even as we speak, and we recognize and thank him and all the
people in the services that have stood so tall in that
conflict.
Today, we will be hearing from two panels reviewing U.S.
policy on international trafficking in women and children in
East Asia and beyond. We have two important and distinguished
panels today. On our first panel we have with us the Director
of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons,
former Congressman John Miller of Washington, glad to have you
here, Congressman. Our second panel is Professor Donna Hughes
of the University of Rhode Island, where she serves as the
Carlson Endowed Chair in Women's Studies, and Gary Haugen,
president and CEO of International Justice Mission, an
important organization in our discussion.
Upon the conclusion of the hearing on trafficking, we will
move to the nomination of Pamela Slutz to be the U.S.
Ambassador to Mongolia.
Before I move on to my statement I would like to note the
absence of a particularly remarkable individual who I worked
with closely for many years and developed a very fond
relationship with, and that's Senator Paul Wellstone. As you
all know, Paul and his wife were tragically killed in a plane
crash last year.
The trafficking issue is one in which we worked on
together, and very successfully. It was actually his wife,
Sheila, that had pointed out the issue first to Paul, and then
to both of us. He took the issue up, we took the issue up in
our office, worked together, formed a coalition, and were able
to get that legislation through and worked very closely and
tirelessly in that, and he was a great friend and a great
colleague, and I miss him, and he is frequently in my prayers,
as I hope he is in yours.
Before we get to the first panel, I'd like to read some
prepared remarks to emphasize to my colleagues what I think is
a worrisome topic of great moral importance, but one that also
has implications for the security of the United States. That
is, in terms of the collusion of crime networks with terrorist
groups, and in addition, the connection of trafficking and the
spread of HIV/AIDS, the global pandemic. It is first and
foremost an issue of human rights and compassion, but second
will have a profound impact on the security of the United
States.
I have asked Congressman Miller to be here primarily to
introduce or reintroduce the issue to some of my colleagues. I
believe he can put it in stark terms and will put forward a
compelling case. There are a number of tales, information from
women that have been taken and have been forced into this
experience of trafficking, of being trafficked, and trafficked
into prostitution.
There are several areas which we should really focus on
today. Congressman Miller is fighting to ensure his office has
credibility and its functions are effective. Some of this is a
struggle against bureaucratic forces that see the mission of
the trafficking in persons [TIP] office as conflicting with
their mission in promoting the United States abroad.
Congressman Miller, not long on the job, was baptized by
fire when the TIP office held a conference entitled,
``Pathbreaking Strategies in the Global Fight Against Sex
Trafficking.'' At that time, President Bush signed a national
security Presidential directive to advance the United States
Government's fight against trafficking in persons by
establishing the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor
and Combat Trafficking in Persons. This directive underlined
that prostitution and sex tourism are inherently harmful and
dehumanizing. These inhumane practices cause much of the
trafficking in the world and amplifies the spread of HIV and
other diseases.
The directive continued by stating the President's
commitment to vigorously enforce U.S. laws against traffickers,
raising awareness in the U.S. and abroad about trafficking and
identifying, protecting, and assisting victims. More
importantly, the President emphasized the importance of using
the full range of our diplomatic and foreign policy arsenal to
work with other nations, the U.N. and other multilateral arenas
to draft and enforce laws against trafficking.
In addition, the Congress passed in a consolidated
appropriations resolution, the omnibus appropriations bill, a
measure which would create a senior policy operating group of
senior officials designed, designated by the interagency task
force to oversee the coordination of activities regarding
policy implementation which includes grants and associated
policies.
This group is chaired by Congressman Miller and I think
gives him some substantial authority to do his job. I think
this is extremely important for my colleagues to understand.
Today, I hope we can give him a forum to explain what his level
of commitment is and how he plans to run this group. He
represented the Seattle area from 1985 to 1993 in the House of
Representatives, and while there he distinguished himself in
the human rights agenda and served on the House Foreign Affairs
Committee and on the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and I
know he hasn't lost any of his fight.
[A statement submitted for the record by Senator Voinovich
follows:]
Prepared Statement of Senator George V. Voinovich
I thank the Chairman, Senator Brownback, for calling this hearing
to order to examine the issue of trafficking in human beings. I am
deeply concerned with this problem, which affects more than half a
million people every year--most of whom are women and children. Some
estimates put the number even higher, suggesting that as many as four
million people are victims of trafficking each year. This deserves and
demands our attention, and I am glad that we are gathering here today
to talk about what our government can do to help curb this disturbing
trend.
During my time in the Senate, I have been pleased to work with
Senator Brownback to call attention to the problem of human
trafficking. He has been one of this body's strongest leaders on this
issue, and I am glad to have the opportunity to continue to work with
him as a member of this subcommittee.
As the Chairman knows, the reach of worldwide trafficking is not
limited to East Asia and other parts of the world. It can and does, in
fact, impact us here in the United States. Reports tell us that as many
as 50,000 victims of trafficking are estimated to reach U.S. soil
annually.
Additionally, we must be mindful of where we could--perhaps
unknowingly--be part of the problem. Just last year, WEWS-TV Channel 5
(ABC) in Cleveland and WJW-TV Fox 8 in Cleveland reported on victims of
trafficking in South Korea, where U.S. soldiers were patronizing houses
of prostitution in which women were forced into prostitution in order
to buy their freedom. I joined with Representative Chris Smith and
other members of the U.S. Helsinki Commission in a letter to Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld requesting a comprehensive investigation
into this matter. We must do all we can to end this illicit activity--
not to encourage it.
Due to our efforts, the Defense Department has launched an
investigation into this issue in Korea and other parts of the world.
The DOD Inspector General had a team on the ground in South Korea last
month, and I am anxiously awaiting their report. It is my understanding
that a team has also been sent to Bosnia-Herzegovina to look into
allegations of illicit activity taking place there.
While world attention is focused on urgent challenges to security
and stability in Iraq and North Korea, we must also ensure that we do
not drop the ball on this pressing issue. Today's hearing reminds us of
the need to address the problem of trafficking in human beings, and I
thank the witnesses for taking time to be here. I look forward to their
testimony.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Brownback. Congressman Miller, we're delighted to
have you here in this new capacity, and look forward to your
statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN R. MILLER, SENIOR ADVISOR AND DIRECTOR,
OFFICE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, DEPARTMENT
OF STATE, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As someone who was
just sworn into office last month, it is an honor to testify
before your committee. I have some written testimony that I'm
going to submit for the record.
Senator Brownback. Without objection, it will be included
as part of the record.
Mr. Miller. I realize you have spent years on this issue,
while I have spent months, but in response to your and your
staff's instruction, I will orally give you some of my thoughts
on the general nature of the challenge to set the framework.
Less than 3 years ago, the Members of the Senate, led by
you, Senator Brownback, and the late Senator Wellstone took
what I believe is a momentous step. Many Americans at that time
thought slavery had ended with the American Civil War, but you
knew otherwise.
You and your colleagues probed, you listened, you
investigated, and you learned that slavery based on color may
still exist for thousands in the African country of Mauritania,
that slavery based on debt bondage still exists for hundreds of
thousands on the farms of India, in the brick kilns of
Pakistan, and in the charcoal camps of Brazil, that slavery
based on forced labor still exists for thousands in homes and
factories from the Caribbean to the Pacific Islands, that
slavery based on impressment into armies still exists for
thousands of young men from Sri Lanka to Uganda, that slavery
tied to capturing and starving jockeys for camel races still
exists in the Arabian Peninsula.
And most of all you learned, or relearned, about the
fastest-growing form of modern-day slavery, sex slavery, that
hundreds of thousands of women and girls are trafficked all
over the world, deceived, seized, beaten, raped, infected with
HIV/AIDS so that organized crime that you have just referred to
can gain billions of dollars every year.
You heard such moving testimony from victims of bodies
demeaned, of spirits trampled, and souls destroyed, and
unfortunately the world continues to abound with such stories,
which the dedicated staff in my office hear all the time, and
I'm just going to take a moment to tell two or three.
The recent issue of Catholic Women Magazine recounts the
story of Sasha, a 26-year-old waitress in a Czech town who
accepted the promise of a young man that she could make more
money working as a waitress and dancer in Germany. She would go
for a few months, she told her family, and return with a few
thousand dollars. By the time she ended up in the red light
district in Amsterdam, Holland, she had been abused and raped
and her family threatened, and she had also made over $70,000
for her captors before her release.
Or take the story of Mercy that my staff just told me
about. Like many Nigerian women, a friend of Mercy's family
promised her a job, arranged to smuggle her into Italy. Upon
her arrival, Mercy was told she had a $50,000 debt, to be paid
off by servicing a dozen men a night, and when Mercy resisted
she was gang-raped and her family threatened. Mercy did escape,
with the help of the Catholic Church. Three weeks after
speaking about her experience to human rights groups, her
sister was killed in Florence.
Or take Dacey. Last spring, Dacey, a 14-year-old girl, was
tricked into leaving her home in Burma during a school break
with the promise of a job in a noodle shop in Northern
Thailand. A Thai police officer who was part of the scheme was
even kind enough to give her a ride in his truck. Dacey was
sold into a brothel, where she was raped by seven men on the
first night. The first customer paid extra to rape a virgin,
and he insisted tape be placed over Dacey's mouth to muffle the
screams. We know about this because Dacey was later rescued,
due to the efforts of the International Justice Mission, and
you're going to hear from its director shortly.
And just last October in Seattle--and this was when I was
thinking about taking this job--the U.S. Attorney indicted
eight men for operating a sex slavery ring. Same familiar
story: young Asian women lured to Seattle with false promises,
schooling and jobs, then coerced into prostitution to pay off
alleged travel debts, and at least 14 women imprisoned in a
Seattle brothel and forced to service hundreds of men. The only
respite came when they were transported back and forth between
brothels in Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles.
Well, you, Senator, and your colleagues, you heard this
kind of testimony 3 years ago and you acted. You said slavery
must be abolished, but you said more than that in the
Trafficking Victim Protection Act [TVPA]. You said the United
States must lead. This body, the U.S. Senate, recognized that
our Declaration of Independence, our Judeo-Christian heritage,
and numerous international covenants all meant that we must
lead, and you and your colleagues realized that if we, the
United States, did not lead, nobody would. The U.S. Senate
appreciated that here on this issue our interests and our
values coincide, that a world without slavery would not only be
a more decent world, but in the long term a more secure and
peaceful world for the United States.
Many citizens helped you in the process of drafting that
legislation. To name just a few, the witnesses who join me
today, Gary Haugen and Donna Hughes, activists like former
Congresswoman Linda Smith and Laura Lederer and Michael
Horowitz, and a broad coalition of faith-based and feminist
organizations from the Salvation Army to NOW joined together to
fight this scourge.
And when, less than 3 years ago, you determined that the
United States would lead the fight against world slavery, you
asked U.S. Government agencies to do more here in the United
States and you created the office I have just joined. You told
us to start programs abroad in prevention, prosecution, and
protection, with both governments and charitable organizations.
No country in our world has done enough to stop slavery, in my
opinion, and that includes the United States, but now, under
your leadership and the leadership of President Bush and
Secretary Powell and Attorney General Ashcroft we are starting
to speak out and fight in this war.
Efforts are underway to help other governments and
charitable groups, including many faith-based ones, to fight
this scourge. Whether it's educating potential victims to be
wary of job offers such as Miramed does in Russia, or working
to rehabilitate victims such as Shared Hope or Catholic Relief
Services does in India, or working with police in rescuing
victims and prosecuting the traffickers, such as the
International Justice Mission does in Southeast Asia, private
charitable organizations, more and more with U.S. Government
support, play a powerful role and with our help can do even
more.
This year, the U.S. Department of Justice will, pursuant to
the law you passed, do an assessment of how the United States
is doing in the fight against slavery and where we can do
better and, just as important, by your mandate every year the
State Department issues a report, prepared by my office, on how
countries are doing around the world on this crucial human
rights issue.
The report, as you well know, is divided into categories,
those countries doing OK, those doing a mediocre job, and those
who are failing. For the first time, those in the last category
this spring, unless they move quickly, will face the loss of
nonhumanitarian and non-trade-related aid unless given a waiver
in the national interest by the President.
In compiling this report, my office will try to be
objective and fair, consistent with our role as advocate, not
for countries, but for the slaves. Just 4 months ago, President
Bush followed up on your work by issuing an Executive order
making the fight against all modern-day slavery a priority for
all U.S. agencies and putting this government on record against
prostitution as contributing to the phenomenon of sex slavery,
and just 2 months ago, as you have mentioned, the Congress
passed further legislation strengthening the coordinating role
of my office over grants in this field, and asking me to chair
a senior operating group from many agencies to develop grant
policies.
The people in my office welcome the platform you have
created, Senator, and I welcome the responsibility you have
given my office. Right now, we are a small group of 11 or 12
professionals who, because of your leadership, have been given
the chance to help our country make history.
Senator, I am told your former colleague, Paul Wellstone,
after listening to the victims at the first committee hearings
on slavery, said that it was the most moving experience that he
had had in his years as a U.S. Senator, and nothing would be a
better memorial to a U.S. Senator than the Trafficking Victim
Protections Act legislation which you passed, and the effective
implementation of that act, and I will do everything possible
to make that a fitting memorial.
Mr. Chairman, I have heard you keep in your office a lock
from a brothel in Bombay, India, that was used to imprison
girls younger than your eldest daughter. Our responsibility,
the responsibility of my office, the responsibility of the
citizens and the nonprofit group people that are gathered here
today, the responsibility of people around the world is to stop
this from happening to more young girls.
All of us know that, given age-old practices and the role
of organized crime, it will not be a short task to end modern-
day slavery, but with your help we have taken the first steps.
As the struggle continues, we should remember William
Wilberforce, the English evangelical and Member of Parliament
who struggled for 30 years in the early 19th century before
succeeding in abolishing the slave trade between Africa and the
New World. If we have Wilberforce's perseverance and the spirit
of our own 19th century abolitionists who fought slavery based
on color, I believe that working together we can and will
triumph over modern-day slavery.
Thank you for your kind attention.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Miller follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. John R. Miller, Director, Office to Monitor
and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Department of State
Thank you, Senator Brownback, for this opportunity to discuss the
United States' efforts to fight trafficking in persons in East Asia.
Let me start by thanking you for your visionary leadership in combating
human trafficking worldwide, which you often say, is truly the modern-
day face of slavery. As the recently appointed director of this office,
which you helped establish through your landmark legislation, I look
forward to working with you in this continuing fight to eradicate human
trafficking worldwide.
I would like to give an overview of our anti-trafficking efforts,
particularly regarding the East Asian and Pacific region. The focus in
East Asia and Pacific is concentrated on the following strategies:
Emphasizing the importance of continuing and expanding
regional collaboration.
Engaging governments bilaterally to bring all possible tools
to bear to encourage and assist countries in addressing their
trafficking problem.
To date, U.S. engagement on trafficking in the East Asia Pacific
region has generated positive progress, but the countries in the region
need to do much more. As you know, most of the countries in the region
face serious trafficking problems. The good news is that almost all of
these governments are aware of this transnational problem and seek
cooperative solutions. The diversity of the region means there is no
one-size-fits-all model for a response to the trafficking problem.
Governments are at different points along the continuum in responding
to this arduous task.
As noted, my office seeks to expand and encourage cooperation
between and among neighboring governments. After working closely with
the governments in the Mekong region, we have seen, for example, the
beginnings of cooperative efforts between governments to ensure that
trafficking victims are humanely treated and where appropriate, are
helped to return voluntarily to their countries of origin.
Similar bilateral and regional cooperation is occurring as
governments more fully recognize that trafficking in persons is a
transnational crime. There have been positive practical responses by
governments. Governments have begun to build capacity by exchanging law
enforcement information, enhancing their ability to better challenge
the international syndicates. For example,Thailand has begun taking
measures to build a transnational law enforcement unit. This
development has the potential to demonstrate the Thai government's
long-term commitment to regional law enforcement. Also, such
cooperation should help governments improve their own domestic law
enforcement efforts.
The Government of Indonesia hosted the first Regional Ministerial
Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related
Transnational Crime last year. The Second Regional Ministerial
Conference on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related
Transnational Crime will be held on April 29-30 in Bali. We support
Indonesia's effort to confront trafficking issues in a pragmatic and
results-oriented fashion, and we look forward to participating in the
next conference as an observer. We consider this to be a positive
opportunity to stimulate much-needed regional cooperation.
These are important steps forward, but many challenges remain.
Generally, domestic law enforcement efforts, particularly
``prosecutions'' are the most problematic area in combating trafficking
in the East Asia and Pacific region. We have communicated with a number
of governments, including Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia, that much
more needs to be done in this respect. We have emphasized that
prosecution efforts, in addition to protection and prevention measures,
are an important component in their tier placement on the annual
Trafficking in Persons Report.
A related concern is that a lack of transparency and weak
institutions are hampering the effectiveness of efforts to combat
trafficking in some countries. We have expressed these concerns to our
partners and are working vigorously to help them address these broader
issues. We recognize that trafficking networks build up over time and
will take some concerted long-term efforts to dismantle. We do not,
however, see these systemic problems as an excuse for weak political
will. In this context, we have clearly communicated to relevant
partners that any complicity of public officials in trafficking must be
addressed urgently.
Simply stated, we are engaged in a vigorous fight to eradicate
trafficking in persons, which is a modern day form of slavery. Key
actors throughout the region--government officials, activists and NGOs,
and engaged citizens--are with us in this anti-trafficking fight, and
we continue to expand our cooperation with these friends.
We have the assistance of some governments in the region, which
like the U.S., are providing program assistance in the fight against
trafficking. Like the U.S., they also face their own trafficking
problems at home. For example, we are developing closer cooperation
with destination countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, in
funding anti-trafficking programs in source and transit countries.
Australia, for example, is spending $6.4 million in the region to fight
both human trafficking and child sex tourism. After a review of their
trafficking projects in 2001, Australia developed a pilot program to
build the capacity of South East Asian countries, coordinated through a
workshop of representatives from sponsored countries, and including the
U.S. Government as a participant. The six diverse components of the
project range from boosting law enforcement capacity in Cambodia to an
integrated early detection system in Laos.
During the 2002 fiscal year, the U.S. Government approved
approximately $11 million for anti-trafficking programs in the East
Asia Pacific region during the 2002 fiscal year, with funds supplied
from the Departments of State, Labor, and USAID. Of this amount, $5
million came from the Department of State from INCLE, ESF and MRA
funds. These programs were designed to improve the capacities of
governments and NGOs to fight trafficking by assisting law enforcement,
providing protection and assistance to victims, and bolstering
prevention efforts. Such programs include helping the Government of
Vietnam to develop a national plan of action. Other measures include a
program in Laos promoting education and awareness-raising on the
dangers of trafficking in the villages; supporting victims' shelters in
Vietnam; and, sending technical experts from the Department of Justice
to train Indonesian police officials on investigating trafficking
crimes.
There are impressive programmatic successes in the region, although
much more needs to be done. In the Philippines, for example, the U.N.
Center for International Crime Prevention created a National
Coordination Project involving several components including a
trafficking study, review of governmental efforts, and a profile
development of trafficked women. The project addressed better
coordination of governmental efforts so successfully, it has become a
model for other countries in the region with a significant trafficking
problem suffering inadequate national responses. The Department
provided funding in FY2002 for this program to be reproduced in
Vietnam.
Another example of program success in the region involves child
victim advocacy and law enforcement in Thailand. With funding from the
Department, the Asia Foundation administered 9 projects to improve the
capacity of NGOs addressing regional trafficking. One particularly
notable Thai NGO is the Coalition to Fight Against Child Exploitation
(FACE), which is in the forefront of efforts to secure convictions of
traffickers and pedophiles. The Department funding helped FACE expand
to include advocacy on behalf of Cambodian children trafficked into
Bangkok. Additionally, since this funding, FACE was empowered to
provide key data on prosecutions and investigations, previously
unavailable.
As you know, my office leads preparation of the Department's
legislatively mandated Trafficking in Persons Report, otherwise known
as the TIP Report, issued each June. In compiling this report, my
office will maintain its high standards of objective and fair reporting
that is consistent with our role as advocates for victims. This year
for the first time, those countries in Tier 3 of the TIP Report will
face the loss of non-humanitarian and non-trade related aid absent a
national interest waiver.
This is a good beginning, but it is only the start of a long-term
effort. We must press for immediate action while assisting in promoting
sustained regional and country strategies. Human trafficking is many
insidious things. It is a human rights atrocity. It is a transnational
crime. It is an offense against human dignity. I look forward to
working with you combating this scourge which is counted among the
great human rights battles of our time.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
______
[Compiled by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons,
U.S. Department of State, February 2003]
The U.S. Government's International Anti-Trafficking Programs \1\--
Fiscal Year 2002
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ For a complete listing of all U.S. Government international
anti-trafficking programs, please go to www.state.gov/g/tip/
Abbreviations
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EAP U.S. Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and
Pacific Affairs
ECA U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
EUR U.S. Department of State's Bureau of European Affairs
G/TIP Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
CICP UNODCCP's Center for International Crime Prevention
ICITAP U.S. Department of Justice's International Criminal
Investigative Training Assistance Program
ILO International Labor Organization
IOM International Organization for Migration
IPEC ILO's International Program for the Elimination of
Child Labor
INL U.S. Department of State's Bureau for International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
OPDAT U.S. Department of Justice's Overseas Prosecutorial
Development, Assistance and Training
PRM U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population,
Refugees, and Migration
SA U.S. Department of State's Bureau of South Asian
Affairs
USAID U.S. Agency for International Development
USG United States Government
UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund
UNIFEM United Nations Women's Fund
UNODCCP United Nations' Office of Drug Control and Crime
Prevention
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC ISLANDS
REGIONAL
Type of Program: Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, G/TIP
Recipient: Royal Thai Government and IOM
Project Title: Working Group on Policy, Legislation and Law Enforcement
Issues
Description: Under the aegis of a regional ministerial on smuggling and
trafficking, two workshops will investigate legal structures and
law enforcement practices in East Asia. Objectives are to improve
regional cooperation, identify areas of improvement on law
enforcement, create a network of experts, and coordinate law
enforcement initiatives.
Type of Program: Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, G/TIP
Recipient: United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime
Prevention/Crime Center Project Title: Computer-Based Training (CBT)
Development
Description: The Crime Center will design, develop and deliver a new
CBT module on trafficking for law enforcement personnel in the
Greater Mekong Sub-region (Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Burma,
Thailand and Vietnam). This will standardize training and skills-
development at high levels throughout the region and at a
significant reduction in training costs.
Type of Program: Prevention/Protection/Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Academy for Educational Development (AED)
Project Title: EAP Regional Human Trafficking Website
Description: The humantrafficking.org website serves as a repository of
information on efforts to combat trafficking in persons, especially
women and children. The website posts information about anti-
trafficking laws and regulations, bilateral agreements to cooperate
in combating trafficking, upcoming conferences, best practices,
contact information for obtaining assistance, and other materials.
BURMA
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, ECA
Recipient: Individual
Project Title: International Visitor Exchange Program on Trafficking of
Women and Children
Description: The program brings current or potential leaders in
government, politics, the media, education, and other fields to the
United States to meet and confer with their professional
counterparts. The International Visitor Program partners with
national program agencies to design and implement each program to
meet specific visitors' interests. Programs typically last three
weeks during which visitors gain an overview of programs to prevent
trafficking of women and children in Washington, DC followed by
related local programs arranged through a country-wide network of
Council of International Visitors.
CAMBODIA
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, LAP
Recipient: IOM
Project Title: Awareness Campaign Project
Description: Campaigns to increase TIP awareness, presented through
multi-media presentations, using both video and live performances,
to audiences across eighteen provinces over a three-year period.
The information campaigns will be followed by the teaching of an
anti-trafficking life skill course in schools and among members of
village women's and children's groups at the community level.
Information gathered during campaigns will be used to build a
national counter-trafficking database to help the Ministry of
Women's and Veterans' Affairs (MWVA) respond to the problems of
trafficking in women in children.
Type of Program: Prevention, Protection
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, PRM
Recipient: TOM
Project Title: Return Recovery and Reintegration Assistance to
Trafficked Women and Children: Cambodia
Description: The project aims at strengthening NGO and government
capacity, particularly the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labor,
Vocational Training, and Youth Rehabilitation (MOSALVY), to develop
durable reintegration solutions for victims of trafficking who
cannot be reunited with their families within the first several
months of their return to Cambodia. Technical support assistance
enhances partners' capacities to implement alternative care for the
victims, including the development of family support (counseling,
skills development for families), foster care, group homes,
orphanages, and community-based outreach networks to help integrate
single women with children.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, ECA
Recipient: Individual
Project Title: International Visitor Exchange Program on Trafficking of
Women and Children
Description: The program brings current or potential leaders in
government, politics, the media, education, and other fields to the
United States to meet and confer with their professional
counterparts. The International Visitor Program partners with
national program agencies to design and implement each program to
meet specific visitors' interests. Programs typically last three
weeks during which visitors gain an overview of programs to prevent
trafficking of women and children in Washington, DC followed by
related local programs arranged through a country-wide network of
Council of International Visitors.
FIJI
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Fiji Women's Crisis Center (FWCC)
Project Title: Training and Capacity-Building Program
Description: FWCC is conducting training and capacity building for
organizations and individuals working to eliminate violence against
women. It is also publishing materials on violence against women to
support community education, advocacy, and lobbying and it will
support rural initiatives working to eliminate violence against
women.
INDONESIA
Type of Program: Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, G/TIP
Recipient: U.S. Department of Justice, ICITAP
Project Title: Training for Police, Justice, and Immigration Officials
Description: Training will improve readiness and the ability of law
enforcement officials to prevent and investigate trafficking cases
and establish standard operating procedures to identify probable
trafficked groups, effectively interview and assist victims, and
bring perpetrators to justice.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Yayasan Sains Estetika dan Technology (SET)
Project Title: Anti-Trafficking Brochures
Description: SET is working with the Ministry of Education to develop
prevention brochures to be presented to middle school students.
This Indonesian NGO believes that successful prevention requires
getting basic information to potential trafficking victims early on
in an easily understood form. The distribution of the brochures
will eventually extend to many children outside of the school
system.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: International Relief and Development (IRD)
Project Title: Food for Thought: Anti-Trafficking Messages on Food
Packaging
Description: This project will deliver anti-trafficking messages to
consumers at all income and age levels. The message is reinforced
every time a consumer purchases a food staple. The manufacturers
involved in the program pay distribution costs. This is similar to
the campaigns in the U.S. featuring missing children on milk
cartons.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Legal Aid Society
Project Title: National Conference on Trafficking in Women and Children
Description: A conference was held in Jakarta in September 2002. The
invitees were politicians from all parties, central government
officials from the Ministry of Women's Empowerment, local
government officials from all the provinces, NGO representatives,
academicians, legal activists, union leaders, and media
representatives. The goals of the conference were to build a
national coalition to fight TIP, to attract media attention, and to
form a committee representing civil society advocacy groups.
LAOS
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Village Focus International
Project Title: Awareness Raising Campaign Against Trafficking/Women's
Participation in Political Processes at the Village Level
Description: This project conducts awareness-raising activities in
selected at-risk communities, focusing on Southern Laos. Existing
village-based schools and other networks are used to disseminate
information and conduct training in cooperation with local
counterparts and government officials. VFI produces youth-friendly
information kits; forms and maintains paper puppetry groups; sets
up youth leadership program activities and produces video and radio
programs.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Consortium (includes World Education and World Learning)
Project Title: Prevention of Human Trafficking through Awareness
Raising and Occupational Development in Mekong Border Communities
Description: Project works to improve the Vientiane Center for Skill
Development to provide direct assistance to victims of trafficking
and youth who are vulnerable to traffickers. The Center also
provides vocational training for at-risk youth and awareness
campaigns in the target districts. The awareness messages are
delivered in public venues such as school buildings and temples
through the leadership and participation of local leaders in the
community.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Type of Program: Protection
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: City Mission
Project Title: Port Moresby City Mission Women's Hostel, Crisis Center,
and Child Abuse Center
Description: City Mission is renovating several rooms for short-term
crisis accommodations on a free-of-charge basis to assist those
suffering from abuse. The Center currently has 29 rooms, using 20
for a hostel and 9 rooms set aside as a refuge and child abuse
center, which will also house administration offices. Crisis
accommodations would be provided to as many as 16 victims for up to
three days.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Family Violence Action Committee (FVAC)
Project Title: Operational Support to FVAC
Description: Through cooperation and awareness campaigns, FVAC has
increased its ability to speak with authority about the extent of
the family violence problem. A new database has given FVAC the
ability to provide factual data on the extent of the problem in
PNG. It can be a reference and resource tool when seeking
cooperation from governments and NGOs.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: UNDP, UNOPS, and UNIFEM
Project Title: Bougainville Women's Resource Center for the Prevention
of Violence Against Women
Description: This project seeks to meet the concerns of women through
activities such as the training of a resources person and putting
that person into the community to conduct sessions on the
prevention of violence against women. Another activity is the
construction and furnishing of the Bougainville Women's Resource
Center.
PHILIPPINES
Type of Program: Prevention/Protection
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF)
Project Title: Halfway Houses in Manila and Davao Ports
Description: The VFF, in partnership with the Philippines Port
Authority, is establishing two halfway houses at the two most
active ports in the Philippines, Manila and Davao. The halfway
houses will provide temporary shelter, repatriation, referral, and
telephone hotline counseling services to victims. Seminars and
training will also be conducted to strengthen the participation and
awareness of strategic partners within these ports (such as police,
private security agencies, etc.).
Type of Program: Prevention/Protection/Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS)
Project Title: Combating Trafficking of Women and Children in the
Philippines
Description: This project addresses the gaps and needs in the
government's anti-trafficking campaign. The project includes
collecting baseline information on traffickers, campaign awareness,
advocacy, and networking activities for improvements in prevention;
providing assistance to victims and vulnerable groups through
telephone hotlines, advocacy for funding for start-up funds for
domestic violence/rape shelters and crisis centers, and legal
assistance to improve protection; and training and capacity
building exercises to develop gender-sensitive officials in law
enforcement and justice sectors to improve prosecution.
Type of Program: Protection, Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of Labor/Bureau of International Labor
Affairs/International Child Labor Program
Recipient: ILO/IPEC
Project Title: Supporting the Timebound Program on the Elimination of
the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Republic of the Philippines
Description: This four-year project supports the Timebound Program in
the Philippines, which comprises a set of comprehensive and
integrated initiatives to show visible results in the elimination
of the worst forms of child labor and promotion of basic education
in the country in a 5-10 year period. Trafficking of children for
commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) purposes will be treated as a
cross-cutting issue in the project. Work against CSE will center on
Regions I (La Union, Baguio City), II (Angeles City, San Fernando,
Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Olongapo), IV (Laguna, Palawan, Romblon,
Batangas), VII (Cebu, Toledo City, Lapu-lapu, Mandaue), and the
National Capital Region (Manila, Kalookan City, Quezon City, Pasig,
Paranaque). The project will withdraw or prevent children from
entering CSE and other sectors of exploitative labor and will
provide them with educational opportunities and health services.
Alternative income generation opportunities and training will be
provided to families.
SINGAPORE
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, ECA
Recipient: Individual
Project Title: International Visitor Exchange Program on Trafficking of
Women and Children
Description: The program brings current or potential leaders in
government, politics, the media, education, and other fields to the
United States to meet and confer with their professional
counterparts. The International Visitor Program partners with
national program agencies to design and implement each program to
meet specific visitors' interests. Programs typically last three
weeks during which visitors gain an overview of programs to prevent
trafficking of women and children in Washington, DC followed by
related local programs arranged through a country-wide network of
Council of International Visitors.
SOLOMON ISLANDS
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: Solomon Islands Women's Information Communication Network
(SIWNET)
Project Title: Solomon Islands Women's Information Communication
Network
Description: SIWNET sponsors a 30-minute weekly radio program for women
covering a range of issues, such as domestic violence, family
planning, nutrition, and education. SIWNET also produces short
``radio development spots'' of a minute or less that focus on
similar issues for daily broadcast. With additional support from
UNESCO, the group is creating a new series of 15-minute broadcasts
called ``Women Speaking to Women''. The Women's Resource Center is
distributing educational materials on the prevention of domestic
violence and functions as a central meeting place for the
discussion of related topics.
THAILAND
Type of Program: Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, G/TIP
Recipient: Thailand Criminal Law Institute (Attorney Generals Office)
Project Title: Guidelines for new laws
Description: Conduct a legal analysis to determine what steps are
needed to bring national law into conformance with the United
Nations National Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
Through a series of workshops and seminars, police and other law
enforcement agencies will be trained on Thailand's legal
obligations to fight trafficking.
Type of Program: Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, G/TIP
Recipient: Royal Thai Police Department, Bangkok
Project Title: Strengthen Police Trafficking Unit
Description: This project will lend technical and material assistance
to the recently formed anti-trafficking unit of the Thai police.
Material includes a vehicle, computers, office items,
communications and video equipment.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, G/TIP
Recipient: Hotline Center Foundation (HCF) and Police Emergency 191
Project Title: Improvement of national hotline for TIP victims
Description: HCF and the Thai police will train emergency hotline
operators how to assist and protect victims of trafficking and
violence, especially women and children. This project will enhance
public awareness of the hotline and train schools on its importance
as a tool for public safety.
Type of Program: Protection
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, G/TIP
Recipient: Royal Thai Government Dept. of Public Welfare
Project Title: Primary Emergency Shelter in Chiang Mai
Description: A safe house/primary shelter will be established for non-
Thai and hill tribe women and children from a refurbished building
at a secure location near Chiang Mai. Transportation, interpreters,
psychosocial counseling and medical treatment will be provided at
the shelter for trafficking victims.
Type of Program: Prevention/Protection/Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, EAP
Recipient: The Asia Foundation (TAF), administrator for projects below
to improve the capacity of NGOs to address trafficking in persons.
Subrecipient: Inter Mountain Peoples Education and Culture in
Thailand Association (IMPECT)
Project Title: Citizenship Training Program
Description: Funds collection and processing of documents for
citizenship applications by hill tribes people; legal services
for individual registrations; and administration and management
expenses for the organization's Citizenship Status Development
Section.
Subrecipient: End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and
Trafficking for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) Foundation in Thailand
Project Title: Alternatives to Prevent Immigrants, Hill
Tribes, and Local Children from Entering the Commercial Sex
Trade
Description: Funds food and medical care for children
residing in the project's shelter; occupational and life skill
training for vulnerable beneficiaries; training of project
staff in counseling children; network meetings with other NGOS;
and salaries and general project administration costs.
Subrecipient: The Hotline Center Foundation, the Gap Fai
Community Theater, and the Thai National Council of Women
Project Title: Trafficking Awareness/Media Outreach Project--
Public Awareness of Gender Issues Through Show Production
Description: Production of popular shows (television and
street theater) to increase public awareness of gender issues,
violence against women and children, and the TIP problem.
Subrecipient: The Coordination Center for Protection of Child
Rights (CCPCR)
Project Title: Trafficking Infrastructure Development,
Capacity Building, and Training
Description: Project for trafficking infrastructure
development, capacity building, and training. This will include
creation of an interview room with video equipment for child-
friendly police/social worker interviews in Chiang Rai; one-
year salaries for a project manager, social worker, and
caseworker; and other costs of the Coordination Center. The
project also includes workshops in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai,
as well as training for the task force staff and provincial and
border police in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, and border areas.
Subrecipient: The Coordination Center for Protection of Child
Rights (CCPCR)
Project Title: Surveillance, Suppression, and Rescue
Operation Activities
Description: Surveillance operations by its anti-TIP task
force; social worker outreach to victims; establishment of 24-
hour trafficking help lines and duty officers; public awareness
activities; and rewards for info leading to the rescue of TIP
victims. It also includes partial police operational expenses
in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and border areas.
Subrecipient: The Coordination Center for Protection of Child
Rights (CCPCR)
Project Title: Care and Assistance for TIP Victims
Description: Provision of care and assistance for TIP victims
in Chiang Mai; salary of a primary social worker; and food,
water, and basic toiletries for 150 TIP victims for 120 days
each in primary and secondary shelters. Legal services and
interpreting services for non-Thai TIP victims will also be
provided.
Subrecipient: National Council of Thai Women
Project Title: Support of Pro-Bono Legal Aid for Victims
Description: Pro-bono legal aid for victims, including four
professional workshops in Bangkok and three regions of
Thailand.
Subrecipient: Fight Against Child Exploitation (FACE)
Project Title: Preparation of Case and Legal Aid Assistance
to Pedophile Victims
Description: FACE prepares casework and offers legal aid in
order to achieve prosecutions and convictions of pedophiles,
both foreign and Thai. It also trains police and advocates with
policy makers and legislators to improve TIP laws and
regulations. This funding will cover staff salaries, office
operational expenses, documentation, and travel expenses for
social workers in its witness protection program.
Subrecipient: Thai Lawyers Council and the Foundation for
Women
Project Title: Enhance the Capacities of Private Lawyers to
Protect TIP Victims
Description: The Council provides legal networking workshops
and a series of seminars in order to enhance the capacities of
private lawyers to protect victims. Funding also supports
mobile legal aid.
Type of Program: Protection
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, PRM
Recipient: IOM
Project Title: Capacity-Building on the Protection of Victims of
Trafficking: development of a Bi-Lateral Agreement between the
kingdom of Thailand and the Lao PDR on the return and Reintegration
of Trafficking Victims
Description: This TOM project supports the development of a bilateral
MOU between Thailand and Laos concerning the return and
reintegration of trafficked victims. The project includes workshops
at the national and sub-regional levels for Thai and Lao government
officials, a legislative review to ensure compatibility and
conformity of national policies with international standards, and
an operational mechanism for crossborder returns.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, ECA
Recipient: Individual
Project Title: International Visitor Exchange Program on Trafficking of
Women and Children
Description: The program brings current or potential leaders in
government, politics, the media, education, and other fields to the
United States to meet and confer with their professional
counterparts. The International Visitor Program partners with
national program agencies to design and implement each program to
meet specific visitors' interests. Programs typically last three
weeks during which visitors gain an overview of programs to prevent
trafficking of women and children in Washington, DC followed by
related local programs arranged through a country-wide network of
Council of International Visitors.
Type of Program: Protection, Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of Labor/Bureau of International Labor
Affairs/International Child Labor Program
Recipient: International Justice Mission
Project Title: Thailand Sex Trafficking Task Force
Description: This three-year project in Northern Thailand will be used
to establish a Thailand Sex Trafficking Task Force to address the
plight of girls being trafficked for commercial sexual
exploitation. The project will support prevention by reducing the
vulnerability of the at-risk population by obtaining work permits
and/or citizen registration in order to facilitate their entry into
school or legal work. The project also will facilitate placement of
child and adolescent victims of trafficking into educational and
vocational training programs, as well as provide health and
psychosocial services.
Type of Program: Prevention, Protection
Funding Agency/Bureau: USAID, Bureau for Economic Growth Agriculture
and Trade, Office of Women in Development
Recipient: World Vision
Project Title: Response to Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women,
Youth and Children Along the Thai-Burmese Border
Description: To reduce the number of women, youth and children
trafficked from Burma to Thailand and from the borders further
within Thailand, this activity works to raise awareness among
community-based organizations, develop their capacity to design
community-based responses and support them in implementing those
responses.
VIETNAM
Type of Program: Prevention/Protection/Prosecution
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, G/TIP
Reczpient: United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention/
Crime Center
Project Title: Measures to prevent and combat trafficking in persons in
Vietnam
Description: The project aims at strengthening the capacity of civil
society, law enforcement, and prosecutors to prevent, investigate
and prosecute cases of trafficking and related forms of organized
crime, including enhancing international co-operation. Also, the
project will assess legislative measures needed to enable the
ratification and implementation of the UN Transnational Organized
Crime Convention and its supplementary protocols.
Type of Program: Prevention
Funding Agency/Bureau: Dept. of State, LAP
Recipient: The Asia Foundation (TAF)
Project Title: Prevent and Deter Trafficking in Women and Children
Description: This project will involve research into the root causes,
patterns, and scope of the problem, analysis of the legal and
policy framework for addressing trafficking, awareness raising at
the community level through local branches of the Vietnam Women's
Union, and micro-enterprise training and revolving loans to promote
economic self-sufficiency among rural women.
Senator Brownback. Thank you very much. That was a very
strong, very powerful statement and I appreciate it, and I do
keep a lock in my office. Gary Haugen who will testify in a
little bit, brought that into my office a couple of years back,
and it was an unbelievable situation he described to me, and it
only became believable as he described it and as I saw it with
my own eyes in different places that this does go on, and it
was our need to address and to move forward on this, and I'm
glad we've been able to do that, and that you take the cause up
aggressively in your office, which you are doing, so I applaud
your aggressive pushing of this topic.
Congressman, I want to take you right to the issue that
generates the most controversy about the whole area now, as far
as within the U.S. Government, and that's the annual TIP
report, and last year when it came out people were saying
certain countries are on it that--certain countries are in the
lower level categories that--well, let me back up.
Certain countries are getting passing grades that
shouldn't, would be the best and easiest way to put that, and
rather than categorize or list particular countries, there's
been criticism on the Hill, and particularly from people that
were strongly involved in getting the legislation passed, that
at times there's--diplomatic courtesies would be a bad way to
put it, but diplomatic courtesies, I guess, extended to certain
countries who are strong allies of the United States, or
potential allies of the United States, and they're not given
the grade that they should get in the TIP report. They're not
graded down in the lowest categories.
One, how do you respond to that? And two, I hope that this
year, when the document comes out, it will be one where people
can look objectively at the factors and say, these countries
are where they're supposed to be because of objective factors
and not because of any exterior issues or relationships between
the United States and that host country.
Mr. Miller. Well, I appreciate those comments, and one
brief comment before I get to the heart of what you said.
There's three categories in that report, as you know, tier 1,
tier 2, and tier 3. I don't regard tier 2 as applauding any
country's efforts and, as you know, in last year's report a
majority of the countries were on tier 2 or tier 3.
But what you said about the report being based not on
diplomatic considerations but on the facts on whether countries
meet the standard set out in the report, to what extent they
don't meet them, to what extent they're making the significant
efforts required by the report, those have to be the
determining factors, and I will do everything in my power to
see that that is the basis of this report, and I know the
people in my office who have been working long and hard on this
will do the same.
There is a role--you mentioned allies and national
interest. In the legislation you passed you do provide that
after the report comes out, and after countries have 3 or 4
months to try to take steps to improve their rating, the
President makes a decision on partial or total or conditional
sanctions, and he is given the authority in the national
interest to waive sanctions, but I think that is separate from
the report. I think what we have to do in the State Department
in the report is call it as we see it.
At a later stage, because of the war in Iraq or some other
considerations, maybe the President will come to the conclusion
that the national interest requires some partial or conditional
waiver for some period of time, maybe a year, but that's not
the role of my office, and that's not our role in drafting a
report.
Senator Brownback. Are you getting lobbied? Do you get
lobbied now, from within the State Department? If some people
think that a certain country is going to hit a tier 3 level,
are they pressing you now?
Mr. Miller. Sure. Sure, but I think that is the nature of
how the process functions in the State Department. After all,
we do get a lot of information from our embassies and bureaus
on this issue. We request it, and they have the right to put in
their 2 cents, or more than their 2 cents, and I think I can
safely say that their perspective at times is different, or
will be different than our perspective, at which point there is
a process for discussing those differences.
Senator Brownback. I just want to make clear that I know
you hold the portfolio very important of what you are doing,
and you're doing a great job in that trafficking office, and I
applaud that.
I just also want to make clear to the broader community and
the State Department community and others that people up here
on the Hill, they are watching this report when it comes out.
They do want the report based upon objective factors that are
listed within the legislation and not exterior factors that may
be important in the broader diplomatic relationship between the
United States and another country.
All that is important, but the report should be based on a
specific factual setting, and I think the credibility of the
report is important, that it be based upon an objective set of
factors that are known, and they've been broadcast to all these
countries that are involved in the report, and I think the
credibility of the report becomes at stake if we let it get
pushed too much one way or the other by virtue of other
factors.
I can also say from my own personal experience in traveling
to some of these countries that have been in a tier 2 category,
they are paying attention to the report, and they are willing
to work on it and take constructive comments from the United
States.
I can't say that 2 years ago when I was traveling and
raising the issue in some countries, or 3 years ago, and they
would say, well, what is trafficking in persons, what do you
mean, sex trafficking, well yeah, it's a problem, but it's 63rd
on our list of things to deal with, it's not in the top 10.
Now, this is a top drawer issue, and you guys make it that way.
For the credibility of the report, it is important that this be
done objectively.
Mr. Miller. When you say that countries are listening,
you're going to have a later witness, Mr. Haugen, who I think
will probably tell you about a country that was on tier 3. I
don't know where they're going to end up this year, but they
did something recently, and I think it was partly due to the
efforts of Mr. Haugen and the International Justice Mission,
but it was partly due to the report and partly due to a young
Foreign Service officer sitting to my left who works in our
department, in my office, Phil Linderman, who went to Cambodia
and told them, and it was reported in the news media there,
that if you don't shape up you're going to stay on tier 3, so
there have been some results achieved maybe indirectly by the
report, I don't think there's any question about that.
Senator Brownback. Good. I want to note I very much
appreciate the administration's strong position that it has
taken about prostitution and about the problems of prostitution
that you noted in your testimony, and I applaud the
administration and the strong stance that it has taken.
I want to give some statistics on the issue of prostitution
and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and
the connection between that, because we've obviously taken up
legislation here on the spread of HIV, the President's reported
a global initiative, we're engaged in that legislation now, and
it's very important and it's the right thing for us to do.
Some of these numbers: 50 to 70 percent of the Burmese
prostitutes in Thailand are HIV-positive. The rate of HIV
infection is 50 percent or higher among female prostitutes in
Northern Thailand, 40 to 50 percent of the prostitutes in
Cambodia are HIV positive, 60 percent of women prostitutes in
Bombay's red light district are infected with STDs or AIDS. In
1991, Bombay's 100,000 prostitutes averaged 600,000 sexual
contacts a day, and at that time 30 percent were HIV-positive.
You can see that the spread of HIV associated with
prostitution is just a clear, huge problem for us, particularly
on the spread of something that we are trying to limit its
spread, so I appreciate very much the administration's strong
position that it has taken against prostitution, illegal
prostitution, I appreciate the administration's strong position
that it has taken on HIV, and I want to point out the
connection of those two, and plus, the prostitution industry is
what is providing the market for so many trafficked
individuals, the real valuable market.
A number of people are trafficked, but the actual big
payoff that organized crime is looking for is primarily in the
sex industry, because you can get money for a bonded labor
person, you can get money from some of these other categories,
but it's not nearly the huge level of profit that organized
crime is attracted to that they get from prostitution and from
the sex industry, so I really appreciate you guys taking such a
strong stance on this topic.
Mr. Miller. Well, to me it's clear, I mean, the
relationship between HIV/AIDS and prostitution and trafficking.
I mean, there wouldn't be sex trafficking without prostitution.
I mean, that pretty much I think speaks for itself.
We do have a task force set up under the leadership of
Under Secretary Dobriansky that is looking at the relationships
here with HIV/AIDS, and is going to probably have some
recommendations to our senior operating group that you helped
set up in terms of setting up grant policies.
Now, on the relationship between prostitution and
trafficking, I'm going to take the liberty of making a further
comment. As you know, the legislation does not specifically
call for evidence on prostitution to be assembled. It is clear
to me that when prostitution dramatically or substantially
increases in a country, that sex trafficking will increase, and
I think it should be the obligation of a country to prove
otherwise.
I am presently talking with our lawyers in the State
Department as to how we can take that factor into account under
the act. You may have or your staff may have some thoughts on
that, or you may want to make the issue clearer in some kind of
amendment, but your comment spurs needed comment further on
that.
Senator Brownback. I appreciate that statement, and your
work.
Congressman, thank you for all you are doing, an excellent
job, and I appreciate it, and we stand ready to help in any way
that we possibly can.
Mr. Miller. Thank you for your support.
Senator Brownback. The next panel will be Dr. Donna M.
Hughes. She's a professor in the Women's Studies Program,
University of Rhode Island, and Mr. Gary Haugen, the president
and CEO of International Justice Mission. I appreciate both of
your willingness to be here today.
Dr. Hughes. Thank you, sir.
Senator Brownback. We will take both of your written
statements into the record, and if you'd like to summarize,
that's your choice, but Dr. Hughes, thank you for being here. I
have read a couple of your articles. I am very impressed by
those, and look forward to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF DR. DONNA M. HUGHES, PROFESSOR AND CARLSON ENDOWED
CHAIR IN WOMEN'S STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND, KINGSTON,
RI
Dr. Hughes. Well, thank you, Chairman Brownback, and thank
you for this opportunity to testify at this hearing to review
U.S. policy on trafficking of women and children, particularly
in East Asia.
In the last 3 years, the United States has made historic
progress in creating new tools to combat trafficking in women
and children. As you well know, in 2000, Congress passed the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which created new laws with
which to fight the traffickers and provide new services for
victims. It authorized the creation of the Office to Monitor
and Combat Trafficking in Persons. That office is now fully
functional and under the capable leadership of former
Congressman John Miller who, of course, we just heard from.
In the Office of Global Affairs, Under Secretary of State
Paula Dobriansky has been a leader for a robust interpretation
of U.S. anti-trafficking policy. In the Trafficking in Persons
Office and now the Office of Global Affairs, Senior Advisor
Laura Lederer is sharing her invaluable expertise in
trafficking.
In December, the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention held the first National
Conference on Child Prostitution. A number of speakers
addressed trafficking of girls and boys to the United States
for prostitution.
And, just as has been discussed, in February, President
Bush signed a national security Presidential directive on
trafficking in persons.
Activists who have been working against the sexual abuse
and exploitation of women and children for years are pleased
that it is now U.S. policy that prostitution and related
activities are considered inherently harmful and dehumanizing,
and are recognized as contributing to the phenomenon of sex
trafficking in persons and sex tourism. This policy directive
is especially crucial in fighting trafficking in women and
children, because over the past decade there have been attempts
to delink trafficking from prostitution, and even to legitimize
prostitution as a form of work for women.
The U.S. Agency for International Development was quick to
respond to the Presidential directive by announcing a new anti-
trafficking strategy, which states that organizations
advocating prostitution as an employment choice, or which
advocate and support the legalization of prostitution, are not
appropriate partners for USAID anti-trafficking grants or
contracts. Kent Hill and his staff and USAID's Bureau for
Europe and Eurasia have been open to finding ways to combat
trafficking in the prostitution of women and children.
So this has all been wonderful progress and I can say as an
activist and researcher who has worked on trafficking and
prostitution for about 13 years that this is wonderful
progress, and there are activists around the world that are
applauding the United States for taking these steps. The
challenge now is to implement these landmark policies in order
to free women and children from enslavement.
I would like to address trafficking and AIDS. Women and
children who are trafficked are at high risk for infection for
HIV, which is a death sentence for victims. Brothels and other
sites for women and children who are used in prostitution are
markets for the distribution of the AIDS virus. Awareness of
this has led to many aid agencies targeting brothels for
campaigns to increase the use of condoms.
This approach requires aid workers to interact and
negotiate with pimps and traffickers, some of the worst
criminals and human rights violators in the world, in order to
gain access to the women and children and as Congressman Miller
referred to, these are the organized crime groups, so what we
have are aid workers actually interacting with these members of
organized crime groups.
In some places, such as Thailand, aid programs claim that
100 percent condom use policies has resulted in lowering the
incidence of HIV, but it has come at the cost of overlooking
and even excusing the sex slave trade in women and children.
This approach results in sacrificing the safety and freedom of
women and children for the good of public health.
Of course we need programs to prevent the spread of HIV,
but we must place the freedom and safety of women and children
over the distribution of condoms. It is unacceptable to provide
medical services and condoms to enslaved people and ignore the
slavery. What we should be doing is requiring aid workers to
report the abuse, exploitation, and enslavement of women and
children to the appropriate authorities.
Admittedly, police and officials are sometimes complicit in
trafficking and even profit from the sexual slavery.
Nonetheless, aid workers should be obligated to report, not
ignore, slavery. They should also be obligated to catalyze a
rescue, either through notification of the appropriate
authorities or a nongovernmental organization, or a faith-based
group that specializes in rescuing women and children enslaved
in prostitution.
We can better reduce the spread of HIV by rescuing traffic
victims and ending the sexual slave trade that creates a demand
for these victims. In every case, U.S. policies should
encourage the arrest and prosecution of traffickers and pimps,
and the permanent closure of the brothels.
There are billions of dollars being spent on HIV/AIDS
prevention and treatment, and a significant portion is directed
for prevention in high risk groups such as women and children
in prostitution. There should be appropriate restrictions or
requirements on how aid organizations and/or personnel respond
when they suspect that anyone they come in contact with is
abused, exploited, or enslaved. In the House, Representative
Chris Smith has been successful in adding an amendment to the
global HIV/AIDS bill that will prevent funds from this act
being used to provide assistance to any group that does not
have an explicit policy opposing prostitution and sex
trafficking.
As is being done in the Presidential directive, we need to
relink trafficking to prostitution. For decades, international
bodies and instruments recognized the connection between
prostitution and trafficking to meet the demand for women and
children created by prostitution. Over the past decade, those
who want to normalize and legalize prostitution have acted to
delink prostitution and trafficking, as if one did not depend
on the other, and the Presidential directive on trafficking
provides the political will to relink them.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act criminalizes severe
forms of trafficking, and the Trafficking in Persons Report
issued annually by the State Department evaluates and ranks
countries on their effort to combat severe forms of
trafficking.
Congress needs to create a way to analyze the harm of
prostitution and the role of tolerance and legalization of
prostitution, the role that plays in the trafficking of women
and children. Worldwide, as I said, there's an ongoing effort
to normalized prostitution. United Nations organizations that
receive significant financial support from the United States
publicly advocate for this shift in the status of prostitution.
For example, in 1998, the International Labor Organization
released a report called, ``The Sex Sector, the Economic and
Social Bases of Prostitution in Southeast Asia,'' based on
research and analysis of prostitution industries in Malaysia,
Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The ILO called for
prostitution and sex industries to be officially recognized as
a legitimate economic sector because they are already,
``integrated into the economic, social, and political life of
countries and contribute in no small measure to employment,
national income, and economic growth.''
In this report, the ILO touted prostitution and sex tourism
as a source of foreign income, and ``the sex sector is a
significant source of foreign exchange earning, with links
between the growth of prostitution as a highly structured
transnational business and the expansion of the tourism
industry in these countries, as well as labor exports from
these countries.''
Also, the World Health Organization has a long history of
hiring some of the leading advocates for the legalization of
prostitution to advise them on policy. In 2001, the World
Health Organization recommended the decriminalization of the
prostitution, claiming that the normalization of prostitution
would assist in the fight against the spread of HIV. The U.S.
Government contributes over 20 percent of the budget of these
two United Nations organizations. The United States should ask
these international agencies to clarify the current positions
and policies on trafficking and prostitution.
And one other thing I also want to mention is the U.S.
military and the trafficking of women, because it also plays a
role. In South Korea, there are documented cases of trafficked
women from the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Bolivia,
Peru, Mongolia, China, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan that
have all been trafficked into bars and clubs around U.S. bases.
Last year, a TV reporter filmed U.S. military police
patrolling bars and brothels that held trafficked women, and an
investigative reporter for Navy Times documented that military
police have friendly relations with pimps and bar owners where
there are trafficked women. Once again, that means that we're
establishing friendly relations with organized crime often.
Although engaging in prostitution is a violation of the
U.S. Military Code of Conduct, it's common knowledge that many
men ignore that rule. The U.S. military has a shameful history
in Southeast Asia of fueling the growth of sex industries
around military bases or at sites for R&R. When the United
States leaves the area, such as they did in the Philippines,
the pimps and traffickers do not shut down their criminal
activity, but turn to sex tourism for their revenue.
Not only does the demand for prostitution result in the
trafficking of women for use in those bars, the negative local
reaction to the abuse and exploitation of women by U.S.
military personnel provides fodder for anti-American sentiment
and interests. The United States needs to find ways to ensure
that our military personnel are not creating a demand for
prostitution and trafficking. This needs to be addressed around
existing bases, and strategies are needed to prevent the
recurrence around future bases.
One last thing I want to say has to do with what is called
domestic or internal trafficking. The trafficking of women and
girls for prostitution occurs within the United States as well
as across borders, and it's sometimes called domestic
trafficking, other times internal trafficking, but the same
phenomenon that occurs in transnational trafficking occurs
inside the borders of countries, including the United States.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act ensures that
trafficked women and children are treated as victims, not as
criminals. It provides services they need to recover from their
ordeal. The same recognition and services are needed for women
and children whose experiences meet these criteria, the
criteria of a trafficking victim, except they are U.S.
citizens. We will not be successful in eradicating the
trafficking of women and children until we attend to the
victims within our own borders.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Hughes follows:]
Prepared Statement of Donna M. Hughes, Ph.D., Professor and Carlson
Endowed Chair in Women's Studies, University of Rhode Island
Thank you for this opportunity to testify at this hearing to review
U.S. policy on trafficking of women and children, particularly in East
Asia.
In the last three years, the U.S. has made historic progress in
creating new tools to combat trafficking in women and children. In
2000, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which
created new laws with which to fight the traffickers and provided new
services for victims. It authorized the creation of The Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. That office is now fully
functional and under the capable leadership of former Congressman John
Miller. In the Office of Global Affairs, Undersecretary of State Paula
Dobriansky has been a leader for a robust implementation of U.S. anti-
trafficking policy. In the Trafficking in Persons Office and now the
Office of Global Affairs, Senior Adviser Laura Lederer is sharing her
invaluable expertise on trafficking.
In December, the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention held the first national conference on child
prostitution. A number of speakers addressed trafficking of girls and
boys to the U.S. for prostitution.
In February, President Bush signed a National Security Presidential
Directive on trafficking in persons. Activists who have been working
against the sexual abuse and exploitation of women and children for
years are pleased that it is now U.S. policy that prostitution and
related activities are considered ``inherently harmful and
dehumanizing'' and are recognized as ``contribut[ing] to the phenomenon
of trafficking in persons \1\ and sex tourism. This policy directive is
especially crucial in fighting trafficking in women and children
because over the past decade there have been attempts to de-link
trafficking from prostitution, and even to legitimize prostitution as a
form of work for women.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ ``Trafficking in Persons National Security Presidential
Directive,'' February 2003, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/
2003/02 20030225.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. Agency for International Development was quick to respond
by announcing a new ``Anti-Trafficking Strategy,'' which states that
``organizations advocating prostitution as a employment choice or which
advocate or support the legalization of prostitution are not
appropriate partners for USAID anti-trafficking grants or contracts.''
\2\ Kent Hill and his staff in USAID's Bureau for Europe and Eurasia
have been open to finding ways to combat the trafficking and
prostitution of women and children.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ U.S. Agency for International Development's Response:
Trafficking in Persons, February 2003, http://www.usaid.gov/
aboutitrafficking/anti-trafficking.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Also, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Claude Allen
and his staff have shown leadership in promoting the new policy on
trafficking and prostitution.
The challenge now is to implement these landmark policies in order
to free women and children from enslavement.
trafficking and aids
Women and children who are trafficked are at high risk for
infection with HIV, which is a death sentence for the victims. Brothels
and other sites where women and children are used in prostitution are
markets for the distribution of the AIDS virus. Awareness of this has
led many aid agencies to target brothels for campaigns to increase the
use of condoms. This approach requires aid workers to interact and
negotiate with pimps and traffickers--some of the worst criminals and
human rights violators in the world--in order to gain access to the
women and children.
In some places, such as Thailand, aid programs claim that a 100
percent condom use policy has resulted in lowering the incidence of
AIDS, but it has come at a cost of overlooking and even excusing the
sex slave trade in women and children. This approach results in
sacrificing the safety and freedom of women and children for the good
of public health. Of course, we need programs to prevent the spread of
HIV, but we must place the freedom and safety of women and children
over the distribution of condoms. It is unacceptable to provide medical
services and condoms to enslaved people and ignore the slavery.
We should be requiring aid workers to report the abuse,
exploitation, and enslavement of women and children to the appropriate
authorities. Admittedly, police and officials are sometimes complicit
in trafficking and even profit from sexual slavery. Nonetheless, aid
workers should be obligated to report, not ignore slavery. They should
also be obligated to catalyze a rescue either through notification of
the appropriate authorities or a nongovernmental organization or faith
based group that specializes in rescuing women and children enslaved in
prostitution.
We can better reduce the spread of HIV by rescuing trafficking
victims and ending the sexual slave trade that creates a demand for
more victims. In every case, U.S. policies should encourage the arrest
and prosecution of traffickers and pimps and the permanent closure of
the brothels.
There are billions of dollars being spent on HIV/AIDS prevention
and treatment, and a significant portion of it is directed for
prevention in ``high risk'' groups, such as women and children in
prostitution. There should be appropriate restrictions or requirements
for how aid organizations and their personnel respond when they suspect
that anyone they come in contact with is abused, exploited, or
enslaved.
In the House, Representative Chris Smith has been successful in
adding an amendment to the Global HIV/AIDS bill (H.S. 1298) that will
prevent funds from this Act being used to provide assistance to any
group that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and
sex trafficking.
linking trafficking to prostitution
We need to relink trafficking to prostitution. For decades,
international bodies and instruments recognized the connection between
prostitution and trafficking to meet the demand for women and children
created by prostitution. Over the past decade, those who want to
normalize and legalize prostitution have acted to delink prostitution
and trafficking, as if one did not depend on the other. The
Presidential Directive on Trafficking provides the political will to
relink them.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act criminalizes severe forms of
trafficking, and the Trafficking in Persons Report issued annually by
the State Department evaluates and ranks countries on their efforts to
combat severe forms of trafficking. Congress needs to create a way to
analyze the harm of prostitution and the role tolerance and
legalization of prostitution plays in the trafficking of women and
children.
Worldwide there is an ongoing effort to normalize prostitution.
United Nations organizations that receive significant financial support
from the United States publicly advocate for this shift in the status
of prostitution. For example, in 1998 the International Labor
Organization (ILO) released a report called The Sex Sector--The
Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in Southeast Asia. Based on
research and analysis of prostitution industries in Malaysia,
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, the ILO called for
prostitution and sex industries to be officially recognized as a
legitimate economic sector because they are already ``integrated into
the economic, social and political life'' of countries and ``contribute
in no small measure to employment, national income and economic
growth.'' \3\ In this report, the ILO touted prostitution and sex
tourism as a source of foreign income:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Lin Lean Lim, The Sex Sector--The Economic and Social Bases of
Prostitution in Southeast Asia, International Labor Organization, 1998,
p. 1.
``[The sex sector] is a significant source of foreign exchange
earnings, with links between the growth of prostitution as a
highly structured transnational business and the expansion of
the tourist industry in these countries, as well as labour
exports from these countries.'' \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Lim, The SexSector, p. 10.
Also, the World Health Organization has a long history of hiring
some of the leading advocates for the legalization of prostitution to
advise them on policy. In 2001, the World Health Organization
recommended the decriminalization of prostitution, claiming that the
normalization of prostitution would assist in the fight against the
spread of HIV.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ ``WHO urges decriminalization of prostitution,'' Deutsche
Presse-Agentur, August 13, 2001.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. government contributes over 20 percent of budget of these
two United Nations organizations.\6\ The U.S. should ask these
international agencies to clarify their current positions and policies
on trafficking and prostitution.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ Congressional Research Service, ``U.S. Contribution to U.N.
System Organizations as a Percentage of Total Contributions,'' March
24, 2003.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
u.s. military and the trafficking of women
The U.S. military also plays a role in the trafficking of women.
In South Korea, there are documented cases of women from the
Philippines, the Russian Federation, Bolivia, Peru, Mongolia, China,
Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan being trafficked into bars and
clubs around the U.S. bases.\7\ \8\ Last year, a TV reporter filmed
U.S. military police patrolling bars and brothels that held trafficked
women.\9\ And an investigative reporter for Navy Times documented that
military police have friendly relations with pimps and bar owners where
there are trafficked women.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ B. Jhoty, ``Trapped in modern slavery: Sex trafficking turns
Russian women into Korean pawns,'' The Korea Herald, November 2, 2001.
\8\ N. Lhagvasuren, ``Waking up to a new reality,'' Transitions
Online, August 21, 2001.
\9\ Tom Merriman, Fox On The Record, June 11, 2002.
\10\ W. H. McMichael, ``Sex slaves,'' Navy Times, August 12, 2002.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Although engaging in prostitution is a violation of the U.S.
Military Code of Conduct, it is common knowledge that many men ignore
that rule. The U.S. military has a shameful history in Southeast Asia
of fueling the growth of sex industries around military bases or at
sites of R&R (rest and relaxation). When the U.S. leaves the area, such
as the Philippines, the pimps and traffickers do not shut down their
criminal activity, but turn to sex tourism for their revenue.
Not only does the demand for prostitution result in the trafficking
of women for use in these bars and clubs, the negative local reaction
to the abuse and exploitation of women by U.S. military personnel
provides fodder for anti-American sentiment and interests.
The U.S. needs to find ways to ensure that our military personnel
are not creating a demand for prostitution and trafficking. This needs
to be addressed around existing bases and strategies are needed to
prevent the reoccurrence around future bases.
domestic/internal trafficking in the united states
I'd like to raise one last thing: The trafficking of women and
girls for prostitution within the United States. It is referred to as
either domestic trafficking or internal trafficking: You are now well
aware of the transnational trafficking of women from country to
country. But the same phenomenon occurs within the borders of
countries, including the United States. The Trafficking Victims
Protection Acts ensures that trafficked women and children are treated
as victims, not as criminals, and provides services they need to
recover from their ordeal. The same recognition and services are needed
for women and children whose experiences meet all the criteria of a
trafficking victim, except that they are U.S. citizens. We will not
have succeeded in eradicating the trafficking of women and children
until we attend to the victims within our own borders.
Senator Brownback. Thank you very much. That was a very
strong and clear statement. You have written a number of times
about this, and we look forward to engaging in some questions
about it, but thank you very much for the excellent testimony.
Mr. Haugen, welcome back to the committee. I appreciate you
being here and look forward to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF GARY A. HAUGEN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, INTERNATIONAL
JUSTICE MISSION, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. Haugen. Thank you, Senator. Thank you very much for the
invitation to appear before you this afternoon and for the
privilege of participating on behalf of the International
Justice Mission [IJM].
I think at a time when our Nation is vigorously engaged in
a struggle against tyranny and terrorism around the world, I
think it expresses the generosity and the conscientiousness of
the Senate for us in the midst of that to be nevertheless
carrying on with our important obligations to monitor our
commitment to the work of combating the scourge of human
trafficking around the world, so I express my thanks for
holding the hearing and also express my thanks for your
leadership, which really got this whole train moving.
The fact is, we're here today and many changes are taking
place around the world that affect the lives of victims because
of the choices you made about stewarding your powers as an
American Senator, and so I honor that and want to express that.
Quite simply, sex trafficking is the ugliest and yet most
preventable man-made disaster on our globe today. It's ugly
because it's massive and brutal. I've just returned from an
investigation of a sex trafficking ring in Southeast Asia,
where I was taken into a brothel and I was promptly presented
with about a dozen children between the ages of 6 and 12 who
the pimps were offering to me for a reasonable price to be
raped and molested. This is the factual matter that we speak of
theoretically today.
At the same time, this ugly and appalling epidemic is also
one of the most preventable catastrophes on the globe. The
simple fact of the matter is this: Sex trafficking can only
flourish where it is tolerated by local law enforcement. If the
customers can find the victims whenever they want, the police
can find the victims whenever they want. This is the
indispensable insight about the fundamental vulnerability of
sex trafficking that we have to grasp.
Sex trafficking requires the commission of multiple
felonies in a way that is held out openly to the customer
public. Therefore, it can be shut down wherever there is the
political will and operational resources to do so. Sex
trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation could be
drastically reduced wherever a country has the political will
and the operational capacity to send the perpetrators to jail
and to treat the victims with compassion and dignity. This is a
fight that can actually be won.
Now, as you know, in sponsoring the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act, it was understood that it was essential to
strengthen both the political will and the operational capacity
of countries to fight sex trafficking. Sex trafficking preys
upon the most marginalized groups in society, women, children,
refugees, undocumented persons, ethnic minorities, and the
poor.
Fundamentally, political leaders do not feel that their
hold on power will be threatened if they don't protect this
group of impoverished and low status women and girls, and
accordingly the TVPA endeavored to place the voice and values
of the American people on the side of these vulnerable women
and children by making it clear that their abuse would not be
tolerated, and specifically the TVPA established the Office to
Combat and Monitor Trafficking to tell the truth about whether
a country was vigorously defending these women and children,
with the understanding that those countries unwilling to
provide these basic protections would find an adverse impact in
their relationship with the United States.
Since then, what have we learned about the efforts to
implement that policy in ways that actually make a difference,
and what have we learned about those actions that actually
undermine the impact of the policy?
First, what makes the policy actually work? I would like to
suggest three things. First, vigorous and transparent reporting
on a government's record on sex trafficking conviction and
police disciplinary action. The purpose of the Trafficking in
Persons Report is simple. It is intended to provide
accountability. Therefore, the report has its intended effect
when it is actually written in a way that makes accountability
easy, rather than making accountability hard.
Effective accountability is achieved when the report
provides specific, objective, transparent data on a
government's actions that actually matter, and from the
perspective of the sex traffickers there are only two
government actions that really matter. First, is the government
seriously threatening to actually throw me in jail for what I'm
doing, and second, is the government seriously threatening to
remove the police protection that I have paid for?
Again, it must be emphasized that the relevant data point
is convictions, not even raids, not even arrests, and not even
prosecutions. Traffickers, brothel-keepers, and pimps are quite
willing to endure raids, arrests, and even prosecutions if, in
the end, they don't go to jail.
Even the most corrupt police carry out regular raids,
arrests, and initiate prosecutions. In fact, they must do it in
order to maintain the credible threat by which they extort
bribes from the brothels. That is why the countries with the
worst sex trafficking records can report raids, arrests, and
prosecutions, but such countries have very little to report in
the way of actual, successful convictions resulting in jail
time. None of these other actions turn into credible law
enforcement threat that actually deters sex trafficking unless
they result in convictions with imprisonment.
This is why the IJM is so very pleased that Congressman
Miller has adopted as the policy of the office now that
governments wishing to be certified as making serious efforts
to meet minimum standards in combating sex trafficking must
bear the burden themselves of reporting, on providing objective
data on trafficking-related convictions and police disciplinary
actions. This is a tremendous step forward.
The second ingredient for making the TVPA policy actually
work has been a credible and clearly communicated threat of
consequences for governments that are not taking serious steps
to actually send perpetrators to jail and to get police out of
the trafficking business. We have found that trafficking issues
become an urgent priority for the worst offending countries
only after they've been placed on tier 3 or faced a credible
risk of being placed on tier 3.
While some countries may diplomatically protest being
placed on tier 2, foreign governments clearly understand that
actual consequences for their poor trafficking record only
kicks in if they're on tier 3. Accordingly, a TIP report
process that proceeds with the presumption that a tier 3 status
for certain countries is diplomatically intolerable or
politically untenable severely undermines the effectiveness of
the TIP report process, and I'm very grateful for Congressman
Miller's commitment that the report won't be like that, because
when there's an unspoken but de facto presumption against a
tier 3 ranking, it effectively freezes the status quo of the
worst offending nations and weakens the TVPA's capacity to
impact political will, and it profoundly dishonors the
suffering of women and children who are brutalized by sex
trafficking.
Finally, U.S. policy--and this is the third point--is
effectively advanced through focused and practical capacity-
building for programs that send perpetrators to jail and care
compassionately for the victims. In addition to political will,
foreign governments also need the practical wherewithal to take
decisive law enforcement measures to combat trafficking and to
care for victims. Accordingly, U.S. policy is advanced by
funding programs that address the intensely practical
challenges of strengthening law enforcement capacities to
investigate arrests and successfully prosecute trafficking
offenders.
Programs are needed to support special anti-trafficking
police units and prosecutorial teams with training, operational
support, and hands-on assistance in achieving the priority
outcome of sending the offenders to jail and removing the dirty
cops.
Police complicity in sex trafficking. Police complicity in
sex trafficking has been so pervasive and so ugly that many
have been tempted to imagine that there is a solution that
simply ignores the police, but in combating any crime, the
answer to bad law enforcement is never no law enforcement. The
answer must always be a committed struggle to better law
enforcement. Accordingly, IJM is very pleased that recent
legislation has cleared the way for funding by USAID and other
agencies of targeted programs that strengthen the capacities of
police to actually combat trafficking.
Equally critical are programs that fund comprehensive and
compassionate after-care services for the victims of sex
trafficking. Not only are such programs necessary to treat
victims with the dignity and care that they deserve, but they
are also absolutely indispensable for establishing the victim
cooperation that will end up being essential for any kind of
meaningful countertrafficking endeavor, and we have seen in
different parts of the world where we actually are limited in
our ability to conduct rescue operations because the after-care
facilities are not available. That should not be the case.
Additional opportunities to fund programs to fight sex
trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation has emerged as a
result of President Bush's bold initiative to combat the global
AIDS epidemic. The important point here is the following: While
traditional AIDS prevention programs with educational awareness
go a long way in helping women and girls to make good choices
that avoid high risk sexual activities, these programs do not
assist and do not protect the millions of women and children
who don't get to make choices about their sexual encounters,
particularly the millions of victims of commercial sexual
exploitation who are forcibly infected with the HIV virus.
Accordingly, Federal funding of programs aimed at combating
the international AIDS epidemic must include support of
programs to combat sex trafficking and other forms of sexual
violence against women and girls, or else our effort to fight
AIDS will simply fail to address one of the fundamental and
certainly most brutal causes of the epidemic, and Senator, as
my colleagues in India have been by the bedside of a
trafficking victim who is perishing by AIDS, it is not a
theoretical matter. You could fill this hearing room with the
children today who are passing away painfully because of the
AIDS virus that was forcibly infected upon them in brothels.
In closing, I would like to say that in recent weeks IJM
has directly experienced the very positive impact of U.S.
policy in combating sex trafficking in Cambodia, and I just
want to share this with you so you can see the difference that
this makes.
More than 2 years ago IJM began conducting extensive
investigations into one of the most appalling cesspools of
child prostitution in the world, the village called Svay Pak
outside Phnom Penh, where scores of girls between the ages of 5
and 12 were being sold in an open market for pedophiles and sex
tourists. Over a 2-year period, we turned our investigative
findings over to the Cambodian authorities, but failed to
obtain a satisfying response.
Then, last year, the TIP report placed Cambodia on tier 3,
and the new U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, Ambassador Charles
Ray, initiated a very proactive engagement with the senior
Cambodian authorities on U.S. policy toward trafficking. This
direct advocacy with the Cambodian authorities and the
excellent work of Ambassador Ray's staff helped make it
possible last month for IJM and the Cambodian authorities to
bring rescue to 37 minor victims of commercial sexual
exploitation out of Svay Pak, including about a dozen children
between the ages of 5 and 10.
In addition, approximately 12 suspects have been arrested
and properly charged, with cooperative police investigations
continuing with IJM to locate and prosecute additional
suspects, and just this week we have been monitoring the chat
rooms of pedophiles and sex tourists, and they're reporting
that the party in Cambodia is over.
Ambassador Ray and representatives of the U.S. Department
of State were very successful in making clear to the Cambodian
authorities the priority that American foreign policy places on
addressing sex trafficking, and as a result, by the time IJM
was able to brief the Cambodian authorities on our latest Svay
Pak investigation, they were prepared to provide extraordinary
cooperation in working with the IJM to seek rescue for the
victims and to pursue accountability for the perpetrators.
We believe that the advocacy of the U.S. Embassy with the
Cambodian authorities was an indispensable and decisive factor
in generating effective law enforcement cooperation. Of course,
it will be very important to continue to monitor the actions of
the Cambodian authorities as they followup on specific cases
and as they persevere in vigorous efforts to investigate and
successfully prosecute sex trafficking crimes on an ongoing
basis.
Cambodia has had a very poor record of tolerating sex
trafficking, especially among very young children, and such a
record cannot be turned around overnight, but we believe that a
very promising beginning has been made in supporting the
Cambodian Government in a new direction that seriously combats
sex trafficking. We believe these encouraging events help to
serve as a model for what can be achieved when there is the
following things: transparent reporting through the TIP report,
meaningful application of the tier rating system, direct
advocacy by U.S. authorities at the highest levels of
government, and tangible practical assistance to foreign
governments in bringing rescue to trafficking victims and
justice to perpetrators.
IJM looks forward to continuing its constructive work with
the U.S. State Department, foreign governments, and partner
NGOs, and helping make sure that the promises of U.S. policy in
fighting sex trafficking deliver tangible results to vulnerable
women and children and hasten the day when these brutal
enterprises of rape for profit are simply put out of business.
Senator, thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Haugen follows:]
Prepared Statement of Gary A. Haugen, President and CEO, International
Justice Mission
introduction
Mr. Chairman
My name is Gary Haugen and I serve as the President of
International Justice Mission (IJM). On behalf of IJM, I would like to
express my thanks to the Committee for the privilege of participating
in this important hearing to Review U.S. Policy on the Trafficking of
Women and Children in East Asia and Beyond.
International Justice Mission is an international human rights
agency that provides a hands-on, operational field response to cases of
human rights abuse referred to us from faith-based ministries serving
around the world. Frequently these workers observe severe human rights
abuses in the communities where they serve. These workers refer these
cases to us, and then we conduct a professional investigation to
document the abuses and mobilize intervention on behalf of the victims.
Many of the cases referred to us involve children taken into sex
trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Accordingly, we deploy
criminal investigators to infiltrate the brothels, use surveillance
technology to document where the children are being held, and then
identify secure police contacts who will conduct raids with us to get
the children out. We then coordinate the referral of these children to
appropriate aftercare.
At a time when our nation is vigorously engaged in a struggle
against tyranny and terrorism in the world, this Committee manifests
the generous and conscientious spirit of the U.S. Senate by making room
in its agenda for vigilant oversight of our national commitment to
combat the global scourge of human trafficking.
I would like to focus my remarks today on the nightmare of human
trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation. Quite simply, sex
trafficking is the ugliest and most preventable man-made disaster in
our world today. It is ugly because it is massive and brutal. UNICEF
estimates that about a million children are victimized by sex
trafficking each year around the world. IJM investigators have spent
literally thousands of hours infiltrating the sex trafficking industry,
and the reality we find is a horror one only encounters in nightmares.
I've just returned from an investigation of a sex trafficking ring in a
South East Asian country where I entered a brothel and was promptly
offered a dozen children between the ages of 6 and 12 who, for a modest
price, were made available by the pimps to be raped and molested.
At the same time, this ugly and appalling epidemic is also one of
the most preventable catastrophes on our globe today. The simple fact
of the matter is this: sex trafficking only flourishes where it is
tolerated by local law enforcement. The business of sex trafficking and
forced prostitution requires that the perpetrators commit multiple
felonies of abduction, rape, assault, and false imprisonment--and then
it requires that the perpetrators hold out the victims of these crime
openly to the public so that the customers can find them. It does no
good at all for the brothel keepers and pimps to hide their victims. In
fact, to make money on their investment, the pimps and brothel keepers
must make their victims openly available to the customer public--and
not just once, but continuously, and over a long period of time.
Obviously, therefore, if the customers can find the victims of sex
trafficking whenever they want, so can the police. How, therefore, do
you possibly get away with running a sex trafficking enterprise? You do
so only if permitted by local law enforcement. Generally, this is
facilitated by bringing the police into the business and sharing the
profits with them in exchange for protection against the enforcement of
the laws that are openly and continuously violated every single day the
business is in operation. Certainly sex trafficking is exacerbated by
poverty and economic desperation; but we do not find epidemic levels of
sex trafficking wherever we find poverty in the world. Rather, sex
trafficking flourishes on a large scale only in those countries where
it is tolerated by national law enforcement.
This is the indispensable insight about the fundamental
vulnerability of sex trafficking that must be grasped. Sex trafficking
requires the commission of multiple felonies in a way that is held out
openly to the public. Therefore it can be shut down wherever there is
the political will and operational resources to do so.
Sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation can be
drastically reduced wherever a country has the political will and the
operational capacity to send the perpetrators to jail and to treat the
victims with compassion and dignity. This is a fight that can actually
be won. In fact, this was the animating conviction behind the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). The TVPA sought to
influence the political will of countries with serious trafficking
problems by making clear that there would be consequences for a
country's relationship with the Unites States, including the
possibility of sanctions, if that country did not make significant
efforts to meet minimum standards in combating sex trafficking.
Secondly, the TVPA also authorized grants to help strengthen a
country's capacity to address sex trafficking through prevention,
prosecution, and protection activities.
The authors of the TVPA understood that it was essential to
strengthen both the political will and the operational capacity of
countries to fight sex trafficking. It was well understood that in many
countries the victims of sex trafficking fundamentally lacked the voice
and power to make themselves a priority for national law enforcement.
Sex trafficking operations prey upon the most marginalized groups in
society--women, children, refugees, undocumented persons, ethnic
minorities, and the poor. Fundamentally, political leaders do not feel
threatened in their hold on power if they fail to protect a bunch of
impoverished and low-status women and girls. Scarce law enforcement
resources are deployed to protect the things that societies value the
most, and in countries where the women and children have been relegated
to the status of a lower life form, they are left utterly vulnerable to
the brutalities of the commercial sex trade. Accordingly, the TVPA
endeavored to place the voice and values of the American people on the
side of these vulnerable women and children by making it clear that
their abuse would not be tolerated. Specifically, the TVPA established
the Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking to provide a voice of
accountability for the otherwise voiceless victims of trafficking. This
new office would tell the truth about whether a country was vigorously
defending women and children against the horrors of trafficking, with
the understanding that those countries unwilling to provide such basic
protections would find an adverse impact in their relationship with the
United States.
This was the theory behind the policy expressed in the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act of 2000. All of the great effort in passing the
TVPA was intended to actually make a real-world difference for the
women and children being crushed by the forces of sex trafficking. I
offer this review simply to ask the question whether the policy is
actually having its intended effect, especially in East Asia. What have
we learned about the efforts to implement the policy that actually make
a difference and what have we learned about those actions that
undermine the impact of the policy? In a number of countries, IJM has
been working hand-in-hand with foreign governments, NGO's and State
Department personnel to conduct hands-on operations to rescue victims
and to bring perpetrators to justice, and we are learning about the
practical impact of U.S. policy at the street level. Our experience is
starting to demonstrate that, as we all hoped, the policy can have a
tremendous impact if implemented vigorously.
what makes the policy actually work?
I would suggest 3 things:
1. Vigorous and transparent reporting on a government's
record on sex trafficking convictions and police disciplinary
actions.
2. A credible, and clearly communicated threat of
consequences for governments that are not taking serious steps
to actually send perpetrators to jail and to get police out of
the trafficking business.
3. Focused and practical capacity building for sending
perpetrators to jail and caring compassionately for victims.
I would like to take a moment to examine these one at a time.
First, vigorous and transparent reporting on a government's record on
sex trafficking convictions and police disciplinary actions.
The purpose of the Trafficking In Persons Report is simple: it is
intended to provide accountability. Therefore, the report has its
intended effect when it is actually written in a way that makes
accountability easy, rather than making it hard. We should make no
mistake. There are those who will have an interest in making clear
accountability harder rather than easier--and (as all of my fellow
lawyers well know) there certainly are ways to fashion a document that
either promotes accountability or obscures accountability. Effective
accountability is achieved when the Report provides specific,
objective, transparent data on a government's actions that actually
matter. And from the perspective of the sex traffickers, only two
government actions matter: a) Is the government seriously threatening
to actually send me to jail for doing this? b) Is the government
seriously threatening to remove the police protection that I have paid
for?
Consequently, effective accountability regarding the seriousness of
a government's efforts to combat trafficking will only begin to emerge
when there is specific objective data on the number of successful
trafficking-related convictions resulting in jail time, as well as data
on the number of disciplinary actions that have been taken against
police who are complicit in protecting sex trafficking operations
(remembering that such operations simply don't exist on a significant
scale without such protection).
Again, it must be emphasized that the relevant data point is
convictions--not raids, arrests, and prosecutions. Traffickers, brothel
keepers, and pimps are quite willing to endure raids, arrests, and even
prosecutions if, at the end of the day, they don't have to actually go
to prison. In fact, such actions are just considered part of the costs
of doing business. Moreover, even the most corrupt police carry out
raids, arrests and initiate prosecutions. In fact, they must do so in
order to maintain the credible threat by which they extort bribes from
the perpetrators. That is why countries with the worst sex trafficking
records can report raids, arrests, and prosecutions; but such countries
have very little to report in terms of actual convictions. None of
these other actions turn into a credible law enforcement threat that
actually deters sex trafficking unless they result in convictions with
imprisonment. This is the only cost of doing business that the
perpetrators are unwilling to pay.
This is why IJM is so pleased that the new Director of the Office
to Combat and Monitoring Trafficking, the Hon. John Miller, has adopted
as the policy of his office that governments wishing to be certified as
making serious efforts to meet minimum standards in combating sex
trafficking must bear the burden of providing objective data on
trafficking-related convictions and police disciplinary actions. After
all, these governments are themselves in the best position to report on
their own positive actions, and the Office cannot be reasonably
expected to affirmatively certify that a government is making
significant efforts if the government provides no verifiable data on
these two most basic responsibilities. Self-reporting by a government
regarding its own counter-trafficking initiatives with follow up by the
State Department provides the best means for transparency and
accountability.
The second ingredient for making the TVPA policy actually work has
been a credible, and clearly communicated threat of consequences for
governments that are not taking serious steps to actually send
perpetrators to jail and to get police out of the trafficking business.
In order to bring effective protection to women and children
vulnerable to sex trafficking, governments must move counter-
trafficking efforts from being a good idea to being an urgent priority.
And in reality, the only dynamic that generates such a shift is usually
the belief that something bad will happen if they fail to do so. This
is why the threat of possible sanctions was incorporated within the
legislation for countries placed on Tier 3 of the Trafficking In
Persons Report (TIP). In this regard, we have found that trafficking
issues become an urgent priority for the worst offending countries only
after they have been placed on Tier 3 or faced a credible risk of being
placed on Tier 3. While some countries may diplomatically protest their
placement on Tier 2, foreign governments clearly understand that actual
consequences for their poor trafficking record only kick in if they are
on Tier 3. Among countries with serious trafficking problems,
therefore, it is only the credible risk of Tier 3 sanctions that
actually moves countries to earnestly make the work of combating
trafficking an urgent law enforcement priority, rather than just a
public relations nuisance.
Accordingly, a TIP Report process that proceeds with a presumption
that Tier 3 status for certain countries is diplomatically intolerable
or politically untenable severely undermines the effectiveness of the
TIP Report process. An unspoken but defacto presumption against a Tier
3 ranking effectively freezes the status quo of the worst offending
nations and weakens the TVPA's capacity to impact political will. It
profoundly dishonors the suffering of women and children brutalized by
sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. Likewise, the
TVPA's capacity to strengthen the political will of authorities to end
the toleration of sex trafficking is utterly diluted by the failure to
articulate clearly to foreign governments the straightforward
requirements of the TVPA and the real risks of consequences associated
with a poor trafficking record. Ultimately, it will be up to
congressional committees such as this to thoroughly and rigorously
scrutinize the precise factual basis upon which the State Department
grants passing grades to the some of the most notorious sex trafficking
countries.
Finally, U.S. policy is effectively advanced through focused and
practical capacity-building for programs that send perpetrators to jail
and care compassionately for victims. In addition to political will,
foreign governments also need the practical wherewithal to take
decisive law enforcement measures to combat trafficking and to care for
the victims. Accordingly, U.S. policy is advanced by funding programs
that address the intensely practical challenges of strengthening law
enforcement capacities to investigate, arrest and successfully
prosecute sex trafficking offenders. Programs are needed to support
special anti-trafficking police units and prosecutorial teams with
training, operational support, and hands-on assistance in achieving the
priority outcome of sending offenders to jail and removing dirty cops.
Education, awareness, and poverty alleviation programs are
important preventative measures, but such programs will never be able
to keep pace with the entrepreneurial energy and creativity of the
traffickers unless they are combined with practical programs that
actually help make national law enforcement successful in sending
perpetrators to jail. Police complicity in sex trafficking has been so
pervasive and ugly that many have been tempted to imagine solutions
that simply ignore the police. But in combating any crime, the answer
to bad law enforcement is never no law enforcement--the answer must
always be a committed struggle for better law enforcement.
Accordingly, IJM is very pleased that recent legislation has
cleared the way for funding by USAID and other agencies of targeted
programs that strengthen counter-trafficking activities of specialized
police and prosecution units, as well as legal advocacy to protect
victims and to bring perpetrators to justice. (See the Consolidated
Appropriations Resolution, 2003 (P.L. 108-7).
Equally critical are programs that fund comprehensive and
compassionate aftercare services for the victims of sex trafficking.
Not only are such programs necessary to treat victims with the dignity
and care that they deserve, but they are also absolutely indispensable
for establishing the victim cooperation that is essential for any
meaningful counter-trafficking endeavor. At present, the existing
capacities for providing comprehensive aftercare for the victims of sex
trafficking are tragically inadequate. In fact, IJM has found itself
limited in the rescue operations it could conduct for victims because
of the lack of aftercare capacity. This is a need that can and must be
addressed by targeted and generous appropriations.
Additional opportunities to fund programs to fight sex trafficking
and commercial sexual exploitation have emerged as a result of
President Bush's bold initiative to combat the AIDS epidemic. Research
has demonstrated that sex trafficking is one of the great engines
driving the spread of the AIDS global pandemic, and while traditional
AIDS prevention programs of education and awareness go a long way in
helping women and girls make good choices in avoiding high-risk sexual
activities, these programs do nothing to protect the millions of women
and girls who do not get to make choices about their sexual
encounters--particularly the millions of victims of commercial sexual
exploitation who are forcibly infected with the HIV virus. Accordingly,
federal funding of programs aimed at combating the international AIDS
epidemic must include support of programs to combat sex trafficking and
other forms of sexual violence against women and girls, or else
America's effort to fight AIDS will simply fail to address one of the
fundamental and certainly most brutal causes of the epidemic.
Finally, in recent weeks IJM has directly experienced the positive
impact of U.S. policy in combating sex trafficking in Cambodia. More
than two years ago, IJM began conducting extensive investigations into
one of the most appalling cesspools of child prostitution in the world,
a village called Svay Pak outside Phnom Penh where scores of girls
between the ages of 5 and 12 were being sold in an open market for
pedophiles and sex tourists. Over a two-year period we turned our
investigative findings over to Cambodian authorities, but failed to
obtain a satisfying response. Then last year, the TIP Report placed
Cambodia on Tier 3 and the new U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, Ambassador
Charles A. Ray, initiated a very proactive engagement with the senior
Cambodian authorities on U.S. policy toward trafficking. This direct
advocacy with Cambodian authorities and the excellent work of
Ambassador Ray's staff, helped make it possible last month for IJM and
the Cambodian authorities to bring rescue to 37 minor victims of
commercial sexual exploitation out of Svay Pak, including about a dozen
children between the ages of 5 and 10. In addition, approximately 12
suspects have been arrested and charged, with cooperative police
investigations continuing with IJM to locate and prosecute additional
suspects identified in our investigative report.
Ambassador Ray, and representatives of the U.S. Department of State
were very successful in making clear to the Cambodian authorities the
priority that American foreign policy places on addressing sex
trafficking. Senior Cambodian authorities were well and effectively
briefed on the dynamics and significance of the tier rating system of
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and on the consequences of
failing to make significant efforts to meet minimum standards in
combating trafficking. Consequently, by the time IJM was able to brief
the Cambodian authorities on our latest Svay Pak investigation, they
were prepared to provide extraordinary cooperation in working with IJM
to seek rescue for the victims and to pursue accountability for the
perpetrators. We believe that the advocacy of the U.S. Embassy with the
Cambodian authorities was an indispensable and decisive factor in
generating effective law enforcement cooperation.
These actions have paved the way for significant and continuing
progress in mobilizing effective law enforcement responses to human
trafficking in Cambodia. Cambodian police authorities have had a
positive experience of effective counter-trafficking investigations and
enforcement actions with IJM that produced arrests, proper charges, and
compelling evidence for prosecution. They have participated in
groundbreaking procedures for humanely conducting victim interviews in
the presence of a social worker and an NGO lawyer-monitor while being
videotaped. They have also requested further training from IJM in
effective counter-trafficking investigations and enforcement actions,
and have developed new relationships with local NGO's.
Of course, it will be very important to continue to monitor the
actions of the Cambodian authorities as they follow-up on these
specific cases, and as they persevere in vigorous efforts to
investigate and successfully prosecute sex trafficking crimes on an on-
going basis. Cambodia has had a very poor record of tolerating sex
trafficking (especially among very young children) and such a record
cannot be turned around overnight. But we believe that a very promising
beginning has been made in supporting the Cambodian government in a new
direction to seriously combat sex trafficking and commercial sexual
exploitation.
We believe these encouraging events help to serve as a model for
what can be achieved when there is transparent reporting through the
TIP Report, a meaningful application of the tier rating system, direct
advocacy by U.S. authorities at the highest levels of government, and
tangible, practical assistance to foreign governments in bringing
rescue to trafficking victims and justice to perpetrators.
IJM looks forward to continuing its constructive work with the U.S.
State Department, foreign governments, and partner NGO's in helping
make sure that the promises of U.S. policy in fighting sex trafficking
and commercial sexual exploitation deliver tangible results to
vulnerable women and children and hastens the day when these brutal
enterprises of rape for profit are simply put out of business.
Thank you very much.
Senator Brownback. Thank you, and thank you for the work of
your organization. It has done just wonderful, outstanding work
in highlighting these problems and taking it to the appropriate
authorities in the host countries and here as well, Gary. You
do an outstanding job and I'm very appreciative of it.
Professor Hughes, your statements were very condemning of
U.S. Government policy, and that's why I wanted to get you here
to testify today, or not of U.S. Government policy, but of
action by several U.S. Government entities, and you've raised
this in several articles. I've got one--I'm not sure of the
date of this article, but I should look this up, ``Pro-
Prostitution Mafia in Russia, U.S. State Department Backs
Legalization of Prostitution.'' Do you remember this article?
Dr. Hughes. Yes.
Senator Brownback. I received it last fall in November.
When you raise these items, do you get a response from USAID or
State Department about these policies that are backing the
spread of prostitution?
Dr. Hughes. In that particular case I was in contact with
the Office of Global Affairs, and I knew that they had been
working to try to make sure that Russia got a strong anti-
trafficking law passed, so I know that they had ongoing efforts
to do that.
Information that I was getting was that even though they
were very clear that they wanted a very strong anti-trafficking
policy, and I believe staff members from the Office of Global
Affairs had even gone to Moscow to try to ensure that, there
was continuing slippage, and it was really getting down to the
wire as to what kind of, whether this was going to be really
strong anti-trafficking legislation or whether it was going to
be relatively weak, and that's why I wrote that.
I know that the Office of Global Affairs made continuing
efforts even after that to make sure that there was strong
legislation drafted, and I hear that that has been successful.
Senator Brownback. But that's on legislation on
trafficking. What about, you're saying in this the State
Department is backing legalization of prostitution in Russia.
Dr. Hughes. No, what was happening was, the embassy was not
in any way publicly backing legalization of prostitution. What
was happening was there was a Duma party that had announced
that they were going to draft legislation for the legalization
of prostitution.
In order to do that, what they needed was an anti-
trafficking law that had some loopholes in it so that
eventually they could come together and dovetail, and what I
was advocating for, and what I believe the Office of Global
Affairs was pressing for was strong anti-trafficking
legislation that would close those loopholes so that they
couldn't then come in with complementary legislation to
legalize prostitution, so no, I never said, and I know that the
embassy was not advocating legislation that would have
legalized prostitution.
Senator Brownback. OK.
Dr. Hughes. And I know that there had been some NGOs that
had been on record as backing legalization of prostitution who
were working to draft that, what I would call weak anti-
trafficking legislation.
Senator Brownback. Were these NGOs funded partly by U.S.
funds?
Dr. Hughes. I believe so.
Senator Brownback. So that there were U.S. funds going to
groups, not the State Department itself, but to groups that
were pushing for pro legalization of prostitution in Russia?
Dr. Hughes. Right.
Senator Brownback. I hope you can help us to identify some
places where those funds are going, because I think, as
Congressman Miller was pointing out, there is this direct
nexus, and you pointed it out as well, between prostitution
and--pulling this drive for trafficking in persons. I mean,
basically this is the demand sector of the market, and if you
legalize, and you say well, OK, it's OK, and we're going to
just go ahead and have this demand sector here, you're going to
continue to have trafficking in persons taking place----
Dr. Hughes. Yes.
Senator Brownback [continuing]. For this industry.
When you approached me about what they are doing--because
you gave some examples here about providing condoms to people
who are forcibly in the prostitution business. How does USAID
respond to your statements?
Dr. Hughes. The couple of times that I have met with people
in USAID I have to say that the first time or so they had a
hard time believing me, because I know that these are really
good people, and they would say that we would never support the
legalization of prostitution, we don't know anybody that
supports the legalization of prostitution, what are you talking
about, and so I have to say that there has been a process of
sort of getting through this--I'm not sure--you might call it
denial, but a lot of it maybe has to do with sort of education
to the way things really are in the world.
But once we got through that, and once I was able to
produce enough evidence to show that in fact these were
statements that were appearing in reports that were written for
USAID and so forth, they have been very open to talking to me,
and really trying to work to make sure that the stated policy
of the U.S. Government is the one that's implemented.
Senator Brownback. So that they're opposed to prostitution,
opposed to legalized prostitution, opposed to trafficking----
Dr. Hughes. Yes.
Senator Brownback [continuing]. And opposed to policy
actions out of their agency that might support either of these,
is that correct?
Dr. Hughes. Yes, and I think it's going to be a challenge
for them to get down to the subcontractor level to find out
what is happening sometimes in the field, because I think that
it can be a long way from the offices here in Washington to
what their subcontractors are actually doing out there in the
field, and I think that raising some of these issues has sort
of challenged them to follow along down that path of who
they're funding to find out what's happening in the field.
Senator Brownback. Now, the examples you gave here today,
were those of subcontractors to USAID grants that were giving
condoms to people who had been trafficked into brothels?
Dr. Hughes. The ones I said today, I'm not sure whether
that money goes out--I know that those are U.S. Government
funds. I don't know whether they're disbursed through USAID or
not. That I don't know.
Senator Brownback. Again, I hope you can work with us on
identifying specific places, and if there are things that we
can do either legislatively or through appropriations to stop
that, or put limitations on use of funds going to those areas,
we'd like to work with you and use your information to press
that forward.
And what about ILO and the WHO both recognizing and
recommending the decriminalization of prostitution, and they
continue to press that policy forward?
Dr. Hughes. Well, what ILO did is, they came out with this
report called ``The Sex Sector,'' in which they looked at those
countries and really did sort of an economic analysis of how
much the sex industry was contributing to the gross national
product and so forth and said that, you know, this is such a
big industry, it's making so much money, really we need to have
what they said was the official recognition of the sex sector.
Now, they stopped short of calling for legalization of
prostitution. They did not call for that, but I can't imagine
how you could have an official recognition of an economic
sector without doing that.
And then with the World Health Organization, they had the
announcement that they would recommend decriminalization of
prostitution as an effort to combat HIV.
What I find in a lot of the reports that are written is,
there tends to be a lot of doublespeak. On one hand they'll
say, of course we oppose the abuse and trafficking of women,
but maybe we should go ahead and decriminalize it or legalize
it in order to help out the women, and what happens then, once
you challenge them and say, well, wait a minute, you're calling
for legalization of prostitution, oh no, early, somewhere else
in the report we said this, and so what I would suggest is that
you ask for clarification from these organizations of what
their policy is and then see if it matches what the current
U.S. policy is.
Senator Brownback. We will do that, because those seem to
be just outlandish positions for them to take, and even
identifying a sex sector of the economy in positive terms, when
this is just so incredibly exploitative of women and children
just is beyond me to see.
In the military bases you raise an issue there which I
think was very good of you to raise as well, the fueling of
prostitution around military bases. Is DOD coming up with an
effective strategy now to try to address this issue?
Dr. Hughes. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.
Senator Brownback. You raise it as a key area and a key,
again, demand side sector for the sex industry, for
prostitution, that we need to look at that as well.
Mr. Haugen, I appreciate your points, and also about the
actual convictions. I raised that with the Indian Government
myself in December. They had really stepped up from the time
previously I had been there in raising the issue about the
trafficking taking place--the previous time, 3 years ago when I
raised it, it was kind of, this isn't a big problem, we're not
that concerned about it, we've got a billion people here to
work with sort of attitude--to this time them saying no, it's a
serious problem, we're working on it, and yet still there
hadn't been much in the way of convictions stepping forward,
and I do think that's the relevant data point, as you put it,
and press with it.
What's your estimation of the last TIP report? Was it
objectively an accurate report of the situation around the
world, and were countries properly categorized as tier 1, 2,
and 3 in that report?
Mr. Haugen. I think the difficulty with last year's TIP
report is that it came up with a summary conclusion about where
the country would be placed with a description of why it's
being placed there that was generally just vague and didn't
provide actual, factual objective data so that you could
understand, well, what was going on inside the black box such
that when you put the country in it came out on a specific
tier.
And that is why we're so pleased this year for the
commitment over the coming year to begin to require that
there's actually specific information, something like
convictions is just a historical fact that exists within a
country, it's a factual matter, it's actually happened, and
it's the activity that a government has itself taken.
So governments are in a very good position, in the best
position, of course, to report on their own activity, and we
require governments to report tremendous amounts of information
on economic matters and trade matters, commerce matters in
order for them to maintain a certain kind of privilege in terms
of their trading status, and I think it's a very
straightforward thing to require clear information on what it
is that they're doing. How many people did you send to jail for
trafficking-related offenses this year? How many police did you
discipline?
For instance, last year's report frequently said--in
countries that had the most horrendous trafficking record it
says, well, a big problem is police corruption. Well, the
police are the employees of the government reporting on police
corruption, and so the question you want to ask that government
is, then, well, if corruption is a big problem, how many police
were dismissed last year because of their complicity with sex
trafficking operations, and you can produce objective data that
all of us can look at.
And someone might say, well, that was enough convictions,
and someone might say that wasn't enough convictions, someone
might say, well, that was enough disciplinary action and
someone say that that wasn't, and we could have reasonable,
intelligent, transparent conversations about where a country
belongs once we have that data on the table, and that's what
we're looking forward to in this year's report.
Senator Brownback. Particularly focusing on East Asia and
the implementation--you mentioned the example in Cambodia. I
want you to talk about that region of policy and programmatic
priorities that need to be implemented to reduce the
trafficking, to really address it in Thailand, in Cambodia, in
Burma, in the region, Vietnam, in that region. Do you see
specific items that need to be done in addition to the example
that you cited, and programmatic priorities that need to be
pushed by the U.S. Government?
Mr. Haugen. It's a basic principle of good management and
planning in this era that you have your end in mind before you
set out on an enterprise, and certainly the indispensable end
in mind that every government should have is, how are we
actually going to convict people for these offenses, because
then it forces you to solve all of the problems that stand in
the way from where you are now to actually achieving that,
because you can do all kinds of education programs, you can
have awareness, you can have shelters, but if no one ends up
going to jail for these things you will never be able to keep
up with the ingenuity and the entrepreneurship of the
traffickers.
If there was an epidemic of rape here in Washington, DC we
wouldn't expect there to simply be education seminars, we
wouldn't expect there to be just shelters for the victims, we
would want to know whether or not the police are actually
convicting and sending to jail the rapist who is committing
this, so for each one of these governments, what we've been
urging is the adoption of concrete goals of saying, we are,
next year, going to seek to achieve x number of convictions for
these offenses, and so to do that we're going to conduct a
vigorous set of investigations, of raids, of prosecutions, and
then to develop some specialized units which are outside of the
local street-level corruption who can actually do the
investigation and make the cases and also fast-track these
prosecutions through judicial systems that are sometimes very
much bogged down. We've seen judges given special dockets of
these cases that then begin to move more quickly.
But as long as you have the end in mind of where you want
to finally be, then the government has co-ownership of all the
problems that it takes to get there, rather than having a
government not really wanting to solve the problem. If they've
made a commitment to the end product, which is a credible law
enforcement deterrent to sex trafficking, then we, speaking of
the U.S. Government and NGOs, are able to then help them solve
all of those problems that it takes to actually get there.
Senator Brownback. Are you getting pretty good support from
the countries in the region and from the U.S. Government for
that type of approach?
Mr. Haugen. I think we're getting solid support from some
embassies, like in Cambodia where they're extremely vigorous in
this regard, and we've had some excellent cooperation with the
Philippine authorities, where we actually were able to conduct
some raids on some businesses that were left over actually from
when the U.S. servicemen were there, and the brothels were
still there, and some 13-year-old girls were being sold for
their virginity. One American was actually operating that
brothel, and we were able to rescue the girls out, get them
prosecuted, and those places are shut down.
So all of that was done in cooperation with the National
Bureau of Investigation there in the Philippines with great and
robust assistance, and I guess it's too early to tell both the
vigor of the other embassies throughout the region and the
governments that we're trying to work with, but we're very
hopeful.
Senator Brownback. What about Thailand? That's been a long,
strong ally of the United States and also a place where there's
been a great deal of prostitution that's occurred over a period
of years as a business enterprise almost. How are we doing in
Thailand, and it would also be one of the big market draws
within the region.
Mr. Haugen. Thailand has a significant problem with sex
trafficking, and my sense is that the U.S. Government and the
embassy there has started to become quite vigorous and robust
in confronting the Thai authorities with that challenge.
I know that there are many Thai NGOs that are working very
hard to try to achieve better prosecutions, but I think the
jury is still out. We will just need to wait and see, because I
haven't seen all of the data this year on what the Thais have
been able to do over this past year, but I think that's what is
going to be so helpful about this report when it comes out, is
that it's going to have objective data that we can all look at
together and make an assessment of that record.
Senator Brownback. Dr. Hughes, I am still struck by the
statements that you made, and now that you have testified and I
have read some of your articles and answered these questions,
what I hear you saying, and correct me if this is inaccurate,
is that the United States is funding a fair number of these
problems through NGOs or USAID work, but we're doing it out of
lack of knowledge of the true situation on the ground, rather
than an overt policy that we are trying to support legalized
prostitution, or things that would create a demand market for
people that are trafficked. Is that accurate, that this is not
a purposeful policy, but it ends up happening by virtue of just
not really understanding the way the world works?
Dr. Hughes. I certainly think that's an accurate
characterization now. If we go back a number of years when some
of these initial programs were set up in the mid-nineties, I
don't know the answer to that, but I'm not sure that the
decision to fund some of these groups had to come from the
highest level, but there had to be somebody that was aware of
the kind of programs that were being developed.
For example, what I described in the op-ed on Svay Pak,
Cambodia, someone in the administration of USAID had to know
what the Population Council's Horizon Project was doing there,
and it wasn't only the people on the ground in Cambodia that
were doing that. Exactly where that point is, I don't know the
answer.
Senator Brownback. I think most Americans would be outraged
to think that their taxpayer dollars would be going for these
types of activities that you've described.
Dr. Hughes. Yes, I agree.
Senator Brownback. Is that the kind of response that you
are getting from these articles? I would think you would get a
very strong positive response from the public and very strong
comments from governmental authorities that we're going to get
right on top of this, we're not going to let this take place.
Dr. Hughes. I think that some of the things that I have
written have been quite shocking, and I think that there have
been, some of the responses first have been some denial, like,
this can't possibly be true, but one of the things that I did
with USAID is, I presented them not only with a copy of the op-
ed, but with a footnoted copy that had all the references, and
then I printed out all the references and handed them.
So they had a whole packet of information and were able to
see that, in fact, everything I said in there was documented
and in fact came from documents that were mostly from USAID
reports, and I think that once I've been able to present that
kind of evidence to people they say, wow, you're right, this is
really happening, we're going to get on this right away.
So that's the response that I've gotten through these, but
I have to say that the initial response is not always very
positive.
Senator Brownback. It usually isn't to bad news----
Dr. Hughes. Yes.
Senator Brownback [continuing]. When it comes forward.
Both of you heard me read statistics on the infection of
prostitutes with the HIV virus, and I was putting forward the
point that this prostitution is a key vector for the spread of
HIV. Do either of you have a thought, whether you agree or
disagree with that point? Dr. Hughes.
Dr. Hughes. No, I absolutely agree that prostitution and
trafficking is responsible for transmission of HIV throughout,
not only among the women and the men, but then throughout the
community as men go back into the community and have sex with
their wives or other people.
I think in the past what has happened is that the focus has
been on just the women in prostitution. In other words, if we
can just get them to use condoms we'll break the cycle that
way, and in fact some of the statistics that you read earlier
show that there are still very serious problems, and all it
takes is a few brutal men who don't want to wear the condoms,
which happens frequently, and the woman or girl becomes
infected anyway.
So I think that we actually would be much more successful
in combating HIV/AIDS if we find ways to interrupt sex
trafficking, and to stop the sex trafficking and prostitution
rather than just trying to promote the use of condoms, and as I
said, even if we were successful in that, that does not address
the slavery.
Mr. Haugen. And if I might just add, Senator, I don't think
anybody doubts that there's a tremendous nexus between
prostitution and the spread of AIDS, and certainly between sex
trafficking, and as we understand sex trafficking more, and the
brutality of forced prostitution, we can understand why the
vision of trying to prevent the spread of AIDS simply through
education programs with the provision of condoms just doesn't
work in the coercive environment in which sex trafficking takes
place in terms of the sexual encounter.
This is not a place where the children get to bargain
insistently about well, no, I would really like you to wear a
condom. No, this is a situation of great brutality, where the
customers do whatever they pay for, and especially the idea
that the victims are frequently young, which means they bleed
more in the process, and they end up becoming more likely to
not only get HIV, but to also spread it as well.
So any idea that we are going to somehow be able to stop a
huge proportion of the AIDS epidemic which goes forth in the
coercive environment both of sex trafficking and of sexual
violence, and that somehow we're going to do that with only
education programs or the provision of condoms, doesn't
appreciate the purely coercive nature of the enterprise.
Senator Brownback. You have really got to get at the root
of it.
Well, thank you both very much. I am an admirer of your
work, and you do such a wonderful job, and I appreciate you
giving of your time and talents to come here today and testify,
and I look forward to working with both of you in either
legislation or appropriations of ways that we might be able to
address some of these problems effectively.
Mr. Haugen. Thank you, Senator.
Dr. Hughes. Thank you.
Senator Brownback. Thank you all for your attendance. The
record will remain open for the requisite number of days, and
the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:12 p.m., the subcommittee adjourned, to
reconvene subject to the call of the Chair.]
----------
Additional Question Submitted for the Record
Response of Hon. John R. Miller, Senior Advisor and Director, Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, to an Additional Question
for the Record Submitted by Senator Russell D. Feingold
Question. ILO and UN studies indicate Laos is the second or third
largest source for women and children trafficked into Thailand to work
in brothels and sweatshops. Laos is reportedly developing a National
Plan of Action to prevent illegal trafficking of women and children and
has a bilateral agreement with Thailand for that purpose. Can you tell
me what we know about the scale of the trafficking problem out of Laos,
the status of the agreement with Thailand and the Laotian national
action plan, the role of U.S. assistance, if any, and how cooperative
the Government of Laos has been on this issue? Do we know of any U.S.-
based criminal organizations involved in the trafficking of women and
children from Laos or any, illegal trafficking from Laos into the
United States?
Answer. The Department is not aware of any firm statistics on the
number of Lao trafficking victims. Some NGO surveys indicate that
roughly 15-20,000 Lao may be trafficked annually, almost all to
Thailand. Such information, however, is not verifiable.
The situation is further complicated because trafficking is caught
up in the overall pattern of labor migration. Regional surveys indicate
that as many as 100,000 Lao people may travel to Thailand seasonally,
for agricultural labor along the borders and for manual labor in the
cities. Determining the number of Lao economic migrants versus Lao
trafficking victims is difficult.
In the past most Lao people who went to Thailand in search of work
were Lowland Lao from along the border, and Lowland Lao probably still
constitute the majority of the migrant work force. However,
increasingly the groups most vulnerable to trafficking into some form
of indentured labor or prostitution are highland minorities in the
interior.
The government of Laos officially condemns trafficking in persons,
but the government is severely constrained in its direct efforts by a
lack of resources. Most anti-trafficking projects are carried out by
international organizations and NGOs, and include consciousness raising
and skills development for at-risk groups. But the government also
makes some direct efforts. Government-controlled party organizations
alert Lao citizens to the dangers of trafficking in connection with
international travel. State-controlled television and radio have
broadcast anti-trafficking spots funded by NGOs and the government. The
government cooperates with UN agencies, particularly the UN Interagency
Project, to monitor, document and suggest remedies for trafficking-
related problems and has provided salaried government employees to work
on a project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to
gather data on prevention and protection statistics.
The Lao Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MOLSW) is the
government's main ministry responsible for combating trafficking. The
MOLSW works to assist children who may be vulnerable to trafficking,
working with children on prevention and reintegration issues. MOLSW,
with NGO help, has also done outreach through television and radio to
warn about the dangers of trafficking.
Law enforcement efforts are an area for improvement. There is no
specific anti-trafficking law in Laos, but there are laws against
kidnapping and prostitution. The central government keeps no data on
efforts of local officials to prosecute traffickers. MOLSW has provided
some training of law enforcement officials on trafficking, but much
more needs to be done. Low-level trafficking-related corruption also
remains a concern.
In a significant move in 2002, Laos and Thailand signed a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding border issues, including
trafficking, with particular reference to labor and repatriation
procedures. While implementation procedures are still being worked out,
the NGOs in Laos working on trafficking regard this MOU as an essential
step. This MOU is one of the first in the Mekong region to attempt to
regularize the return of trafficking victims. It represents an
important bilateral step towards more regional cooperation on the part
of both the Lao and Thai governments.
The Department of State funds two NGOs operating in Laos. Village
Focus International received $100,000 (FY02) for an awareness raising
campaign against trafficking. The project focused on village-based
schools in Southern Laos. An NGO consortium (includes World Education
and World Learning) received $299,853 (FY02) to prevent human
trafficking in Mekong border communities. The Department also funds the
Asia Foundation (FY01) to work with Laos Women's Union and Lao Youth
Union to raise awareness of gender discrimination. None of these
projects was directly connected to the Laos-Thailand MOU.
The State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking has
no information about U.S.-based criminal organizations involved in the
trafficking of women and children from Laos. We have no information on
trafficking from Laos into the United States.