Arab states trafficking in persons
Regional-USA, Politics, 6/4/2005

A US Department of State report on person traficking, indicated that such practice is taking place in some Arab states, mainly Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.

The US report is due to laws passed by the US Congress that calls for collecting data on this phenomena, ranking governments, and taking action against these governments based on this ranking if remidies are not implemented.

The U.S. Department of State released June 3 its fifth annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), which estimates that as many as 800,000 victims may be transported across international borders each year and forced to work against their will. The report surveys the counter-trafficking activities in 150 nations, 10 more than in 2004.

Ambassador John Miller, the director of the State DepartmentÕs Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, said at a June 3 Washington press briefing that sex slavery is the largest category of transnational slavery and, to combat it, the United States is urging a greater focus on demand and on educating and dissuading the "customers."

Miller also cited labor exploitation, particularly involuntary servitude of foreign workers, as receiving greater attention in the 2005 report.

The U.S. law mandates the annual international survey, which ranks countries in three tiers: Tier 1 indicates that a nation is in compliance with international standards; Tier 3 denotes countries that are not. A Tier 2 designation is given to countries that are not meeting the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to do so. Placement in Tier 3 could make a nation subject to U.S. sanctions.

Miller said that four countries -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates -- have been placed in Tier 3, primarily for their failure to make significant efforts to combat forced labor trafficking.

The TIP report uses tier ratings to emphasize government efforts against human trafficking -- especially in terms of prosecution and protection, rather than just the extent, of the slavery problem, according to Miller.

"I'm happy to note that the Tier 2 warning watch list, introduced last year, has been very effective. 31 of the 46 countries on the 2004 TIP reports Tier 2 watch list improve their ratings this year," Miller said.

Here are some of the statements Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons, Ambassador John R. Miller, made on the release of the Fifth Annual Department of State "Trafficking in Persons Report":

AMBASSADOR MILLER: Thank you, Madame Secretary. As Secretary of State Rice eloquently explained, human trafficking or trafficking in persons is synonymous with slavery. Now, this is a time when we roll out this report with facts, with figures, with categories, but this report is, more than anything, about human beings. And so I want to start by telling you about Svetlana, an all too typical victim of human trafficking.

Last year, Svetlana was a young woman living in Belarus, looking for a job. She came upon some Turkish men who promised her a well-paying job in Istanbul and once Svetlana crossed the border, the men seized her money, her papers, her passport. They locked her up. They forced her into prostitution. And then one night, they farmed her out to two businessmen, just like a commodity. Desperate, Svetlana jumped out of a window and fell six stories to a sidewalk. According to Turkish court documents, the so-called customers went down, found her on the sidewalk and instead of calling the police, called the traffickers, who killed her.

Svetlana's body lay unclaimed in the morgue for two weeks until Turkish authorities learned her identity and sent her body to Belarus. There is a bright spot in this too common tragedy. Belarusian and Turkish authorities cooperated this year to arrest and charge those responsible for Svetlana's death, which I think brings out that bad things are happening, but also how there are counterattacks going on.
Our sources of information are diverse: law enforcement, U.S. embassies, NGOs, daring activists, foreign governments, our own visits. Everything enters the mix, extensive analysis and debate goes into the assessment of each country and assignment into Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 watch list, or Tier 3.

We didn't design the system. Congress designed the system with important help from nongovernmental organization and faith-based communities. I'm happy to note that the Tier 2 warning watch list, introduced last year, has been very effective. 31 of the 46 countries on the 2004 TIP reports, Tier 2 watch list improve their ratings this year. The increased scrutiny of these countries' anti-trafficking efforts required of us by Congress has led to the State Department's greater engagement with these governments. More important, it has led to greater efforts by the governments themselves.

For the third year, Tier 3 countries can be sanctioned if they don't take significant anti-slavery action in the next few months. I'm encouraged to note several countries that were on Tier 3 last June stepped up anti-slavery activities so that they have been raised.

When we look at slavery worldwide, we believe sex slavery is the largest category of transnational slavery. It is intrinsically linked to prostitution and we find that where prostitution is encouraged, the number of victims increases. That is why to combat sex slavery, we are urging a greater focus on demand, educating and dissuading the so-called customers. But while sex slavery is large, we are concerned with all forms of slavery. This year, trafficking through labor exploitation, particularly in voluntary servitude of foreign laborers, received greater attention. This greater emphasis came as a result of better data obtained from source countries and nongovernmental organizations. Four countries are placed on Tier 3 for their failure primarily to make significant efforts to combat forced labor trafficking: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The forced labor may involve foreign workers who end up in conditions of involuntary servitude or child camel jockeys who live in slave-like conditions and are forced to race in extremely dangerous environments.

At the same time, nowhere on earth is it allowable to systematically abuse children for sport or to stand up while household help is trapped and exploited with no recourse to help or to look the other way while sex traffickers seize young women.

Now, stepping back and looking around the world, the picture is not all bleak. Shining through this global tragedy are many rays of hope. In addition to the tremendous efforts of heroic individuals and private organizations, governments around the globe are awakening to this issue and taking action to end this form of modern day slavery.

Morocco has led efforts to hold accountable UN peacekeepers guilty of sexual abuse of minors in areas of UN deployment. The report on pages 33 and 38 identifies international best practices and anti-slavery heroes throughout the world. And those sections could have been much longer, believe me.

The U.S. is deeply committed to fulfilling its responsibilities in the fight against trafficking in persons. And that's why we contributed an excess of $80 million abroad for all kinds of anti-trafficking programs last year. In January, President George W. Bush said, "no one is fit to be a master and no one deserves to be a slave." And because of the stain of slavery, on our own history, these words have special meaning to us and they guide our efforts against trafficking in persons, based on our strong belief in freedom and human dignity. As the Secretary has stated, modern slavery has been met and is being met with a growing powerful response -- a 21st century abolitionist movement. We must all do our part.

QUESTION: Can you tell us regarding Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, whether you believe that it was the prior sanctions to get some action? In particular in Saudi Arabia, they have moved backwards, not forward since last year's report. And you've got four countries that are major allies of the United States in the war on terror and in military operations that are chief abusers in this practice.

AMBASSADOR MILLER: Well, I won't disagree with your characterization of the situation. It is serious, for example, in Saudi Arabia we have domestic workers being brought in from many countries into domestic servitude -- child beggars, a lot of beatings, reports of beatings and rape, very difficult to get shelter, no convictions. But you're -- the first part of your question was: Is this going to lead to sanctions? My answer is I hope not because the purpose of the law is not to sanction, it is to get progress in freeing the victims and throwing the traffickers in jail.

QUESTION: They've moved backwards in the last year.. Will it require sanctions?

AMBASSADOR MILLER: If they stay in Tier 3, it will require sanctions. However, the reason why I hope this will not take place is under the law, there are now three months for any government in Tier 3 to take significant steps against trafficking and we're prepared to work with these governments, including the governments you mentioned. Our hope is there will be enough progress in freeing the victims and throwing the traffickers in jail that at the end of 120 days, there will not have to be sanctions, but there is that possibility.

QUESTION: Yes. Under which capacity, the United States of America is preparing, those type of reports interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign countries?

AMBASSADOR MILLER: Okay. Well, this is not the first time I've heard that question. The answer -- that is that reminds me of a question that was asked William Wilberforce. On the floor of the English Parliament, back in the 1790s when he discovered, realized the extent of slavery and started his campaign to end the slave trade, and the question that was asked of him by another parliamentarian was: Will the right honorable gentleman tell me what rights we have to impose British moral values on the world? Wilberforce, who was alone in Parliament when he started this action, cited universal and religious values, to show that people nowhere wanted slavery.

Today, we have -- the case is much stronger because unlike in Wilberforce's time, no government in the world, that I'm aware of, officially endorses slavery and there are numerous international covenants, UN covenants, that nations of the world have subscribed to that are -- banned slavery.

So I would say in this effort that we're participating in, we are trying both at home and abroad to work with other countries in trying to end a slavery, that citizens around the world and ostensibly, governments around the world, all agree is a scourge that should be ended. Let's take somebody in the back.

QUESTION: Advocacy organizations around the world are saying that poverty and lack of job opportunities is one of the causes of women or families being vulnerable to slavery. To what extent is the United States prepared to relieve debt to World Bank or IMF loans and other forms to substantially improve the quality of life and services in nations around the world vulnerable?

AMBASSADOR MILLER: Sure. Well, as Ambassador-at-large on international slavery, I'm not the U.S. expert or authority on international debt, but I want to comment on the premise of your question. You identified poverty as a major cause of slavery and slave trade and I would agree it is a major cause. There are a lot of studies that have been done in the last couple of years -- I won't cite them all -- that show, however, that it is one of several major causes. Poverty is a push factor. There is the pull factor of the attraction of the better life in the wealthier country. There is the factor of gender attitudes. Believe me, when you look at sex slavery and parts of domestic servitude slavery, gender attitudes play a big role.

There is the role of organized crime and greed. I mean, this is a big source of revenue for organized crime. I mean, now they -- we talked about the arms trade, the drug trade, and the people trade being sources of revenue for organized crime.

So all of these causes we hope will be addressed, but in the meantime -- in the meantime -- we are seeking, through our office, to do what we can to work with other countries to get better law enforcement, get better protection for victims, and get prevention and education campaigns.

QUESTION: Okay, thank you. Ambassador Miller, a couple of things. You didn't actually tell us who has been sanctioned when you talked about sanctions and I wanted to go back to the question of these very close allies: Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia. And could you -- you've been to these countries and you've had discussions with these leaders about these issues --

AMBASSADOR MILLER: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- and many of them have laws in place, not to mention authoritarian regimes that should be able to enforce these laws, one would think. Could you help us understand why they aren't doing more, especially being such close allies of the U.S. in counterterrorism, for example? And we really do want to know who's been sanctioned.

AMBASSADOR MILLER: I'm glad you've -- the toughest question comes last. Well, in terms of countries that have been sanctioned, if you look at the countries in -- nobody has been sanctioned this year. If you look at the countries from last year's report, and we can -- I can't recall them from memory, but you can -- our staff can get them to you, but your -- the tough part of your question was -- well, here are close friends of the United States; how can this happen? Two years ago, I was asked about Greece and Turkey; how can allies be on Tier 3?

I believe that this is a function, to a large extent, of information and public awareness, that as public awareness increases in these countries, you see more action. For example, just for example, in Saudi Arabia, a recent case involving an Indonesian young woman tortured, beaten, dumped at a hospital -- domestic servitude case has gotten publicity. A human rights lawyer in Saudi Arabia has protested there and I don't know how it's all going to come out, but they're -- apparently in the last month, there was an arrest made.

As public awareness increases -- and sometimes when countries don't have free flows of information, that's hard -- but as public awareness increases, I don't think people want slavery today and this is where one of the signs of progress has been the exponential increase of news media attention to this issue the last couple of years.

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