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POLITICS-U.S.:
Human Trafficking
Report Blames the Usual Suspects
Katherine Stapp
NEW YORK, (IPS) - The
inclusion of Cuba, Venezuela and
other countries out of favour
with Washington on a blacklist
of nations that sponsor or
tolerate human trafficking has
raised eyebrows among experts
who believe the assessment
reflects a policy of ''selective
indignation''.
The U.S. State Department report
divides countries into three
''tiers''. Tier 1 includes those
that have met international
standards for coping with
trafficking and are vigorously
addressing the problem, while
Tier 2 comprises countries that
demonstrate a commitment to
address their problems but have
not yet achieved international
standards.
A country is branded ''Tier 3''
-- the worst of the worst -- if
it ''fails to take significant
actions to bring itself into
compliance with the minimum
standards for the elimination of
trafficking in persons''.
This year, 14 countries out of
the 150 surveyed were classified
as Tier 3: Bolivia, Ecuador,
Qatar, United Arab Emirates,
Burma, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia,
Venezuela, Cambodia, Kuwait,
Sudan, Cuba, North Korea and
Togo.
''Country ratings are based
strictly on government actions
to combat trafficking of persons
as defined by U.S. law,'' said
John Miller, the State
Department's senior adviser on
trafficking in persons, in an
overview of the report, which
was issued Jun. 3. ''The
standards are set up by the
Trafficking Victim Protection
Act and are applied equally to
every country.''
In the case of Venezuela, whose
President Hugo Chávez has been
at odds with Washington for
several years, the report
charges that ''the government
funded no NGO (non-governmental
organisation) programmes geared
towards victims of trafficking''
and that prevention efforts were
''inadequate''. It does not
mention a single reported
complaint in 2005.
But in a Jun. 3 statement
challenging the report's
conclusions, the Venezuelan
embassy cited ''640 community
organisations through which
thousands of people have been
informed of the problem of human
trafficking,'' as well as joint
operations by the Metropolitan
Fire Department and the National
Guard to monitor the frequency
with which non-Venezuelan
citizens go to motels, and
''increased scrutiny of
documentation regarding those
seeking to enter and exit the
country.''
It concludes that the Tier 3
status is ''an example of either
a profound lack of knowledge of
what the government of Venezuela
is doing,'' or an ''intentional
mischaracterisation of the good
faith actions'' it has taken.
The report's section on Cuba,
another U.S. nemesis, concedes
that ''there are no reliable
estimates available on the
extent of trafficking in the
country; however, children in
prostitution (are) widely
apparent, even to casual
observers.''
This lack of concrete data has
led some in the NGO community,
including prominent groups like
the Inter-American Dialogue and
Human Rights Watch, to suspect
that the Tier 3 list is shaped
more by politics than reality.
''It's pure snake oil,'' said
Larry Birns, director of the
Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
a Washington-based think-tank.
''The drug certification, human
rights certification, terrorism
and trafficking reports are all
essentially political tools that
the (George W. Bush)
administration uses to voice
selective indignation.''
''The purpose is to show that
Venezuela is a failed state,
making it a candidate for OAS (Organisation
of American States)
intervention. But what's really
noteworthy is that the
administration doesn't realise
how isolated it is. The
cumulative effect is to
basically eradicate U.S.
credibility.''
Sanctions against Tier 3
countries may include the
withholding of non-humanitarian,
non-trade-related aid, and U.S.
opposition to assistance from
the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank, among other
public lenders.
This year, Caracas plans to
apply for a 250-million-dollar
loan from the Inter-American
Development Bank, and Washington
has announced its intention to
veto the request based on
Venezuela's Tier 3 ranking.
Janie Chuang, an international
legal expert on trafficking
issues who teaches at American
University's Washington College
of Law, said in comments to IPS:
''In reviewing the country
assessments, it's difficult to
glean meaningful standards for
Tier placement and movement, at
least from a human rights
perspective.''
''How is it that Tier 1 includes
countries that engage in the
arrest, jailing, and fining of
trafficking 'victims'? Or
countries that fail to
distinguish between smuggling
and trafficking, and end up
simply deporting trafficked
persons rather than affording
them the human rights
protections they deserve?''
''I think increased attention to
labour trafficking is a
significant improvement in the
report,'' she said, adding,
''but the Middle Eastern
countries don't have a monopoly
on this form of trafficking. The
country assessments across the
board need to include more
information regarding government
efforts to address labour
trafficking.''
The International Labour
Organisation said in a study
released in May that at least
12.3 million people are trapped
in forced labour around the
world, and that of these, the
study estimates a minimum of 2.4
million to be victims of human
trafficking.
”It'll be interesting to see
which countries actually end up
under trafficking sanctions,”
said Chuang. She noted that so
far the countries the United
States has actually targeted for
sanctions tend to be ones with
which it has no relationship or
at best a strained relationship,
like Burma, North Korea, Cuba,
Sudan and Venezuela.
Other activists question the
wisdom and effectiveness of a
heavy-handed approach.
''Sanctions are not the
effective way to solve
problems,'' said Anuradha
Koirala, head of Maiti Nepal, an
anti-trafficking group. ''It
would be better if the
monitoring mechanism is
improved.''
No one disputes that the problem
of global trafficking for forced
labour and sex work is pervasive
and horrendous. According to
U.S. government data, of the
600,000 to 800,000 men, women,
and children trafficked across
international borders each year,
about 80 percent are women and
girls and half are minors.
The majority of these
transnational victims are
condemned to commercial sexual
exploitation, and this number
does not even include the
millions of victims around the
world who are trafficked within
their own national borders.
''I think what has been largely
omitted in the report is the
economic situation of the Latin
American countries, which is the
main cause for the trafficking
in persons,'' said Teresa Ulloa
Ziaurriz, the regional director
for Latin America and the
Caribbean of the International
Coalition Against Trafficking in
Women.
''But it's not only poverty.
It's a poverty that is preyed
upon by recruiters, traffickers
and pimps,'' she said. ''And it
is both local and foreign demand
for the sex of prostitution
which promotes the market for
victims of trafficking.''
Human trafficking is the third
most profitable illicit activity
in the world, just after the
trafficking of drugs and
weapons, Ziaurriz added.
''It is the demand that
perpetuates stereotypes of
submission and inferiority of
women, considered as merchandise
that could be sold, bought or
rented for the sexual pleasure
of men,'' she said. ''The demand
for sexual tourism in Mexico and
Latin America is 80 percent from
the U.S. and Canada.''
''I strongly believe that the
rich countries should contribute
to generate welfare and
investment for development in
the poor countries, and there is
a need of technical cooperation
with the organisations like
mine, with a long career in
combating prostitution and
trafficking in women and
children in the Latin American
and Caribbean region.''
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