[Senate Hearing 118-82]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                        S. Hrg. 118-82

                 EXAMINING U.S. AND GLOBAL COMMITMENTS 
                    TO COMBATTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                     COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION
                               __________

                             JUNE 22, 2023

                               __________


       Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


                  Available via http://www.govinfo.gov

                               __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
53-198 PDF                   WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     

                 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS        

             ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey, Chairman        
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland           JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire          MARCO RUBIO, Florida
CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware         MITT ROMNEY, Utah
CHRISTOPHER MURPHY, Connecticut        PETE RICKETTS, Nebraska
TIM KAINE, Virginia                    RAND PAUL, Kentucky
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                   TODD YOUNG, Indiana
CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey             JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii                   TED CRUZ, Texas
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland             BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois              TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
                Damian Murphy, Staff Director          
       Christopher M. Socha, Republican Staff Director          
                   John Dutton, Chief Clerk        


                              (ii)      



                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

Menendez, Hon. Robert, U.S. Senator From New Jersey..............     1

Risch, Hon. James E., U.S. Senator From Idaho....................     3

Dyer, Hon. Cynthia, Ambassador-at-Large, Office to Monitor and 
  Combat Human Trafficking, United States Department of State, 
  Washington, DC.................................................     4
    Prepared Statement...........................................     5

Walsh, Johnny, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Democracy, 
  Human Rights, and Governance, United States Agency for 
  International Development, Washington, DC......................     8
    Prepared Statement...........................................    10

              Additional Material Submitted for the Record

Responses of Ambassador Cynthia Dyer to Questions Submitted by 
  Senator Marco Rubio............................................    23

Responses of Mr. Johnny Walsh to Questions Submitted by Senator 
  Marco Rubio....................................................    26

                                 (iii)

  

 
 EXAMINING U.S. AND GLOBAL COMMITMENTS TO COMBATTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

                              ----------                              


                        THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2023

                                       U.S. Senate,
                            Committee on Foreign Relations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:45 a.m., in 
room SD-419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Robert 
Menendez, chairman of the committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Menendez [presiding], Risch, Ricketts, 
and Young.

          OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT MENENDEZ, 
                  U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW JERSEY

    The Chairman. This hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee will come to order.
    It has been more than two decades since Congress passed the 
Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and yet, 
today men, women, and children are still bought and sold in 
virtually every country in the world.
    It is an absolute travesty that traffickers are preying on 
Venezuelans fleeing for their lives from their country, on 
migrants desperate to escape hunger and conflict in the Horn of 
Africa, and it is despicable that they take advantage of 
Putin's invasion to exploit Ukrainian refugees, 90 percent of 
whom are women and girls who are desperate for protection from 
sexual violence.
    The vast majority of trafficking victims are women and 
girls. If we are serious about combatting human trafficking, 
the United States must redouble our support for policies and 
programs that empower women and girls, as we tackle the root 
causes that open the door to such exploitation.
    Ms. Dyer, Mr. Walsh, I commend the work both of you and 
your departments are doing. I know it is not easy and we have 
made meaningful steps in recent decades, but despite elevating 
the issue to a global scale and putting in place legal 
frameworks to hold traffickers to account, about 25 million 
people still live in what amounts to slavery. Traffickers still 
rake in an estimated $150 billion annually.
    I hope our witnesses will speak about what the United 
States is doing to address the root causes that leave people 
vulnerable and the prevention efforts to stop would-be 
traffickers: ending extreme poverty; ending gender-based 
violence so that many women and girls endure--so that many 
women and girls endure--whether it is sexual exploitation, 
domestic servitude, and forced marriage; and fixing a broken 
migration system here in the United States that allows coyotes 
and other human smugglers to force children into debt bondage.
    Forced labor trafficking is ultimately the result of 
governments failing to protect workers' rights. When employers 
do not respect labor laws, it creates an environment where 
workers are vulnerable to exploitation.
    Any approach to combating trafficking must begin with 
empowered workers who can stand up for themselves. That means 
reforming labor laws to protect migrant and domestic workers.
    These victims of human trafficking are cooking, cleaning, 
gardening, and taking care of children. They often work 16 
hours a day for little or no pay.
    I have fought to make sure that the State Department's 
Trafficking in Persons Report, which just came out last week, 
serves as an unbiased powerful tool to combat trafficking. I 
have pushed back against Administrations of both parties who 
would have politicized the report because I believe this is a 
problem that needs to be addressed in a bipartisan manner.
    Senator Risch and I have reintroduced the International 
Trafficking in Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which 
passed the Senate in the last Congress.
    It will strengthen our ability to hold governments 
accountable and expand prevention efforts at the U.S. Agency 
for International Development, and it will help combat 
trafficking of domestic workers by diplomats and U.N. officials 
here in the United States.
    We also need to hold governments accountable for their 
failure to take basic steps to address human trafficking. I am 
talking about holding China accountable for its reprehensible 
use of forced labor in its Belt and Road Initiative.
    I am talking about holding Russia and Cambodia and Eritrea 
accountable. I am talking about holding the United States 
accountable as well.
    I will end by noting that this year the government settled 
a case where more than 100--mostly Spanish-speaking children--
were working graveyard shifts at our nation's largest 
slaughterhouses. That is dangerous work, hazardous machinery, 
industrial chemicals, extreme temperature changes. Some of them 
were just 13 years old. To me, that is completely outrageous 
and unacceptable.
    The head of the Alabama Office of Homeland Security 
investigation said, ``As the government, we turned a blind eye 
to their trafficking.'' The New York Times article went on to 
say, ``he teared up as he recalled finding 13-year-olds working 
in meat plants.''
    This is not a problem limited to some far-flung corner of 
the world. It is a problem we see at our southern border and it 
is a problem that stretches into the American heartland.
    We, in the United States need to be doing everything in our 
power to end global human trafficking. I think we can do 
better, I think we can do more, and I look forward to doing 
that.
    With that, let me turn to the ranking member, Senator 
Risch, for his remarks.

               STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES E. RISCH, 
                    U.S. SENATOR FROM IDAHO

    Senator Risch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I am hopeful 
that our bill will get completely through the process. There is 
absolutely no reason it should not.
    As we all know, millions of people are trafficked every 
year. Traffickers prey on the most vulnerable, trapping them in 
a horrific cycle of abuse that often goes overlooked.
    The children, young adults, women, and men that are coerced 
into forced labor and sex trafficking have their autonomy 
stripped and livelihoods damaged. Addressing this global 
scourge requires an international commitment.
    The United States is the leading global voice on combating 
human trafficking and has been so for decades. We provide 
training, consultations, and aid to civil society and 
government actors around the world to better prosecute 
traffickers, prevent further trafficking, and protect victims.
    It is shame, however, that some governments participate in 
state-sponsored patterns of trafficking and further victimize 
the most vulnerable. Other governments become indifferent to 
trafficking and offer no permanent solutions to ending the 
pattern in their countries.
    Thankfully, there are some countries that have put 
significant investment to combating trafficking and protecting 
victims. We recognize their efforts and thank them for this 
enduring pledge.
    I look forward to hearing today about what the Department 
sees as the biggest challenges and the biggest opportunities. I 
equally look forward to hearing more about USAID's important 
role in combating trafficking and what more can be done.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Risch.
    We have the distinct honor to welcome Cindy Dyer, our 
Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in 
Persons, and who leads the State Department's Office to Monitor 
and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
    Ambassador Dyer is a human rights advocate and lawyer with 
three decades of experience working at the local, national, and 
international levels to prevent and respond to human 
trafficking, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
    We are also honored to welcome Johnny Walsh, the senior 
bureau official at the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and 
Innovation at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
    Prior to his current role, Mr. Walsh served as USAID's 
deputy assistant administrator for Democracy, Human Rights, and 
Governance. Previously, he served as a senior expert at the 
United States Institute of Peace, a senior policy adviser for 
the Middle East and South Asia with the U.S. mission to the 
United Nations, and as the State Department's lead advisor on 
the Afghanistan peace process.
    We welcome you both. We appreciate your willingness to come 
and share insights with us. Your full statements will be 
included in the record without objection.
    I would ask you to summarize in about 5 minutes or so, so 
we can have a conversation and, Ambassador, we will start off 
with you.

STATEMENT OF THE HON. CYNTHIA DYER, AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE, OFFICE 
    TO MONITOR AND COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING, UNITED STATES 
              DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, DC

    Ambassador Dyer. Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, 
thank you so much for the opportunity to appear before you 
today to discuss the Department of State's efforts to combat 
human trafficking and for your leadership on human trafficking.
    I especially want to thank Chairman Menendez, Ranking 
Member Risch, and Senators Kaine and Rubio for sponsoring the 
International Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization 
Act of 2023, which recently advanced through this committee.
    Just last week, Secretary of State Blinken presented the 
2023 Trafficking in Persons Report. The TIP Report, which my 
office produces annually, contains narratives detailing global 
anti-trafficking efforts including those of 188 countries and 
territories worldwide including the United States.
    It is the world's most comprehensive resource of 
governmental anti-trafficking efforts including our own and 
reflects the U.S. Government's commitment to global leadership 
on this key human rights, law enforcement, and national 
security issue.
    This year's report contains some good news. Across all data 
points included in the global tally including trafficking 
prosecutions, convictions, and victims identified, there were 
increases reported compared to prior years.
    This progress is due to real change in policies and ongoing 
improvements in governments' collection and reporting of law 
enforcement data. Convictions continued to increase and 
identifications of victims and potential victims increased by 
nearly 25,000, although neither was back to prepandemic levels.
    This year's TIP Report includes 20 countries with ranking 
downgrades including Slovenia and Namibia from Tier 1, and the 
Dominican Republic and Egypt among 11 other governments down 
from Tier 2 to Tier 2 watch list. There were 24 whose ranking 
improved, including two countries, Denmark and the Seychelles, 
upgraded to Tier 1.
    While the tier rankings are important, the TIP Report is 
above all the U.S. Government's principal diplomatic and 
diagnostic tool to guide relations with foreign governments on 
human trafficking with the narrative and recommendations a 
roadmap to improvement and the rankings a means to encourage 
governments to increase and improve their anti-trafficking 
efforts year after year.
    The TIP Report also includes an introductory essay on how 
effective efforts to combat human trafficking require 
partnership to complement and support the ``3P'' paradigm of 
prosecution, protection, and prevention, a topic I shall return 
to in a moment.
    The report also includes special interest boxes on a 
variety of timely subjects and emerging trends we have 
documented including forced criminality in cyber scam 
operations, unscrupulous online labor recruitment, the 
challenges faced by survivors who are boys and men, and audit 
deception.
    Cyber scams in Southeast Asia including in Burma, Cambodia, 
Laos, Malaysia, and the Philippines are a growing form of 
forced criminality affecting victims worldwide.
    The 2023 TIP Report narratives revealed that victims from 
at least 35 countries and areas have been identified. The scope 
of these operations is shocking. An International Justice 
Mission report, for example, estimates that up to 100,000 
people in Cambodia are working in scam operations.
    These schemes often target young and educated 
professionals, including Americans, who respond to virtual 
offers of employment only to have traffickers seize their 
passports and coerce them into enticing strangers online to 
join fake cryptocurrency investment schemes, deposit money into 
gaming accounts, or buy into false romance and investment 
schemes.
    I spoke about the need to address forced criminality amid 
cyber scams at the OSCE's 23rd Alliance Against Trafficking in 
Persons in April and earlier this month Principal Deputy 
Director Kari Johnstone spoke at the OSCE and Council of Europe 
about this growing menace, and we are focused as always on 
promoting a victim-centered and trauma-informed approach so 
that victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for 
unlawful acts they committed as a direct result of being 
trafficked.
    Turning back to this year's TIP Report, the introduction 
focuses on a fourth critical P; partnership, which has long 
been essential to the success of the 3P framework.
    As ambassador, I am focused on implementing key actions to 
advance an effective anti-trafficking response including 
addressing human trafficking in the context of the impact of 
Russia's war, documenting and decrying human rights trafficking 
in Xinjiang and elsewhere in the People's Republic of China, as 
well as the PRC's Belt and Road Initiative, engaging with 
survivors, and preventing human trafficking in global supply 
chains.
    Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch, thank you again 
for holding today's hearing and this committee's steadfast 
commitment to combating human trafficking.
    [The prepared statement of Ambassador Dyer follows:]

              Prepared Statement of Ambassador Cindy Dyer

    Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, and distinguished Members 
of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you 
today to discuss the Department of State's efforts to combat human 
trafficking, and for your leadership on human trafficking. I especially 
want to thank Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, and Senators 
Kaine and Rubio for sponsoring the International Trafficking Victims 
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2023, which recently advanced through 
this committee.
    Just last week, Secretary of State Blinken presented the 2023 
Trafficking in Persons Report. The TIP Report, which my Office produces 
annually, contains narratives detailing global anti-trafficking 
efforts, including those of 188 countries and territories worldwide, 
including the United States. It is the world's most comprehensive 
resource of governmental anti-trafficking efforts--including our own--
and reflects the U.S. Government's commitment to global leadership on 
this key human rights, law enforcement, and national security issue.
                      overview of 2023 tip report
    This year's report contains some good news. Across all data points 
included in the global tally--tracking prosecutions, convictions, and 
victims identified--there were increases reported compared to prior 
years. This progress is due to real changes in policies and ongoing 
improvements in governments' collection and reporting of law 
enforcement data. Convictions continued to increase, and 
identifications of victims and potential victims increased by nearly 
25,000--although neither was back to pre-pandemic levels.
    This year's TIP Report includes 20 countries with ranking 
downgrades, including Slovenia and Namibia from Tier 1, and the 
Dominican Republic and Egypt among 11 other governments down from Tier 
2 to the Tier 2 Watch List. There were 24 whose ranking improved, 
including two countries--Denmark and the Seychelles--upgraded to Tier 
1.
    There were also 19 upgrades to Tier 2. Five countries were 
downgraded to Tier 3 and three countries were upgraded from Tier 3. 
Nineteen countries and territories remained on Tier 3, for a total of 
24--the second-highest number since the report began. Tier 3 included 
11 countries with an ongoing finding that they engaged in a ``policy or 
pattern'' of state-sponsored human trafficking.
    While the tier rankings are important, the TIP Report is, above 
all, the U.S. Government's principal diplomatic and diagnostic tool to 
guide relations with foreign governments on human trafficking, with the 
narrative and recommendations a roadmap to improvement, and the 
rankings a means to encourage governments to increase and improve their 
anti-trafficking efforts year after year.
    The TIP Report also includes an introductory essay on how effective 
efforts to combat human trafficking require partnership to complement 
and support the ``3P'' paradigm of prosecution, protection, and 
prevention, a topic I shall return to in a moment. The Report also 
includes special-interest boxes on a variety of timely subjects and 
emerging trends we have documented, including forced criminality in 
cyber scam operations, unscrupulous online labor recruitment, the 
challenges faced by survivors who are boys and men, and audit 
deception.
    Cyber scams in Southeast Asia--including in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, 
Malaysia, and the Philippines--are a growing form of forced criminality 
affecting victims worldwide; the 2023 TIP Report narratives reveal that 
victims from at least 35 countries and areas have been identified. The 
scope of these operations is shocking. An International Justice Mission 
report, for example, estimates that up to 100,000 people in Cambodia 
are working in scam operations. These schemes often target young and 
educated professionals, including Americans, who respond to virtual 
offers of employment, only to have traffickers seize their passports 
and coerce them into enticing strangers online to join fake 
cryptocurrency investment schemes, deposit money into gaming accounts, 
or buy into false romance and investment schemes.
    I spoke about the need to address forced criminality amid cyber 
scams at the OSCE's 23rd Alliance Against Trafficking in Persons in 
April, and earlier this month, Principal Deputy Director Kari Johnstone 
spoke at the OSCE and Council of Europe about this growing menace. TIP 
Office staff recently returned from Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand, where 
they learned more about these cyber scam operations and facilitated 
discussions around the scam centers at a Mekong dialogue organized by 
the Stimson Center and our East Asian and Pacific Affairs bureau. 
Through our Emergency Victim Assistance program, our foreign assistance 
has helped 208 victims from 16 countries and areas return home after 
being exploited in such centers and get urgent care they need. Our new 
programming in the region will focus on preventative measures and 
protection for the thousands of victims being held there, including a 
crucial plus up, from existing funds, for emergency victim assistance. 
And we are focused, as always, on promoting a victim-centered and 
trauma-informed approach, so that victims are not inappropriately 
penalized solely for unlawful acts they committed as a direct result of 
being trafficked.
                tip office foreign assistance priorities
    Thanks to sustained support from Congress, in particular the 
groundbreaking Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 and 
its subsequent reauthorizations, including, we hope, one later this 
Congress, the Department has a well-established set of tools to draw 
upon in the fight against human trafficking.
    Among these tools is our foreign assistance. The TIP Office is 
proud to bring targeted resources to support grassroots, national, and 
international nongovernmental organizations, and government-NGO 
partnerships. Since 2001, the TIP Office has leveraged more than $700 
million in foreign assistance to support nearly 1,000 anti-trafficking 
projects to address sex trafficking and labor trafficking worldwide.
    Our work has impact. For example, in just the past year, TIP Office 
assistance provided more than 15,000 victims, including more than 1,500 
children, with direct services such as shelter, healthcare, counseling, 
legal assistance, or education. Nearly 5,000 victims of trafficking 
received legal services, increasing their access to justice. Our 
Office's programs trained more than 6,000 criminal-justice actors, 
contributing to the adjudication of 148 cases with convictions, and 
strengthening 73 anti-trafficking laws and policies worldwide.
    The TIP Office's Child Protection Compact (CPC) Partnership program 
is an innovative and effective program that harnesses the strengths of 
governments and civil society in advancing the fight against child 
trafficking. CPC partnerships are multilayered and sustained 
partnerships between the United States and foreign governments. After a 
rigorous review of potential countries and establishing an actionable 
theory of change, the U.S. and partner governments will make non-
binding commitments to provide financial and/or in-kind resources in a 
sustained effort to fight child trafficking via projects that engage 
all relevant stakeholders, including law enforcement, service 
providers, the judiciary, teachers, health officials, and survivors. 
These collaborations, with partner governments investing resources 
alongside the U.S. Government, have been effective from Peru to Ghana 
to the Philippines and beyond.
    Our Office is building on this model, incorporating lessons learned 
along the way, to leverage foreign assistance through sustained 
government-to-government partnerships to spur progress to combat human 
trafficking in more countries. We call this new initiative the 
Partnership to Prevent Trafficking in Persons. Through existing 
allocations, the program will focus on all victims of trafficking, not 
only children, and support progress across the 3 Ps of Protection, 
Prosecution, and Prevention. We are in active discussions to kick this 
program off. We anticipate putting out a Notice of Funding Opportunity 
soon to jump start this exciting new endeavor and hope to sign an 
arrangement with a partner government by the end of this calendar year.
               2023 tip report introduction--partnership
    Turning back to this year's TIP Report, the introduction focuses on 
a critical fourth ``P''--partnership--which has long been essential to 
the success of the ``3P'' framework.
    Partnership flows through and infuses all our efforts. Human 
trafficking is a global threat that is beyond the capacity of a single 
organization, agency, sector, nation, or even international 
organization to address. Therefore, effective strategic partnerships 
must be the lifeblood of any successful effort, harnessing the 
perspectives, knowledge, and capabilities of a wide variety of actors, 
from whole-of-government to the private sector to the community of 
trafficking survivors. Our introduction this year highlights examples 
of these successful partnerships that are as instructional as they are 
inspirational.
Partnerships with Survivors
    Collaborating with survivors as experts and equal partners is 
critical to understanding the realities of human trafficking and 
establishing effective victim-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally 
competent anti-trafficking policies and strategies. The United States, 
with its Advisory Council on Human Trafficking and Human Trafficking 
Expert Consultant Network, has served as a role model for many 
countries. For example, in 2022, Israel established a national anti-
trafficking advisory committee that includes survivor members and 
advises on a range of topics. Other countries, including Bangladesh, 
Botswana, Finland, Iceland, North Macedonia, and Uganda have engaged 
survivors in national anti-trafficking efforts within the past 2 years. 
Countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States have 
committed to engaging individuals with lived experience through their 
national action plans. Furthermore, as noted within the country 
narrative, during this reporting period the Government of Australia 
piloted a survivor advisory council, which provided guidance on 
government policies, including review of the legislative framework.
Intragovernmental/Interagency Cooperation
    Governments that act as a splintered collection of fractured 
agencies and bureaus are nowhere near as effective as governments that 
act in a unified and cohesive manner: Interagency and intragovernmental 
coordination are essential. Adopting a whole-of-government approach 
enhances opportunities for government agencies to partner with one 
another to implement and enforce national trafficking laws more 
effectively, provide protection and services to survivors, coordinate 
prevention activities, address information gaps, incorporate survivor- 
and trauma-informed approaches, plan and pace strategic national 
initiatives, and streamline or coordinate on overlapping efforts.
    In Argentina, for example, the government's Federal Council for the 
Fight against Human Trafficking and Exploitation promotes 
intragovernmental coordination on anti-trafficking efforts. The 
Council's biannual meetings facilitate collaboration between provincial 
and federal anti-trafficking authorities and allow representatives of 
Argentina's 24 jurisdictions to review the activities of the Federal 
Government's Executive Committee for the Fight Against Trafficking and 
Exploitation of People and the Protection and Assistance of Victims.
    Here in the United States, Secretary of State Blinken leads the 
President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in 
Persons, a cabinet-level entity that includes representation from 
across the U.S. Government. The task force's Senior Policy Operating 
Group, which I have the privilege of chairing, convenes throughout the 
year to help coordinate and implement the work. Through both of these 
mechanisms, the U.S. Government is committed to implementing the U.S. 
National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and ensuring that this 
fight remains a top priority.
Civil Society Partnerships
    Governmental partnerships with civil society, from grassroots 
community organizations to international non-governmental 
organizations, are also essential for combating human trafficking 
worldwide. These civil-society groups often have critical know-how, 
community relationships, and on-the-ground expertise that governments 
do not. For example, in Niger, the Government's National Agency for the 
Fight against Trafficking in Persons and the Illicit Transport of 
Migrants works closely with IOM on victim referral and protection 
efforts, including by collaborating to implement and train frontline 
officials on the national-referral mechanism.
    The last few years have been particularly challenging and have 
further illuminated the importance of robust partnerships. Human 
trafficking is a global menace, a crime that exists in every country 
and affects people of every age, ethnicity, and gender, with 
historically and systematically marginalized groups often at greatest 
risk. The COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, Russia's war against Ukraine, 
and disruption caused by climate change and Russia's nefarious impacts 
on global food and energy supplies have exacerbated poverty and 
economic inequality, heightened job insecurity in many sectors, 
diminished access to justice and services, disrupted global supply 
chains, and contributed to new waves of risky migration. All of these 
factors, and others, have heightened the risk of trafficking around the 
world.
    But we are not helpless. Today, more than ever, the United States' 
sustained leadership and commitment to combating trafficking in all its 
forms is critical.
    As Ambassador, I am focused on implementing key actions to advance 
an effective anti-trafficking response, including addressing human 
trafficking in the context of the impact of Russia's war; documenting 
and decrying human trafficking in Xinjiang and elsewhere in the 
People's Republic of China as well as the PRC's Belt and Road 
Initiative; engaging with survivors and underserved communities; and 
preventing human trafficking in global supply chains and in the U.S. 
Government's procurement of goods and services.
    Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch, thank you again for 
holding today's hearing and this Committee's steadfast commitment to 
combating human trafficking.

    The Chairman. Thank you, Ambassador.
    Mr. Walsh.

 STATEMENT OF JOHNNY WALSH, DEPUTY ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR 
 DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND GOVERNANCE, UNITED STATES AGENCY 
         FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, WASHINGTON, DC

    Mr. Walsh. Thank you, Chairman Menendez. Thank you, Ranking 
Member Risch.
    Thank you for your leadership on combating human 
trafficking and the opportunity to speak here today. This is 
such an awful crime all over the world including at home, as 
you rightly pointed out.
    I would just start by saying I think that those who 
dedicate their lives to fighting it are doing genuinely heroic 
work so I just want to acknowledge the amazing efforts of staff 
who work specifically on countering trafficking at USAID and at 
the State Department and then the huge network of activists, 
civil society, our implementing partners who work with us, 
really, all over the world.
    More concretely, since 2001 USAID has provided a little 
over $370 million in counter-trafficking assistance in 88 
countries. Currently, USAID supports C-TIP efforts, some of 
them standalone and some of them more directly integrated with 
our other development work in 35 countries.
    In FY 2022, we obligated $32.5 million into counter-
trafficking work globally. That is more than $3 million above 
our earmark, which indicates how important our missions 
consider this work on their own among the many priorities that 
they are trying to address.
    As I say, beyond our direct counter-trafficking programming 
a large fraction of USAID's international development work 
helps to counter trafficking either by addressing its root 
causes--which range from conflict to corruption to poverty, 
gender-based violence, natural disasters, a lack of 
opportunity--or by building local capacity in ways that are 
directly relevant to the fight against trafficking, for 
example, supporting stronger judicial systems, supporting the 
rule of law.
    I think that USAID's effectiveness in this work rests on a 
strong in-country presence where we are working through our 
missions. That allows us to design and effectively monitor our 
work in a way that is informed by and adaptive to a very local 
context on the trafficking problem as it exists in any given 
place.
    Similar to the State Department, we embrace what we call 
the four Ps: prevention, protection, prosecution, and 
partnership. That is how we break down our work in this regard.
    First, to touch on prevention, we worked, for example, to 
raise awareness of trafficking, particularly with vulnerable 
groups, high-risk communities that are often preyed upon. That 
can mean promoting public information and education campaigns. 
These will cross source transit and destination countries for 
trafficking.
    As one example, in Colombia, USAID is working in high-risk 
communities to protect the rights of Venezuelan migrants who 
are vulnerable to trafficking, and this program does many 
things, but in this context it raises awareness about the 
different methods of exploitation.
    We complemented that by training almost 4,000 service 
providers on how to address gender-based violence over the last 
year--that is just one example--to touch on prevention.
    Second, to protect trafficking survivors, USAID's approach 
and the State Department's approach is survivor-centered and it 
is trauma-informed and so we support reintegration assistance 
for survivors.
    That often means psychosocial and medical services. It can 
mean legal assistance, safe and secure accommodations for 
people who may still be at risk, access to employment, to 
business opportunities--all of this to help survivors rebuild 
their lives and to avoid being revictimized.
    Third, on prosecution, this lives principally with others, 
but USAID absolutely helps with the development, for example, 
of anti-trafficking laws with significant penalties for 
traffickers and protections for victims.
    We provide victim-centered training and technical 
assistance for law enforcement officers, for prosecutors, for 
judges, so that they are maximally effective and compassionate 
in helping trafficking survivors and prosecuting perpetrators.
    As an example, we are working across the Caribbean region 
through our Caribbean regional mission to improve the 
prosecution of trafficking cases.
    We help countries develop or strengthen national referral 
systems--referral mechanisms so that means training local law 
enforcement to better screen and identify and investigate 
trafficking cases.
    Fourth, on partnerships I would just say there is no way to 
do this alone. We work across governments, civil society, 
faith-based organizations, advocacy organizations. We are all 
in it together and we view it as an all-hands-on-deck approach.
    As one example, in Senegal, USAID has used partnerships 
across each of the categories that I named to promote a 
coordinated community-based almost whole-of-society approach to 
combat forced child begging and it is hard to think of a 
population more vulnerable to exploitation than children who 
are begging.
    We can build on years of lessons from prior programming and 
we can work with government, religious leaders, community 
leaders, local shelters to reduce forced child begging, 
especially in urban areas where this program operates.
    The last thing I will say for the moment is in December of 
2021, USAID revised our whole-of-agency C-TIP Counter-
Trafficking Policy to align with the U.S. Government's revised 
National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking and a couple 
of the priorities that we really brought out to infuse into the 
work of our field missions are, as I say, survivor-centered 
approaches, partnerships across government, civil society, 
private sector, to work together against trafficking, better 
coordination with other parts of the U.S. Government, extensive 
use of evidence and learning which we gather from all of our 
trafficking programs and apply to our work, going forward, and 
delineating clear roles and responsibilities for staff across 
USAID, for example, if they detect trafficking adjacent to any 
of our own programs.
    This revised policy--its associated C-TIP Field Guide help 
our missions to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate their 
work and together they serve, in effect, as in our minds our 
implementing guidance for USAID for the TVPA.
    Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, thank you for 
calling this hearing. We emphatically share the belief that no 
single entity--whether it be the government, our implementing 
partners, different parts of our government--can do this alone 
to combat a crime as complex as trafficking.
    Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Walsh follows:]

                 Prepared Statement of Mr. Johnny Walsh

    Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, distinguished Members of 
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; thank you for your leadership 
on combating human trafficking and the opportunity to be here today to 
discuss USAID's work on addressing human trafficking through the 4 Ps 
of protection, prevention, prosecution, and partnerships, our revised 
Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Policy, and our C-TIP Code of 
Conduct.
    The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that human 
trafficking and forced labor are responsible for an estimated $150 
billion in illicit profits per year. In 2022, the ILO estimated that 
27.6 million people were in forced labor. With an issue of this 
magnitude, partnership, coordination, and empowerment of trafficking 
survivors are essential to addressing the root causes and long-term 
effects of human trafficking.
    Since 2001, USAID has provided over $370 million in assistance in 
88 countries, and currently supports C-TIP efforts in 35 countries. In 
Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, we obligated $32.5 million for C-TIP activities 
globally and continue to integrate C-TIP strategies into other 
development programs. Our C-TIP work addresses root causes such as 
conflict, corruption, poverty, gender-based violence and gender 
inequality, socioeconomic and structural inequalities, racism, natural 
disasters, lack of educational and job opportunities, and shortfalls in 
basic social services. Through crucial investments to address these 
issues, USAID's C-TIP efforts also advance USG national security 
interests by preventing or mitigating conflict and displacement and 
strengthening the capacity of national and local institutions that 
promote stability. USAID's effectiveness rests on a strong in-country 
presence, allowing us to design and monitor well-run interventions 
informed by local context.
      4ps of prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships
    USAID supports stand-alone C-TIP projects as well as integrating C-
TIP interventions into our wider development portfolio using the 4Ps 
framework.
Prevention
    USAID has worked to prevent trafficking by raising awareness in at-
risk sectors and communities, strengthening government institutions and 
nongovernmental actors, promoting behavior change, and addressing 
cultural and social norms related to TIP in source, transit, and 
destination countries.
    In Bangladesh, for example, USAID's Fight Slavery and Trafficking 
in Persons (FSTIP) project is reducing vulnerability to TIP by 
enhancing public awareness of human trafficking and its dangers. USAID 
supported the Government of Bangladesh to finalize and launch a 
Comprehensive Survivor Service Guideline that outlines a comprehensive 
step-by-step process for service providers supporting trafficking 
survivors. USAID has already trained 35 government officials and nine 
NGO members on the comprehensive survivor service guidelines.
Protection
    To protect TIP survivors, USAID's approach is survivor-centered and 
trauma-informed as we integrate mental health and psychosocial support 
into programming. USAID-funded activities provide services for physical 
and emotional healing, legal assistance, safe and secure 
accommodations, and access to workforce development opportunities. For 
example, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, USAID is supporting nine local 
organizations to provide legal and practical protections for survivors 
and strengthen the capacity of government institutions and non-
governmental organization-managed shelter providers to protect victims. 
As a result of our direct support to victims, the Prosecutor's Office 
confirmed an indictment against one person for human trafficking. 
USAID's support was recognized by the Prosecutor's Office for the 
specialized services of legal advice and representation of the minor 
victim in the Court, continuous communication, developing a trustful 
relationship, and supporting the minor victim.
                              prosecution
    USAID supports efforts to develop effective anti-trafficking laws 
with significant penalties for traffickers and protections for 
trafficking victims, as well as providing victim-centered training and 
technical assistance for law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and 
judges. USAID also works to improve victims' access to legal and 
justice-related services.
    USAID supports both bilateral and regional efforts to improve the 
identification and referral of trafficked persons to social services. 
For example, USAID is supporting a regional response in Barbados, St. 
Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago to improve the 
screening and identification of victims and the prosecution of TIP 
cases. The project is in the start-up phase, but the Police Special 
Victims Unit Director in Barbados has already indicated that USAID's 
support through specialized and advanced training to the team led to an 
increase in police screening of TIP cases.
Partnerships
    Countering TIP requires effective coordination across a broad range 
of stakeholders. Therefore, USAID works closely with local, national, 
regional, and global networks, as well as representatives of civil 
society, government, the private sector, labor unions, media, and 
faith-based organizations to expand the range of services and address 
root causes.
    In Senegal, USAID is mobilizing local government, religious actors, 
and community-based organizations for a coordinated approach to prevent 
and reduce forced child begging in urban areas. These locally-led 
initiatives then serve as models to fuel advocacy at the national level 
and mobilize key stakeholders for a reform of the koranic school 
system.
                          revised c-tip policy
    In December 2021, USAID revised its C-TIP policy to align with the 
U.S. Government's revised National Action Plan to Combat Human 
Trafficking and its related priorities to elevate gender revised and 
racial equity and end forced labor in global supply chains. Through 
updated programming objectives to guide C-TIP activity design, the 
Policy promotes:

   Integrating survivor-centered approaches into programs and 
        policies that empower the individuals and communities we serve;

   Partnering with host country governments, civil society, and 
        the private sector to counter human trafficking;

   Enhancing coordination within USAID and with other U.S. 
        Government agencies;

   Drawing on the best available evidence to inform our 
        programming; and

   Providing clear roles and responsibilities for staff across 
        USAID to implement effective C-TIP programming.

    USAID takes an inclusive approach to engage marginalized 
populations and vulnerable communities as partners and leaders. We are 
committed to a survivor-centered approach that empowers people with 
effective psychosocial services, delivers legal assistance that meets 
their needs, provides safe and secure accommodations, and offers access 
to meaningful work.
    USAID's revised C-TIP policy emphasizes rigorous research 
methodology to better understand what is working and what is not, and 
to continually learn lessons and adapt to changing threats such as the 
rise in online sexual exploitation of children.
    USAID continues to provide technical support and guidance to USAID 
Missions to implement the revised C-TIP Policy, including through our 
C-TIP Field Guide, which we revised in January 2023. The Field Guide 
helps Mission staff to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate C-TIP 
investments based on the 4Ps approach at every stage of the program 
cycle, from country strategic planning to activity design to 
evaluation. The Guide provides recommendations for integrating C-TIP 
activities into larger development programs, designing stand-alone 
activities, using a survivor-centered approach, and developing more 
comprehensive identification and referral protocols to assist victims.
                         c-tip code of conduct
    Through the implementation of our Code of Conduct, USAID seeks to 
be a leader among donor organizations in preventing trafficking. As a 
baseline, the Code explicitly prohibits USAID personnel from in any way 
engaging in, facilitating, or supporting trafficking in persons, 
procuring commercial sexual acts, or using forced labor during duty or 
non-duty hours. Employees must report suspected violations of federal 
trafficking laws by USAID contractors or assistance recipients to the 
Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and relevant contract or 
agreement officers. The Code also obligates employees to report 
suspected violations of the Code by other employees. Training on the 
Code is mandatory for all USAID personnel.
    Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch, thank you for calling 
this hearing on combating human trafficking. USAID shares the belief 
that no single entity, whether it be a government, a civil society 
organization, a private sector actor, or other stakeholder, can 
effectively combat a crime as complex as trafficking alone. We are 
grateful for the opportunity to share our experience in combating 
trafficking with the Committee.
    Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.

    The Chairman. Thank you. We will start a round of 5-minute 
questions.
    Ambassador, you mentioned in your remarks some countries 
who were downgraded, including the Dominican Republic, to a 
Tier 2 watch list. Is that because of what is happening to 
laborers at the sugar mills that are taking place? I saw some 
reports of labor issues there.
    Ambassador Dyer. Thank you for that question. The reason 
that the Dominican Republic was downgraded--the full details 
are in the narrative, but the highlight is that they are not 
appropriately screening their migrant workers nor are they 
referring migrant workers to services and they are not offering 
services to those who have been identified as trafficking.
    This was a case where we actually spoke about it in-depth 
and we were very concerned about this systematic exclusion of 
providing services and even referring or screening the victims. 
That was the reason for their being downgraded.
    The Chairman. I see. There are labor reports about the 
sugarcane refineries in the Dominican Republic using underage 
individuals and basically not providing certain fundamental 
labor rights to its citizens. I would commend that to your 
attention as well.
    Cuba is once again a Tier 3 country in the annual 
Trafficking in Persons Report. The Cuban regime actively 
employs forced labor practices through its foreign medical 
missions program.
    As the TIP Report notes, by the end of 2021, Cuban medical 
missions were exported to close to 60 countries, where such 
workers were regularly threatened, denied salaries, forced to 
work under exploitive conditions, and had their travel 
documents seized.
    Obviously, the Cuban regime will not end this inhumane 
practice. What concrete actions has your office taken to 
elevate the voices of victims of the Cuban regime's human 
trafficking scheme and to develop a diplomatic campaign to end 
these forced labor practices once and for all?
    Ambassador Dyer. Thank you for flagging this critical human 
rights abuse.
    I think the most important thing that the office is doing, 
number one, is in addition to calling out Cuba's horrible 
state-sponsored trafficking of their medical personnel in the 
Cuban narrative, we actually call out every country who is 
hosting and therefore providing money and supporting Cuba in 
that state-sponsored program.
    We listed this in 56 country narratives in the Trafficking 
in Persons Report and this--as you know, this TIP Report is 
what drives our foreign diplomacy. We are not only calling it 
out in the Cuban narrative, but also in the 56 country 
narratives that are by their using these medical personnel 
supporting that regime.
    The Chairman. This is a set of circumstances where Cuban 
doctors and other medical personnel are sent to other 
countries.
    The country pays Cuba, not the medical professionals. They 
take the passports away of these medical professionals so that 
they cannot leave and they are, in essence, hostage and it is 
the equivalent of slave labor, from my perspective.
    These countries who are participating in this is equally as 
vile as the Cuban Government's use of these individuals in a 
human trafficking case.
    Let me ask you this, Ambassador. The Government 
Accountability Office investigation in 2020 concluded that 
evaluating the effectiveness of anti-trafficking foreign 
assistance is difficult due to limited data, a focus on outputs 
versus--over outcomes and limited evaluation resources, among 
other factors.
    What steps are you and the Department taking to sharpen our 
ability to successfully evaluate the effectiveness of our 
counter-trafficking assistance?
    Ambassador Dyer. The effectiveness of our program is of 
paramount concern to both me and to the entire office. 
Ironically, I was a Trafficking in Persons Office grantee back 
when I was leading the human rights department at an NGO so I 
am super focused on making sure that we are using our money in 
the best way possible.
    We are--actually the GAO reports that have come out 
recently have not only given us sort of--they have supported 
that what we are doing is unique and effective, but they 
absolutely have given us specific areas for improvement, and we 
agree with those areas for improvement and we are making 
specific changes including there was a recommendation to 
standardize our processes and so we are doing that in our 
international programs department.
    We are increasing accountability by setting target 
indicators in each of our grants and we are establishing, which 
I think is really important to make sure that we are using the 
money in the most efficient way possible--we are establishing 
sustainability plans for each of our grants so that when the 
money pulls out we know that our good work will continue to 
remain in force.
    The Chairman. Finally, Mr. Walsh, speaking about 
effectiveness of anti-trafficking programming, we know that 
human trafficking has evolved since the TVPA was first passed 
in 2000, and that our efforts at addressing human trafficking 
have had some modest success worldwide.
    I heard your testimony. In my own personal perspective, I 
think there is much more USAID could be doing. What type of 
anti-trafficking programming or advocacy has been most 
effective and what types of our foreign assistance have fallen 
short and can be improved?
    Mr. Walsh. Thank you for the question.
    I think that the problem varies so much from region to 
region that our instances of most effective programming are 
often very different from each other and tailored to local 
circumstances.
    As examples of where I think we have been very effective, I 
would cite, for example, in Southeast Asia we have a number of 
programs in different countries to target trafficking in the 
fisheries industry, and because it is offshore, because it is 
often taking advantage of migrant labor, these are populations 
that are very prone to being exploited.
    I think we have used the full range of our toolkit, 
including very modern technological solutions that are still 
very useful to a vulnerable population: so, for example, 
reporting mechanisms such that someone who is being held 
against their will on a ship in some facility adjacent to the 
fisheries industry has a lot more ability to access authorities 
than they maybe had in 2001 when this all started, and that is 
us trying to be flexible.
    We pair that with a host of civil society organizations 
that are advocating with the governments of Southeast Asia to 
apply pressure, to tighten safeguards, to work with law 
enforcement to watch for this, and with support to victims, to 
survivors after we have found them.
    Now that applies to lots of industries. I single out the 
fisheries one as one where we found especially exploitative 
circumstances that has grown in recent years, but by the same 
token, I think we have tried to help on the migration crisis in 
the Western Hemisphere by working in both source and transit 
countries in a variety of ways.
    For example, in Guatemala one effort that we are--that we 
think has been especially useful is called--forgive me, I am 
not a Spanish speaker--but El Refugio de la Ninez and it is a 
shelter providing a full range of services to trafficking 
survivors aimed at providing immediate emergency care, 
psychosocial help, mental support, often physical and medical 
support, but also helping them to reintegrate into their own 
communities.
    Sometimes they are from Guatemala and sometimes they 
started somewhere else, but having a shelter like that and a 
network of very professionalized support can help reduce the--
for those who were migrants who were exploited on the way--can 
help reduce the likelihood of remigration, can help target 
those root causes that send people onward in the first place, 
and it has been embraced by a lot of the civil society 
community there.
    I could give--there are other examples. Ukraine is a 
completely different context, obviously, but I think the fact 
that we were doing years and years of trafficking work--
counter-trafficking work in Ukraine before Putin's further 
invasion last year gave us this huge base to build upon such 
that when just the calamity of especially early February 2022 
hit, there was already in place a national hotline with 6,000 
people responding to reports of trafficking and, as the problem 
radically changed, there were tools in place to support that. I 
think that is true across a lot of Ukraine efforts, but it is 
especially true here.
    In each of those cases, those are missions targeting local 
circumstances on their own. We have a fairly decentralized 
model, but I think that is where it is effective because the 
problem is so different in those places.
    The Chairman. Well, I would like to have my staff follow up 
with you on----
    Mr. Walsh. Of course.
    The Chairman. --a few ideas that we have and some 
perspectives.
    Senator Risch.
    Senator Risch. Thank you.
    Madam Ambassador, you described the situation with scam 
operations, particularly in Asia, and the forced criminality. I 
guess we do not usually think of that sort of thing when we 
think of human trafficking.
    Obviously, the intersection of those two is interesting. 
Could you give us some specific examples of how that works so 
we can kind of think about this a little more clearly?
    Ambassador Dyer. Thank you so much for that question 
because it is a really emerging issue that is of critical 
importance for us to better get our arms around.
    What we are seeing happening is that there are frequently 
Chinese criminal gangs that are behind this. They are posting 
job opportunities on Facebook and other social media places 
that appear to be legitimate, and interesting----
    Senator Risch. In China or in other places?
    Ambassador Dyer. They are posting these in--all over the 
world. We have identified victims from 35 countries. Many times 
they are from the Philippines and Malaysia, Indonesia, but we 
have identified individuals from Japan, the United States, the 
U.K.
    Senator Risch. It is emanating from China?
    Ambassador Dyer. Yes.
    Senator Risch. That is where I get a little confused. How 
do they enslave someone an ocean away from them? How do they do 
this? Is it----
    Ambassador Dyer. They post the job. The individual accepts 
the job. They are frequently transiting through Thailand or 
Cambodia. Frequently they are going to these compounds. A lot 
of these are leftover empty buildings from COVID. They are 
frequently located in Cambodia, in Burma, across the border 
from Thailand.
    Individuals think they are going for a legitimate IT job 
that is going to utilize their skills--linguistic skills, IT 
skills.
    When they get there, they are literally locked in a room 
and they are not allowed to leave, and they are given a quota 
of how much money they have to get from scam operations and if 
they do not make that quota they are tortured. They are 
deprived of food and water. They are under intense pressure to 
meet this quota.
    Some of these--the reason we know how this is happening 
some of them have escaped to tell us about it. There was 
recently--and this was actually in the news--a cyber scam 
compound in the Philippines where more than a thousand 
individuals were located and freed.
    They were from all over, as we said, 35 countries, 
targeting a unique population that is not normally what we 
think of as the target or vulnerable to trafficking because 
these are people with education, linguistic skills, and often 
IT skills.
    Senator Risch. Interesting. Did you say you had people that 
got caught up in that even from the United States? Is that----
    Ambassador Dyer. Yes, sir. To my knowledge, so far there 
was one individual from the U.K., one individual from the U.S., 
one individual from Japan--we actually spoke about it when I 
had the opportunity to visit Japan earlier this year--and then 
many individuals from other Southeast Asian countries, but 
really there are individuals from Africa.
    Because one of the benefits is if they get a broad target, 
then that individual can target secondary victims for their 
online scams from the country that they are from. They sound 
like a person from the U.K., the U.S., a country in Africa, and 
they are more effective at running these romance scams and 
fraudulent scams.
    Senator Risch. They are lured there and then held against 
their will once they get there?
    Ambassador Dyer. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
    Senator Risch. My time is limited here, but I do want to 
touch on what I think is probably the most obvious matter we 
hear about in the news and that is the Uyghurs in China.
    Tell me about that. What do you do about that? What is the 
efforts that are being targeted at that?
    Ambassador Dyer. I think this is a situation where we need 
to use all tools available. It is not something that there is 
going to be a silver bullet for.
    Thank you. I appreciate you raising this issue.
    As you will note, the Trafficking in Persons Report goes 
into significant detail about the PRC's inappropriate, horrible 
human rights abuses, specifically their forced labor of Uyghurs 
and other ethnic and religious minorities, frequently located 
in the Xinjiang autonomous region.
    We are holding--so one tool is call it out in the TIP 
Report, not only what China is doing, but also which we also 
call out in the TIP Report, places where this is occurring in 
other countries.
    For example, we flag in the TIP Report that China's Belt 
and Road Initiative is impacting 13 countries and so that is 
brought up in each of those countries' narratives so that those 
countries can be more aware of what is going on and more 
proactive to ensure that their own citizens are not falling 
prey to China's tactics as well as Chinese citizens.
    In addition to formal Belt and Road Initiative projects, we 
also have identified PRC-affiliated projects--not Belt and Road 
Initiative, but just PRC-affiliated, and we have followed up 
forced labor trends in 14 additional countries where this is 
called out.
    I think that in addition to the TIP Report we need to use 
and we are using our diplomatic and multilateral diplomacy--
bilateral diplomacy--to talk to these countries to make sure 
that people are not unwittingly supporting these programs under 
the guise of getting infrastructure in their country.
    A third important area is the Trafficking Persons Office 
participates in the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force where 
we are aggressively working on implementing, thanks to 
Congress, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
    We are adding entities to this list so that we can make 
sure that Americans are not unwittingly using goods and 
products that were made by individuals held in slavery in the 
Xinjiang autonomous region.
    Senator Risch. Well, it is a difficult subject because at 
the same time that we are trying to tamp down the things that 
are going on between U.S. and China, China is very sensitive to 
this. They deny it is going on. They deny it is going on and 
say that we are dead wrong on that. How do you thread that 
needle?
    Ambassador Dyer. Very carefully, sir. Very carefully.
    I think that we have to both try to improve that diplomatic 
relationship. I actually believe that we can do what we can 
from afar. We can work on those--the Uyghur Forced Labor 
Prevention Act. We can try to prevent goods from coming in and, 
certainly, we can encourage other countries to do a better job 
of making sure that they are not unwittingly supporting China 
through these infrastructure projects.
    Of course, the best way would be if China changed 
themselves and that is only going to happen, as you wisely 
pointed out, if we can have a better relationship with them.
    That would be the most, pardon me, direct way. I think that 
we need to use every single one of those tools because this is 
a problem that is going to require it.
    Senator Risch. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My time 
is up.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Ricketts.
    Senator Ricketts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to 
our panelists for talking about this important topic.
    Human trafficking is a despicable crime and not only does 
it inflict severe trauma on its victims, but it demonstrates 
just a sickening disregard for human dignity.
    As governor of Nebraska, I worked with my attorney general, 
Doug Peterson, and my wife, our First Lady Susanne Shore, to be 
able to combat human trafficking in our state--with Interstate 
80 going through, it is a corridor for this--and we had a four-
part plan to do that.
    One was raising awareness with regard to the public by 
using rest areas, educating emergency room docs, letting the 
public know you got to be aware for people who have lost 
control of their phone--who do not have control of their phone, 
do not have control their ID.
    In emergency rooms, if you have, for example, a barcode 
tattoo--those sorts of things. In our Nebraska Department of 
Health and Human Services, we have focused on trying to raise 
that awareness from that standpoint.
    We also, secondly, passed laws to strengthen the penalties 
for human trafficking and be able to prosecute those cases more 
effectively.
    Third, we empowered law enforcement to more effectively 
apprehended criminals through our Operation United Front human 
trafficking investigation that spanned 12 states.
    Then, finally, we increased the support for survivors who 
need care and support--I think, Mr. Walsh, you were talking 
about that as well--after experiencing human trafficking.
    Ambassador Dyer, how are U.S. domestic efforts to combat 
human trafficking perceived internationally and how do these 
perceptions positively or negatively affect U.S. foreign policy 
efforts in this area?
    Ambassador Dyer. First of all, Senator, thank you so much 
for your work in Nebraska. I noted, as you were talking about 
the things that you focused on, that they covered all three of 
the Ps--we have prevention, prosecution, and protection. Thank 
you for your leadership on that.
    With regard to the U.S. domestic efforts, we cover in our 
TIP Report the U.S. efforts and as you will see, we cover them 
in a great deal of detail and we have assessed that overall the 
U.S. is actually doing a really good job. We maintain our 
position as a leader in this space.
    We are increasing not only identified victims, increased 
prosecutions, identified increasing numbers of victims who are 
receiving services, as you wisely pointed out, from government-
funded programs. All of this is laid out.
    Obviously, as every country, even those that are on Tier 2, 
we have room for improvement. We absolutely have room for 
improvement.
    One of the things that we have specifically said is that we 
need to do a better job of making sure that victims of 
trafficking are not held or penalized for crimes that they were 
forced to be doing.
    Senator Ricketts. I got to believe that helps us when we 
are trying to make the case internationally that other 
countries need to do more as well.
    Ambassador Dyer. I completely agree with you, sir.
    When we are engaging in our bilateral and multilateral 
diplomacy, it helps our position when we are recommending 
changes to other countries when we can say, look, we hold 
ourselves accountable, too.
    We recognize when we do stuff good and we recognize when 
there is room for improvement, and I think that that really 
strengthens our case and makes that diplomacy much more 
effective.
    Senator Ricketts. I want to switch gears and build on what 
Senator Risch was talking about with regard to the Uyghurs in 
Xinjiang province, and about a million Uyghurs have been put 
into these forced labor camps and about 100,000 are actually 
doing this forced labor--I should say reeducation camps, the 
million--the 100,000 in forced labor.
    This is just despicable what the PRC is doing, and I 
certainly understand the challenges that we have in trying to 
raise awareness with the countries that are supporting this.
    What further actions does the State Department plan to take 
to implement the UFLPA and its coordination with the Forced 
Labor Enforcement Task Force participation?
    Ambassador Dyer. The JTIP participates in that Forced Labor 
Enforcement Task Force and one of our chief missions is to 
fully implement the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act--the 
UFLPA.
    What we have been doing so far, we--as you know, the UFLPA 
allows anything that is from the Xinjiang region or made with 
goods to be put on a list that will be preventing those 
products from coming into the United States.
    In addition, each of the members of that Forced Labor 
Enforcement Task Force can recommend entities to be added to 
that list. Even if it is not something that is clearly based in 
that region, that is the area that we have been working most 
on.
    You may have seen that we recently voted and added two 
additional entities to that list. That process is ongoing. In 
fact, I was working on that earlier before I came in today.
    Senator Ricketts. What challenges do we have? Because 
European--goods are still making it into the European 
marketplace. What are some of the challenges and what can we do 
about it to prevent this?
    It is just terrible that goods made by forced labor in the 
People's Republic of China are making their way into Europe. 
This is just horrible. It is despicable.
    Ambassador Dyer. I think there are two challenges, and I 
appreciate you asking about them.
    Number one is we have to be sure that we are doing our due 
diligence because these supply chains are extremely 
complicated. They are complex, and the PRC is engaging in 
active subterfuge to hide and make it difficult to see clearly 
these chains.
    It is one of the areas that we actually mentioned in the 
Trafficking in Persons Report, this affirmative effort to make 
it hard to check to see how the supply chains are working.
    This is actually something we brought up, and we want to be 
sure that we are doing our due diligence and so that is what is 
the most difficult part. We are actively engaging on it now to 
be sure that we are correctly and accurately assessing it so 
that we can prevent Americans from unwittingly purchasing these 
products.
    Senator Ricketts. Great. Thank you very much.
    Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you. I just have one or two final 
questions.
    In December of last year, the Treasury Department imposed 
sanctions under the Global Magnitsky program targeting 
individuals and companies involved in human trafficking abuses.
    One set of actions targeted forced labor aboard distant-
water fishing vessels operating out of China. The other 
targeted a national of the Philippines for sex trafficking and 
the rape of young girls.
    Ambassador, given the Global Magnitsky sanctions, and other 
targeted sanction programs, are only rarely used for human 
trafficking, is this something we can expect to see more 
actions like these in the future and can you tell us what role 
you see for increasing the use of targeted sanction tools in 
the broader U.S. effort to address human trafficking?
    Ambassador Dyer. Thank you, Senator.
    I believe that using the use of these sanctions is one 
important tool. We should not put all of our eggs into that one 
basket, but it is absolutely an important tool and the TIP 
office is responding to that by actually creating a specialized 
individual in our office, a very senior knowledgeable whip-
smart Foreign Service officer who is focused exclusively on 
identifying additional targets for Global Magnitsky sanctions.
    We were very heartened to see that several of the 
successful sanctions did involve forced labor--the ones that 
you pointed out--and so we are actually putting additional 
effort.
    Please know that while we put that in and we are 
aggressively seeking additional names to seek Global Magnitsky 
sanctions, we are not putting all our eggs. This is something 
that we are doing in addition to the TIP Report--our 
programming, our bilateral and multilateral diplomacy.
    The Chairman. Let me ask you another question. Migrant 
laborers are three times more likely to be trafficked than 
others are.
    How is the State Department addressing the trafficking of 
migrant laborers, given they are often difficult to track and 
too frightened to share their experiences? Do you know when the 
Administration's global labor strategy will finally be 
released?
    Ambassador Dyer. With regard to your first question 
regarding migration, I am grateful to you for bringing it up 
and I appreciate your focus on this because we absolutely do 
know that migrants are uniquely vulnerable to human 
trafficking.
    They have many of the characteristics that human 
traffickers are seeking. They are afraid to call the police. 
They are on the move. They are desperate. They do not 
necessarily have a plan.
    Our part--the trafficking in persons part--in addressing 
the unique vulnerabilities to trafficking of migrants is 
several-fold. One is we are tracking the risks not only in the 
home countries, but along the migration pathways and then we 
are engaging in intense bilateral and multilateral diplomacy 
and discussions with those countries so that they are aware of 
their own risks and we have actually pulled them out in the 
Trafficking in Persons Report. We use that TIP Report in our 
discussions with them to show here is where you have areas of 
risk.
    In addition, we are specifically encouraging these 
countries that are along the migration route to do a better job 
of screening migrants, referring them to services, and then 
making sure that comprehensive services actually are available 
for those who do show signs of being trafficked.
    We are also using our foreign assistance in a very targeted 
way to make sure that we are actually supporting some of the 
regional approaches. We recognize that migration is not 
something that the United States is going to solve alone.
    We have got to have not only a whole-of-government 
approach, but a whole of region approach and so we are really 
working closely with our allies and countries and partners in 
the region.
    The last thing that we are doing is making sure that as we 
are creating safe legal migration--pardon me, as we are 
creating lawful migration pathways, we want to make sure that 
those pathways do not have inherent vulnerabilities built into 
them.
    We want to make sure there is no ability to have extreme 
labor recruitment fees so that when they come into the U.S. 
they owe so much money that that can be used against them. We 
want to make sure that they are not inappropriately tied to a 
specific worker and that they can leave if there is an abuse.
    Once again, I feel like this is sort of a whole 
comprehensive response and we are doing our best to make sure 
that we have this really balanced approach.
    The Chairman. The global labor strategy you talked about?
    Ambassador Dyer. Oh, thank you, sir. I actually checked on 
that before I came because I thought you might ask. It has not 
been released yet and I do not have a specific timeframe on 
when it is coming. I know it is being worked on, and I am happy 
to get back with you to let you know their latest update.
    The Chairman. I would appreciate knowing that.
    Finally, Mr. Walsh, we know that lack of protections for 
workers can drive human trafficking. If we hope to end forced 
labor, we have to increase our focus not just on prosecutions, 
from my perspective, but on support for workers' rights. We 
know worker-driven social responsibility programs can prevent 
human trafficking.
    What are your views on that, and is USAID using resources 
and pivoting programs to invest more in expanding labor rights?
    Mr. Walsh. Yes. Absolutely. Thank you for the question.
    I would say our flagship worker rights program is the 
Global Labor Program, which you have been amazing supporters of 
for decades now, that works all over the world, especially to 
support unions, other forms of collective bargaining 
organizations.
    We have tried to--a couple years ago when the Global Labor 
Program increased by a few million dollars, we tried to use it 
to get at some of the most vulnerable populations that we maybe 
were not getting at before and who often do not have access to 
the traditional tools of organization.
    It is kind of two nascent programs. One is in East Africa 
and one is in Southeast Asia, and they target migrant workers 
who often are in the informal economy--sometimes you could call 
it the gig economy--and it gives them tools to report abuses 
that may or may not cross the line into trafficking literally, 
but are often quite abusive.
    It provides services to them, whether it is legal 
assistance, the kinds of medical and mental help that I 
referenced before, and then in East Africa it is focused 
especially on, again, migrant, often informal economy workers, 
but who are often women or people with disabilities--so really 
the most vulnerable--and trying to provide those same services.
    I would also just say that under the Global Labor Program, 
there have been a lot of questions about the Uyghurs in 
Xinjiang, one of, if not the defining human rights atrocities 
of our age, and something that USAID is trying to do is to 
focus really on the forced labor part of this problem.
    I would kind of echo what Ambassador Dyer said in that the 
devilishly complicated part of this is how tangled, marbled 
supply chains are and how difficult it can be to find where the 
forced labor is.
    We are trying to help solve that problem by commissioning 
what I would say is some of the most useful action-oriented 
research that I have ever come across in my government career 
and it aims at--first, we did this for the cotton industry, 
which is central in Xinjiang, and then we did it for the 
automotive industry--different parts of the automotive 
industry--and it is aimed at finding what factories, what 
companies, what specific facilities either are demonstrably 
employing forced labor or are very suspicious to be.
    There are others who have done this work on the outside for 
other industries, but it is so important to have a lot of eyes 
on this problem identifying specifics and that is both inside 
and outside of China because a lot of times the supply line 
is--or the use of forced labor--is somewhere else.
    With that information in hand, it gives us the ability to 
start advocacy and to start going to companies to break 
themselves free of this enormous blight on their operations, 
sometimes to work with governments to shut down loopholes or 
individual areas.
    It is kind of a two-part play, find the forced labor and 
then go after it, but I think we can make kind of an outsized 
contribution with a relatively small amount of money in this 
way.
    The Chairman. Well, if I was a purchaser of supplies, then 
anything I saw from Xinjiang would raise my antenna. It does 
not take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you have a 
million Uyghurs in a concentration camp, there is a high 
probability that you are going to end up with trafficked 
products and supplies.
    Senator Risch.
    Senator Risch. Nothing further, Mr. Chairman, except to say 
thank you. You guys are doing Heaven's work. There is no 
question about it. We appreciate what you do.
    The Chairman. Well, on behalf of the committee we thank you 
both for your testimony. Thank you for the very insightful, 
Ambassador, aspects you gave and very succinct.
    I think you should give the State Department a course on 
how to answer questions that are substantive. At the end of the 
day, they would very well avail themselves of----
    Senator Risch. There is a couple other agencies you can 
include.
    [Laughter.]
    The Chairman. Senator Risch suggested there are other 
agencies as well. I will be just happy if you can get the State 
Department to do that.
    The record for this hearing will remain open until the 
close of business on Friday, June 23. Please ensure that 
questions for the record are submitted no later than tomorrow.
    With the thanks of the committee, this hearing is 
adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 11:39 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
                              ----------                              


              Additional Material Submitted for the Record


           Responses of Ambassador Cynthia Dyer to Questions 
                    Submitted by Senator Marco Rubio

    Question. Last week, the State Department released its annual 
report on trafficking in persons. As you know, along with the detailed 
reports on each foreign country's actions to combat trafficking, the 
State Department also releases a relatively-short report to highlight 
specific cases the Department has discovered in the previous year. It 
is absurd and shameful that this report failed to highlight two of the 
most alarming instances of modern-day slavery: the Chinese Communist 
Party's acts of genocide against the Uyghur population, where 
individuals are subjected to forced labor, trafficking, and unjust mass 
detentions, as well as Cuba's ``medical brigades,'' which force Cuban 
medical professionals to work overseas in terrible conditions so the 
regime can profit. For example, on page 43 of your office's 2023 
Trafficking in Persons Report, there is an entire page dedicated to an 
instance of trafficking involving a Tier 3 country, China, and a Tier 1 
country, the United States. The highlighted example intimates the 
United States is somehow sponsoring human trafficking, while we 
actively investigate and prosecute this heinous crime:
    How do you believe this example plays to domestic Chinese media and 
propaganda outlets that falsely seek to paint a picture of the United 
States as a country where Chinese are at risk?

    Answer. We remain deeply concerned about the long-standing and 
well-documented state-sponsored human trafficking in both the PRC and 
Cuba. In addition to ranking these countries as Tier 3, the report also 
found that there was a government policy or pattern of human 
trafficking in both countries. The TIP Report further emphasized the 
egregious nature of trafficking in these countries by referencing the 
concerns about forced labor in Cuba's medical program in 56 country 
narratives, concerns about forced labor in China's Belt and Road 
Initiative in 13 narratives, and concerns about other PRC affiliated 
projects in 14 country narratives. The examples included in the 
Introduction to the 2023 TIP Report are meant to be illustrative and 
serve as an opportunity to highlight emerging or overlooked issues. The 
examples also represent the many--though not all--forms of human 
trafficking and the wide variety of places in which they occur. They 
are designed to underscore that human trafficking can and does happen 
anywhere.

    Question. Is the cited example emblematic of most human trafficking 
cases involving Chinese being trafficked into the United States?

    Answer. The TIP Report is credible in part because of its track 
record of highlighting instances of trafficking regardless of where 
they occur, including in the United States. This cited example is based 
on a documented case in which an adopted Chinese national alleged 
forced labor and other exploitation by an American family. (See 
Chinese-born woman sues adoptive parents for allegedly locking her in 
basement, forced slavery and racist treatment, NBC News, Feb. 3, 2023, 
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/chinese-born-woman-sues-
adoptive-parents-alleging-forced-slavery-rcna68876). It reflects one of 
the ways in which foreign national children may be subjected to human 
trafficking. The example illustrates how children may be vulnerable to 
trafficking even within a Tier 1 country.

    Question. Can you provide examples of human trafficking in China 
involving Uyghurs or other groups?

    Answer. State-sponsored forced labor persists under the PRC 
Government's ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against 
predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Kyrgyz, and 
members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in the Xinjiang 
Uyghur Autonomous Region. The PRC Government reportedly continued to 
place these groups, including ethnic Tibetans, in vocational training 
and manufacturing jobs as part of an ostensible ``poverty alleviation'' 
and ``labor dispatch program'' that featured overt coercive elements. 
Through numerous witness testimonies, it is well-documented that PRC 
authorities and authorized commercial entities subject many individuals 
to forced labor in internment camp-adjacent or off-site factories 
producing garments, automotive components, footwear, carpets, yarn, 
food products, construction materials, holiday decorations, building 
materials, solar power equipment, polysilicon and other renewable 
energy components, consumer electronics, bedding, hair products, 
cleaning supplies, personal protective equipment, face masks, 
chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other goods for domestic and 
international distribution.

    Question. In responses to my questions during your confirmation 
process you stated, ``the United States must continue to take strong 
action to promote accountability for the PRC's actions and strengthen 
market defenses against the import of goods produced through forced 
labor in Xinjiang. If confirmed, I will continue to work with the 
international community to alert businesses and other entities to the 
reputational, economic, and legal risks of involvement with entities in 
or linked to Xinjiang. I will promote coordination efforts within 
international business specific to tracing supply chains and 
identifying high risk sourcing from companies linked to abuses in the 
Xinjiang region to support our shared interest of eradicating forced 
labor from global supply chains:''
    Now that you have been confirmed, can you describe what you have 
done, to date, to alert businesses to the risks of operating in 
Xinjiang and identifying companies linked to abuses there?

    Answer. The 2023 TIP Report described that the PRC did not take any 
steps to change policies in response to mounting public concern over 
abuses within Xinjiang and the contamination of international supply 
chains with goods produced by PRC state-sponsored forced labor there in 
2022. I will continue to raise risks of working in Xinjiang in 
appropriate media and business engagements following the report's 
release.
    I recently met with the Chamber of Commerce's Task Force to 
Eradicate Human Trafficking, where I urged Task Force members to invest 
in comprehensive due diligence in their own supply chains specifically 
related to any connections with entities based in Xinjiang, highlighted 
the State Department's efforts to prevent and address forced labor in 
our own government contracts, and offered resources and partnership in 
these efforts.
    The Department of State also partners with Forced Labor Enforcement 
Task Force (FLETF) agencies to amplify this unified message; for 
example, in March 2023, the State Department's Special Representative 
for International Labor Affairs spoke at the Forced Labor Technical 
Expo hosted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which offered a 
global platform for industry to share best practices on the latest 
technologies to advance supply chain transparency, risk mapping, and 
the traceability of goods and services. As the State Department 
representative to the FLETF, I am also working with FLETF colleagues to 
implement the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), including by 
adding new entities to the UFLPA Entity List.

    Question. This week, Volkswagen announced that they are planning an 
external audit of their facility in Xinjiang. Given that the CCP has 
raided the offices of western consulting and auditing firms in China, 
is there any way we can trust an audit in Xinjiang conducted by a firm 
tolerated by the CCP?

    Answer. As documented in the Department's 2023 TIP Report special 
interest box ``Deceiving the Watchdogs: How Unscrupulous Manufacturers 
Conceal Forced Labor and Other Labor Abuses,'' there is much reporting 
from NGOs and academics that audits can be unreliable, with 
manufacturers using a variety of tactics to conceal labor and human 
rights abuses from auditors.
    The 2023 TIP Report explains that the PRC Government and affiliated 
commercial entities continued to engage in a concerted campaign to 
dispel accusations through vehement denial in public messaging; state-
ordered politically motivated academic research; falsified cotton 
production and harvest mechanization data; localized propaganda 
campaigns targeting consumers in trade partner countries; the 
establishment of false supply chain policy initiatives as alternatives 
to preexisting international monitoring and compliance programs; new 
sanctions on foreign government officials critical of PRC abuses; and 
pressure on international companies.
    Therefore, I would find it difficult to expect an objective and 
independent audit from a firm located in Xinjiang and allowed to 
continue operation by the CCP.

    Question. Since passage of my Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, 
what actions has the Department taken to end the use of human 
trafficking and slave labor of Uyghurs or other groups in Xinjiang?

    Answer. I represent the State Department on the DHS-led Forced 
Labor Enforcement Task Force. We are working expeditiously with our 
interagency partners to expand the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act 
(UFLPA) Entity List, consistent with the law and facts, and prevent 
goods made with forced labor from entering U.S. supply chains.
    In April 2022, the State Department submitted to Congress a report 
outlining the United States' diplomatic strategy to address forced 
labor in Xinjiang, as required by the UFLPA. The strategy adopts a 
whole-of-government approach to increasing international awareness of 
and addressing forced labor as one of the many human rights abuses 
being committed amidst the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity 
in Xinjiang, including how the United States will promote 
accountability for perpetrators of forced labor and other human rights 
abuses. The State Department continues to work closely with Congress, 
other federal departments and agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and 
our allies and partners to prevent the importation of goods produced 
with forced labor.
    Alongside these efforts to implement the UFLPA, the Administration 
has taken concrete measures to promote accountability for genocide, 
crimes against humanity, and other violations and abuses in Xinjiang 
and globally. Specifically, it has issued visa restrictions, financial 
sanctions under the Global Magnitsky program, export controls, and 
import restrictions such as Withhold Release Orders.

    Question. In March, Chairman Menendez and I wrote to Secretary 
Blinken regarding Cuba's continued international medical ``missions'' 
across the globe. These international ``missions'' are really a modern-
day human trafficking scheme that exploits approximately 50,000 Cuban 
medical professionals who are not compensated for their work. The 
regime then profits from this abuse. In our letter, we urged Secretary 
Blinken to do more to discourage countries in the region from 
supporting the Cuban regime's human trafficking. What steps is the 
Administration taking to end the Cuban regime's exploitation and human 
trafficking in the region?

    Answer. For the fourth year in a row, the Department determined 
there is a Cuban Government policy or pattern to profit from labor 
export programs with strong indications of forced labor, particularly 
its foreign medical missions program. Cuba was again ranked Tier 3 in 
the 2023 TIP Report. The Department is urging foreign governments to 
investigate the specific conditions government-affiliated Cuban workers 
face in their countries to ensure these programs comply with 
international human rights obligations and commitments and 
internationally recognized labor rights, as well as determine whether 
indicators of forced labor--including withholding of wages, 
confiscation of travel and identity documents, deception in entering 
into contracts, restriction of movement, and threats and intimidation 
for leaving the program--are present in the programs. The 2023 TIP 
Report noted the risks of forced labor in Cuba's labor export program 
and documented their current or previous presence in 56 country 
narratives; we also included recommendations to screen government-
affiliated Cuban workers for trafficking indicators if the brigade was 
active during the reporting period.

    Question. Which countries and organizations continue to utilize 
these Cuban medical ``missions''?

    Answer. While accurate information is difficult to obtain, by the 
end of 2021, as the Cuban Government reported, there were government-
affiliated Cuban workers in 60 countries. According to multiple 
sources, including press reports, NGOs, international organizations, 
and government officials Cuba's labor export program, including the 
medical ``missions,'' operated or currently operates in Algeria, 
Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, 
Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Chad, 
Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, 
Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, 
Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Liberia, 
Maldives, Mauritania, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nicaragua, 
Palau, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and 
Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, 
Suriname, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkiye, 
Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe; as well 
as in some overseas departments or territories, such as Anguilla, 
British Virgin Islands, French Guiana, Grenada, Montserrat, Martinique, 
and Turks and Caicos.
                                 ______
                                 

              Responses of Mr. Johnny Walsh to Questions 
                    Submitted by Senator Marco Rubio

    Question. USAID uses an Agency-Wide Standard Operating Procedure 
(SOP) to counter Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) with many international 
organizations, donors, NGOs, contractors and assistance recipients to 
ensure USAID itself does not contribute to human trafficking. The SOP 
further requires C-TIP training for all employees, a C-TIP clause in 
every contract, grant, and cooperative agreement, and requires USAID 
employees to report trafficking violations to the USAID Office of 
Inspector General (OIG). Last year, USAID announced a program to 
increase the capacity of Lebanon's solar industry. In a briefing with 
my office, USAID noted that they would purchase solar panels available 
on the ``local market'' and explained that these would likely be panels 
produced in China. Does USAID have safeguards in place to ensure that 
USAID programs overseas do not purchase products or materials made with 
the forced labor and trafficking of Uyghurs?

    Answer. USAID recently issued two revised Procurement Executive 
Bulletins (PEB 19-03 and PEB 16-01) to remind partners that the 
Combating Trafficking in Persons provisions in both contracts and 
assistance awards prohibit the use of forced labor in the performance 
of federal contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements. USAID 
provided a list of resources maintained by the U.S. Government to help 
partners identify potential sources of forced labor in their supply 
chains. These resources include the U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
(CBP) Withhold Release Order (WRO) list, the Department of Commerce 
Entity List, a Department of Labor list regarding forced and indentured 
child labor, as well as the aforementioned UFLPA Entity List. USAID is 
engaged in a broader USG approach to address forced labor in supply 
chains, including the solar supply chain. This involves improving 
traceability and supporting the development of alternative supply 
chains among other efforts.
    As an observer member of the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force 
(FLETF), USAID is also working with the U.S. interagency to support the 
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) enforcement strategy, 
including building the UFLPA Entity List.

    Question. How does USAID ensure those who work for our implementing 
partners who do not speak or read English, are aware of the OIG tip 
line?

    Answer. USAID has award requirements in place in both contracts and 
grants to ensure that implementing partner staff are aware of its 
trafficking in persons prohibitions. Specifically, all partners are 
required to make their staff aware of the U.S. Government's 
prohibitions, and for partners with large awards, they must establish 
an awareness program and a process for staff to report violations that 
are context-specific and include consideration for the involvement of 
non-U.S. citizens.
    Although USAID implementing partners must be able to conduct 
business in English, when conducting outreach to implementing partners, 
USAID Missions take efforts to ensure that the information provided is 
in the appropriate language, including through the offering of 
translations. During recent outreach efforts by USAID's Responsibility, 
Safeguarding, and Compliance (RSC) Division in El Salvador and 
Indonesia, the RSC provided information on OIG reporting in both 
English and the local languages. The RSC is also exploring additional 
translation services to make its safeguarding resources available in 
multiple languages.
    The USAID OIG conducts their own outreach on their hotline with 
implementing partners and USAID defers to the OIG on the specifics of 
the rollout of their new hotline format.

    Question. Are there USAID C-TIP OIG contact details or processes 
for reporting trafficking violations available in any language other 
than English?

    Answer. Individuals may and USAID-funded organizations must report 
Counter-Trafficking in Persons (CTIP) allegations to OIG's virtual 
Hotline portal which is accessible on the Fraud Awareness and Reporting 
(https://oig.usaid.gov/report-fraud) page of OIG's public-facing 
website. The portal can also be accessed directly via this link 
(https://oigportal.ains.com/eCasePortal/InvestigationsCaptcha.aspx). 
Non-English speakers looking to disclose allegations to the OIG can 
select the language of their choice at the top of the Fraud Awareness 
and Reporting (https://oig.usaid.gov/report-fraud) page.
    Further, USAID OIG is committed to ensuring comprehensive, 
independent oversight of USAID's support of Ukraine and its people in 
response to Russia's invasion. The OIGs of USAID and the Departments of 
State and Defense jointly developed and distributed a Hotline Poster in 
English (https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/Hotline 
Information for Reporting Ukraine-Related Misconduct--0.pdf) and 
Ukrainian (https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/Hotline 
Information for Reporting Ukraine-Related Misconduct %28Ukrainain%29--
0.pdf) to encourage timely and transparent reporting of misconduct, 
including CTIP, compromising the United States' support to Ukraine and 
its people. The posters list how, and what, to confidentially report 
and features CTIP prominently.

                                  [all]