[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 57 (Wednesday, April 24, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E536-E537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TIER RANKINGS AND THE FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 24, 2013

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, last week, the Subcommittee on 
Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International 
Organizations held a hearing that examined the role of tier rankings in 
the fight against human trafficking.
   Many of those who joined us last week have been in this fight from 
the beginning--from the year 2000 when my Trafficking Victims' 
Protection Act created not only the Office to Monitor and Combat 
Trafficking in Persons at the Department of State, but also the annual 
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
   At the time, I don't think anyone could have predicted that this 
report would become the international gold standard and primary means 
of anti-trafficking accountability around the world. From the halls of 
parliaments to police stations in remote corners of the world, this 
report is being used to focus anti-trafficking work in 186 countries on 
the key areas of prevention, prosecution, and protection.
   The fact that it has been so successful is a credit to the hard and 
careful work of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in 
Persons. Each year, this office evaluates whether the government of a 
country is fully complying with the minimum standards for the 
elimination of human trafficking, or, if not, whether the government is 
making significant efforts to do so.
   The record is laid bare for the world to see and summarized in a 
tier ranking. Tier I countries fully meet the minimum standards. Tier 
II countries do not meet the minimum standards but are making 
significant effort to do so. Tier III countries do not meet the 
standards and are not making significant effort to do so. Along with 
the embarrassment of being listed on Tier III, Tier III countries are 
open to sanction by the U.S. government.
   Since the TIP Report's inception, more than 120 countries have 
enacted anti-trafficking laws and many countries have taken other steps 
required to significantly raise their tier rankings--citing the TIP 
Report as a key factor in their increased anti-trafficking response. In 
the 2003 Trafficking in Persons Reauthorization Act, I and my 
colleagues in Congress created the Tier II Watch List. This list was 
intended to encourage anti-trafficking progress in a country that took 
positive anti-trafficking steps late in the evaluation year--especially 
those countries that took last-minute measures to avoid a Tier III 
designation. We wanted to reward good faith efforts and encourage them 
to continue.
   However, some countries made a habit of last minute efforts and 
failed to follow through year after year, gaming the system. 
Consequently, in 2008, Congress created an ``automatic downgrade'' for 
any country that had been on the Tier II Watch List for two years but 
had not taken significant enough anti-trafficking measures to move to 
Tier II. The President can waive a Tier III downgrade for two 
additional years if there is ``credible evidence'' that the country has 
a written and sufficiently resourced plan to meet the minimum 
standards.
   The ``automatic downgrade'' would protect the integrity of the tier 
system and ensure it worked properly to inspire real progress in the 
fight against human trafficking.
   It has now been four years since the two-year limit, or four years-
with-a-waiver limit, was instituted. China, Russia, Uzbekistan, 
Republic of Congo, Iraq, and Azerbaijan have now had at least four full 
years of warning that they would face downgrade to Tier III if they did 
not make significant efforts to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, 
and prevent trafficking. Now their time on the Tier II Watch List is 
up.
   In last week's hearing, we took a close look at the records of these 
countries in 2012. If these countries have once again failed to make 
significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, the State Department 
must downgrade them or risk undermining the credibility and 
demonstrated power of the TIP Report.
   I am particularly concerned about the Government of China's record. 
The Government of China has been on the Tier II Watch List for eight 
consecutive years in large part because its plan to fight human 
trafficking is inadequate, unevenly implemented, and the Government of 
China has not been making significant efforts to comply with the 
minimum standards. Law enforcement in China is still not trained to 
identify or respond properly to sex or labor trafficking victims. I 
have heard reports that local police are often unwilling to help 
parents find missing children who may be enslaved in local brick kilns, 
and that officials have been known to profit from brick kilns that 
exploit children.
   As we heard from a brave trafficking survivor last week, the 
Government of China continues to forcibly repatriate North Korean 
trafficking victims who face severe punishment, including execution, 
upon their return to North Korea. Moreover, the Government of China's 
continued one-child policy has decimated China's female population. 
Tens of millions of

[[Page E537]]

women and girls are missing from the population, making China a 
regional magnet for sex and bride trafficking as men reach marrying age 
but cannot find a mate. The Government of China is failing not only to 
address its own trafficking problems, but is creating an incentive for 
human trafficking problems in the whole region.
   The Government of Uzbekistan's record is also of great concern, as 
the government itself continues to force hundreds of thousands of 
school-age children and adults to work in fields during the cotton 
harvest each year.
   The Government of the Republic of Congo, despite making some 
progress in 2010 with the passage of a law that would prevent child 
trafficking, has failed in the last two years to convict a single 
person under that law despite the pervasive child trafficking in their 
country.
   The Government of Russia has had nine years of warning that without 
significant change, they too would be downgraded. However, the 
Government of Russia does not have in place formal procedures for 
identification and referral of trafficking victims by law enforcement, 
labor inspectors, and other government officials. The Government of 
Russia still has not established a government body to organize 
government anti-trafficking activities, nor does it adequately fund 
shelters or services for trafficking victims. Russian citizens are 
trafficked from Russia to countries all over the globe as well as 
within Russia, and yet the Government of Russia does not have a 
national trafficking education or prevention plan.
   The Government of Azerbaijan continues to use administrative fines 
for traffickers, allowing traffickers to write-off the crime of 
trafficking as a simple business expense that is less expensive than 
hiring their workers.
   The Government of Iraq has been on the Watch List since the TIP 
Report first began to hold them accountable in 2009. Like trafficking 
victims elsewhere in the world, the victims in Iraq need protection, 
those who are vulnerable to trafficking need prevention measures, and 
traffickers need to be brought to justice.
   The importance of accurate Tier rankings cannot be overstated. Over 
the last 12 years, we have seen countries begin in earnest the hard 
work of reaching the minimum standards after the TIP Report accurately 
exposed--with a Tier III ranking--each country's failure to take 
significant action against human trafficking. By the same token, a 
premature boost to Tier II, such as what occurred with Vietnam last 
year, may not only undermine progress, but fail to inspire it. The tier 
rankings were meant to be, and in large part have become, a powerful 
tool in the fight against human trafficking.

                          ____________________