[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 60 (Thursday, April 23, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E563-E564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSFORMATION: TIER RANKINGS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST 
                           HUMAN TRAFFICKING

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 23, 2015

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I recently held a hearing on 
the importance of accountability in the annual Trafficking in Persons 
Report--the State Department's biggest opportunity of the year to prod 
countries to fight human trafficking with greater effect, greater 
efficiency and greater effort.
   There are some twenty plus million people around the globe who live 
in sex or labor slavery today.
   When one hears such a figure--over twenty million people--one's eyes 
begin to glaze over, as a number of such magnitude becomes an 
abstraction. There is a cynical saying, attributed to Soviet dictator 
Josef Stalin, that ``the death of one man is a tragedy. The death of 
millions is a statistic.'' Stalin knew that many would shrug their 
shoulders and avert their gaze.
   But we must never allow such cynicism to obscure the fact that each 
of those twenty million persons is a human being with inherent, God-
given dignity. Each one is a child that suffers from beatings and 
abuse, a woman raped, a man who labors in the field as a slave--all for 
the commercial gain of others.
   The annual Trafficking in Persons Report, required by the landmark 
Trafficking Victims Protection Action of 2000 (TVPA)--legislation which 
I authored--ensures that countries making anti-trafficking efforts a 
priority are praised and supported, while countries that ignore the 
cries of the enslaved are justly shamed, and considered for sanctions.
   The success of the TIP Report and rankings is beyond anything we 
could have hoped for. From presidential suites and the halls of 
parliaments, to police stations in remote corners of the world, this 
report focuses anti-trafficking work in 187 countries on the pivotal 
principles of prevention of trafficking, prosecution of the 
traffickers, and protection of the victims.
   Each year the trafficking office at the Department of State 
evaluates whether a government of a country is fully compliant 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 
rankings narrative. Tier 1 countries fully meet the minimum standards. 
Tier 2 countries do not meet the minimum standards, but are making 
significant efforts to do so. Tier 3 countries do not meet the 
standards and are not making significant efforts to do so--and, indeed, 
may be subject to sanctions.
   Over the last 14 years, more than 100 countries have enacted anti-
trafficking laws, and many countries have taken other steps required to 
significantly raise their tier rankings. Some countries openly credit 
the TIP Report for their increased and effective anti-trafficking 
response and look to us for examples of how to do even better. Last 
year, for example, I was invited by the speaker of Peru's unicameral 
congress to address legislators on how to protect victims of 
trafficking, meeting also with prosecutors, members of a multi-agency 
task force, victims and those who provide for victims.
   The Tier 2 Watch List was created in the 2003 TVPA reauthorization 
and I also authored to encourage good-faith anti-trafficking progress 
in a country that may have taken positive anti-trafficking steps late 
in the evaluation year. Unfortunately, some countries made a habit of 
last-minute efforts and failed to follow through year-after-year, 
effectively gaming the system.
   To protect the integrity of the tier system and ensure it works 
properly to inspire progress, Congress in 2008 created an automatic 
downgrade for any country that had been on a Tier 2 Watch List for 2 
years but had not taken significant effort enough to move up a tier.
   The President can waive the automatic downgrade for an additional 2 
years if he has certified ''credible evidence'' that the country has a 
written and sufficiently resourced plan that, if implemented, would 
constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards.
   In 2013, the first test of the new system, China, Russia, and 
Uzbekistan ran out of waivers and moved to Tier 3, which accurately 
reflected their records.
   In the 2014 reporting cycle, only Thailand and Malaysia were auto-
downgraded, out of six countries. Russia and Uzbekistan retained their 
Tier 3 downgrades from the previous year--but China was upgraded from 
Tier 3 to the Tier 2 Watch List.
   I am very concerned that China fooled the State Department, which 
seemed to believe that China was abolishing its re-education through 
labor camps rather than simply renaming the camps and continuing the 
practice. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China reported that 
in 2013, Chinese authorities increasingly used ``other forms of 
arbitrary and administrative detention such as Legal Education Centers, 
Custody and Education Centers, `black jails,' and compulsory drug 
detoxification centers.''
   Moreover, the Commission reported that in November 2014, the Deputy 
Director of China's Ministry of Justice said at a press conference that 
the ``vast majority'' of China's [reeducation through labor] facilities 
have been converted to compulsory drug detox centers. The China 
Commission believes that these compulsory drug detox centers force 
detainees to do labor, as do the Custody and Education Centers.
   If true--and I believe it is--then the Chinese government is 
directly involved in human trafficking and profiting from it.
   The Chinese Government also continues, through its one-child birth 
limitation policy, to decimate the female population, creating a vacuum 
for sex and bride trafficking in China as males confronted with a 
sentence of lifetime bachelorhood seek to obtain a mate.
   And despite a much-ballyhooed November 2013 government announcement 
of a relaxation of the one-child policy that affects only a small 
subset of the population, this fig leaf will not do enough to correct 
the gender imbalance in China.
   Last summer, a local official at the Mid-Year Family Planning Work 
Meeting in Chongqing municipality noted that ``the intensity of family 
planning work has not diminished.'' And the evidence of coercive 
enforcement continues to emerge.
   The U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 
following its May 2014 review of China, noted that it was ``seriously 
concerned about reported instances of the use of coercive measures, 
including forced abortion and forced sterilization, with a view to 
limiting births.''
   This is unacceptable.
   Approximately 40 million women and girls are missing from the 
population--and China's birth limitation policy continues to increase 
that number--making China a regional magnet for sex and bride 
trafficking of women from neighboring countries such as Burma, 
Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and North Korea.
   Indeed, an estimated 90 percent of North Korean women seeking asylum 
in China are trafficked as brides. And yet China does not take 
responsibility for the government-made disaster and provide these women 
with aid. Rather, China denies these women refugee status and sends 
them back to punishment in North Korea--punishments that far too often 
include execution.
   Yet we gave China a pass, turning our backs on these suffering 
women.
   But Asia is not the only place where there are victims of 
trafficking. The hearing also looked at three African countries that 
must be automatically downgraded unless they significantly improved 
efforts to fight human trafficking in 2014: Burundi, Comoros, and 
Angola.
   The shared tragedy of these countries is that it is their children 
who are being trafficked. Chinese nationals in Angola exploit the 
Angolan children in construction, rice farming, and brick making.
   In Comoros, poor families place their children with wealthy 
relatives, who then exploit them in domestic servitude.
   Similarly, in Burundi, family members sometimes profit from the 
prostitution of children with tourists or, according to the State 
Department, ``teachers, police officers, and gendarme, military and 
prison officials.''
   In 2013, as automatic downgrade loomed, the President of Comoros 
finally admitted his country had a trafficking issue and the National 
Assembly changed the penal code. Angola and Burundi have also amended 
their penal codes while on the Watch List.
   Aggressive implementation of these anti-trafficking laws would keep 
them off Tier 3, as

[[Page E564]]

well as protect children from trafficking. I earnestly hope 
implementation has been a priority.
   The Southeast Asia region continues to struggle with particularly 
acute and entrenched human trafficking. Thailand and Malaysia were 
downgraded to Tier 3 last year. Burma must receive a presidential 
waiver this year to avoid Tier 3.
   One of the key drivers of intense human trafficking in the region is 
the vulnerability and desperation of the Muslim minority Rohingya 
people. Squalid living conditions in displacement camps, 
discrimination, child limitation, and violence are pushing the Rohingya 
out of Buddhist-dominated Burma into the hands of human traffickers who 
claim to have jobs for them in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
   However, according to reports by Reuters last year, many Rohingya 
never make it to Malaysia, and instead end up in tropical gulags in the 
jungles of Thailand, where they are held for ransom. Many die from 
abuse and disease. Those who cannot pay the ransom are sold into sex 
slavery or forced labor, often in the fishing industry.
   Thai General Prayuth Chan-ocha has vowed to crack down on any Thai 
authorities involved and to bring an end to the practice. While we have 
seen an impressive number and variety of anti-trafficking efforts in 
Thailand during the last year--including a new law in March that 
heightened penalties to life imprisonment for traffickers--prosecutions 
have significantly diminished in the last year. Prosecutions regarding 
trafficking of Rohingya migrants seem particularly low.
   Nevertheless, over the last year, Thailand has taken concrete steps 
to register nearly 100,000 migrants, amend laws related to the fishing 
sector, raise the minimum age for labor at sea to 18 years old, set 
mandatory rest periods and employment contract requirements, and 
inspect hundreds of boats. And we also need to look at ourselves, and 
ask too whether we are complicit in abetting trafficking, perhaps 
unwittingly.
   Last month, for example, the Associated Press documented Thai boats 
picking up seafood in Indonesia caught by Burmese slaves who, when not 
at sea, are kept in cages on remote Indonesian islands. The seafood was 
taken back to Thai ports and processed by the company that owns Chicken 
of the Sea. Much of the tainted seafood may have entered the supply 
chain to reach the shelves of American grocery stores and, through 
vendors such as Sysco, have landed on the plates of our service men and 
women.
   There are nevertheless success stories, and Thailand has been a 
stalwart partner with the United States in fighting the sex tourism 
that drives sex trafficking. The Philippines also has worked with us in 
fighting sex tourists and helping the victims of trafficking--indeed, 
one of the witnesses we will hear from is a priest whose faith-based 
organization has helped thousands heal from the horrors of human 
trafficking.
   Finally, a word to those who think that our TIP report embarrasses 
allies and undercuts our efforts to cultivate friendly ties around the 
globe.
   I will never forget two of our closest allies, Israel and South 
Korea, at one point were both on Tier 3, the worst rank. I remember 
meeting with their Ambassadors who had files demonstrating to all of us 
and anyone who would listen the measures they were taking to mitigate 
this terrible crime. And both of those countries got off Tier 3 when 
they backed words with substantive action.
   Rather than alienating them, the exercise underscored that friends 
watch out for each other, and that we must call upon our friends to 
live up to the high ideals they profess. Ultimately, countries that do 
live up to their ideals show they value and treasure their citizens--
their greatest resource--and in the long run will benefit the most.

                          ____________________