[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 127 (Thursday, August 6, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6432-S6433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      COMBATING HUMAN TRAFFICKING

 Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss one of the 
great moral challenges of our time--human trafficking. The term human 
trafficking involves crimes of forced labor, sexual exploitation, debt 
bondage, forced marriage, and the sale and exploitation of children. 
Trafficking in persons destroys people and corrodes communities. It 
distorts labor markets and undermines stability and the rule of law. It 
is fueled by greed, violence, and corruption.
  There are at least 21 million victims of human trafficking in the 
world--and over 5 million of them are children, according to the 
International Labor Organization, ILO. Forced labor alone generates 
more than $150 billion in profits annually, making it one of the 
largest income sources for international criminals, second only to drug 
trafficking. Trafficking victims range from women enslaved as domestic 
workers in countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Singapore to Nepali 
construction workers building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. 
It also ensnares Rohingya and Cambodian men and boys on Thai fishing 
boats working to put fish in European and American grocery stores. It 
includes countless Venezuelan women and girls, some lured from poor 
towns in the interior to urban centers, who are then subjected to sex 
trafficking. Even in our own country, cases of human trafficking have 
been reported in all 50 States.
  Traffickers take advantage of conflict, the collapse of state 
institutions, and even natural disasters--like the recent earthquake in 
Nepal--to prey on vulnerable civilians. We are witnessing terrorist 
groups like ISIL and Boko Haram that proudly build their ``states'' on 
the trade in and enslavement of women and children.
  There has been some progress. This year marks the 15th anniversary of 
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The TVPA, and the annual 
Trafficking In Persons, TIP, Report it mandates, have played a major 
role in raising global awareness of human trafficking and galvanizing 
both civil society and governments to address both labor and sex 
trafficking crimes. The report analyzes the efforts of foreign 
governments, and our own, to comply with minimum standards for the 
elimination of trafficking in persons, as set out by the TVPA.
  The TIP Report has been widely regarded as the ``gold standard'' for 
trafficking information, and as an essential tool for ensuring 
continued progress against the scourge of human trafficking. The value 
of the TIP Report, and the United States' credibility on this critical 
issue, relies heavily on the integrity of that report.
  On Monday, July 27, the Department of State released the 2015 TIP 
Report. I have great respect for the small, dedicated staff at the 
Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking, as well 
as our numerous embassies around the world that help collect credible 
information for the report. Nevertheless, I was struck by the strong 
response to the 2015 report by outside country experts and frontline 
advocates who have worked in the trenches on human trafficking for 
years. They raised significant questions about the integrity and 
neutrality of the 2015 TIP Report and the decision to upgrade 
Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, and Malaysia, among others. We need to 
listen carefully to their views.
  Of particular concern is the upgrade of Malaysia, which I want to 
discuss briefly. Malaysia has a serious human trafficking problem, 
which is why the State Department downgraded Malaysia last year to a 
Tier 3 country in the TIP Report, a level that includes the worst human 
trafficking offenders in the world. In Malaysia, the use of forced 
labor is pervasive in agriculture, construction, electronics, and 
textile industries, and the sex trade industry.
  This year, the State Department upgraded Malaysia to the Tier 2 Watch 
List on the grounds that the government had made significant efforts to 
comply with the minimum standards to combat human trafficking. Those 
efforts by the government included beginning to reform its flawed 
victim protection regime, along with its legal framework, and 
consultations with

[[Page S6433]]

civil society. The Malaysian authorities increased the number of 
investigations and prosecutions--although the low number of convictions 
remained disproportionate to the scale of the problem. The 2015 TIP 
Report states that the Malaysian Government had three convictions of 
traffickers in 2014, a substantial decrease from the nine convictions 
reported in the 2014 TIP Report.
  While Malaysia has taken small steps that seem to indicate some 
recent progress, these steps do not appear to me to be sufficient to 
justify an upgrade. Evidence of the trafficking problems in Malaysia 
continued outside of the 2015 TIP reporting period, which ended on 
March 31, 2015. For example, in May 2015, mass graves believed to 
contain bodies of 139 Rohingya trafficking victims were found in 
abandoned jungle camps along Malaysia's northern border, along with 
pens likely used as cages for the victims.
  Malaysia is a party to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP, 
negotiations. The juxtaposition of the administration's pursuit of the 
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in the case of Malaysia and the 
upgrade of Malaysia's TIP tier ranking at the same time has raised 
concerns among some observers regarding the integrity and veracity of 
the 2015 ranking process.
  I look forward to hearing more from the administration in the days 
ahead about the considerations taken into account for the TIP ranking 
process and, in particular, the decision to upgrade Malaysia. That is 
why Chairman Corker and I scheduled a hearing on this issue in the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
  Archibald MacLeish, the writer and former Librarian of Congress, 
said:

       There are those who will say that the liberation of 
     humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a 
     dream. They are right. It is the American Dream.

  We owe it to the millions of men, women, and children around the 
world who suffer from the horrifying depredations of modern slavery to 
maintain America's leadership, reputation, and resolve in the fight 
against human trafficking.

                          ____________________