[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 116 (Monday, July 18, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1152-E1153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 VICTIMS IN CHINA, CUBA, MALAYSIA ILL-SERVED BY TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
                                 REPORT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 18, 2016

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act of 2000 launched a bold comprehensive public-private 
sector strategy that included sheltering, political asylum, and other 
protections for the victims; long jail sentences and asset confiscation 
for the traffickers; a myriad of preventative initiatives and tough 
sanctions for governments that failed to meet minimum standards 
prescribed in the TVPA.
   As the prime sponsor of that law, which also created the Trafficking 
in Persons (TIP) Report and tier rankings, I remain deeply disappointed 
and concerned that both last year's TIP Report and the current one gave 
passing grades to several nations with horrific records of government 
complicity in human trafficking. Falsifying a country's human 
trafficking record not only undermines the credibility of the report 
but was especially dehumanizing to the victims who suffer rape, cruelty 
and horrifying exploitation.
   The politically contrived passing grades for more than a dozen 
failing governments was exposed by a series of investigative reports by 
Reuters, which found that the professionals at the State Department's 
TIP office made one set of recommendations--only to be overruled at a 
higher level for political reasons.
   A hearing I held last week looked closely at the newly released 
Trafficking in Persons Report, which assesses and ranks 188 countries 
each year on their records of prosecuting traffickers, protecting 
victims, and preventing human trafficking.
   Sadly, this year's TIP Report has again failed many victims. Some of 
the rankings comport with the records of certain countries. Burma and 
Uzbekistan, for example, are designated Tier 3--as they should be. But 
other nations including trading partners Malaysia and China are given a 
free pass despite their horrific records of government complicity in 
human trafficking. Cuba, a dictatorship highly favored by this 
administration, is again falsely touted with a passing grade.
   China was also allowed to keep its Tier 2 Watch List ranking, 
despite the fact that the reason for their upgrade two years ago was 
found to be a fraud.
   Alexandra Harney, Jason Szep, and Matt Spetalnick of Reuters 
authored an expose on China's politicized ranking, finding that, ``Two 
years after China announced it was ending the ``re-education through 
labor'' system, extrajudicial networks of detention facilities 
featuring torture and forced labor thrive in its place.'' China had 
deceived the U.S. in 2014, and when that became apparent last year--we 
let them keep their ill-gotten upgrade in 2015, and again in 2016. I 
chair the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and based on both 
sex and labor trafficking, China deserves a Tier 3 ranking--egregious 
violator--

[[Page E1153]]

as much if not more than any other nation on the list.
   Malaysia, whose ranking was upgraded to the Tier 2 Watch List last 
year on the flimsiest of justifications and fears it would be 
disqualified from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, was allowed to 
maintain its Tier 2 Watch List ranking--despite the fact that Malaysia 
faltered in its anti-trafficking progress over the last year. In fact, 
Malaysia, a country with 4 million migrant workers, prosecuted fewer 
trafficking cases and convicted only 7 traffickers last year--that's 
less than when it was a Tier 3 country.
   Meanwhile, women from Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and 
Nepal are trafficked to China for forced marriages or sexual 
exploitation. North Korean laborers worked under conditions described 
by experts as forced or slave labor to earn income for the North Korean 
government. Prisoners of conscience and other prisoners continue to be 
held in administration detention facilities where there are numerous 
credible reports of prisoners being trafficked for the purpose of organ 
harvesting.
   The State Department must get the TIP Report right, or we will lose 
the foundational tool created to help the more than 20 million victims 
of trafficking enslaved around the world today.
   A tier ranking is about protecting vulnerable lives--lives destroyed 
or saved by the on-the-ground impact of a government's inaction or 
action.
   The easiest cases for a Tier 3 ranking should be those where the 
government itself is profiting from human trafficking, such as in Cuba, 
where thousands of Cuban medical professionals labor in dangerous 
countries not of their choosing, their passports taken, their movements 
restricted, their families and licenses threatened--and their salaries 
heavily garnished--by the Cuban government. It is not a coincidence 
that Cuban law does not recognize labor trafficking.
   Maria Werlau testified at our hearing in March that, ``. . . 
trafficking is a huge operation run by the government through numerous 
state enterprises with . . . accomplices, participants, sponsors, and 
promoters all over the world.'' Cuba is also a known destination for 
child sex tourists, and Cuba reports no convictions for child sex 
tourism.
   Yet, Cuba is ranked Tier 2 Watch List.
   We've seen many countries take a Tier 3 ranking seriously and make 
real, systemic changes that improved their tier rankings, but more 
importantly, protected trafficking victims--countries such as South 
Korea and Israel.
   When the Bush administration branded South Korea and Israel Tier 3 
based on their records, both countries enacted and implemented policies 
to combat human trafficking and were given earned upgrades for their 
verifiable actions. But other countries attempt to end-run the 
accountability system with endless, empty promises of action or mostly 
meaningless gestures of compliance.
   China sat on the Tier 2 Watch List for eight years, each year 
promising the State Department they would implement their anti-
trafficking plan. Each year, the State Department took the bait until 
Congress put a limit on the Tier 2 Watch List--two years only, unless 
the President gives the country a waiver. Well, China has once again 
promised to implement a plan--and the President just gave them a waiver 
to stay on the Watch List a third year.
   Tier rankings are about real prosecutions, real prevention, and real 
protection--for real people who are suffering as slaves. The TIP Report 
was meant to speak for the trafficking victims waiting, hoping, and 
praying for relief.
   While the 2016 TIP Report speaks for many of them, too many are 
still unheard.

                          ____________________