VZCZCXRO6998
OO RUEHPB
DE RUEHC #0527/01 1622241
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 112214Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY PORT MORESBY IMMEDIATE 1738

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 STATE 060527 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG PP
SUBJECT: PAPUA NEW GUINEA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS 
GUIDANCE AND DEMARCHE 
 
REF: (A) STATE 59732 (B) STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of Papua New Guinea of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's 
imminent release.  The text of the TIP Report country 
narrative is provided, both for use in informing the 
Government of Papua New Guinea and in any local media release 
by Post's public affairs section on June 16 or thereafter. 
Drawing on information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post 
may provide the host government with the text of the TIP 
Report narrative no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday 
June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local 
time Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts.  Please note, 
however, that any public release of the Report's information 
should not/not precede the Secretary's release at 10:00 am 
EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on 
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local 
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform 
the appropriate official in the Government of Papua New 
Guinea of the June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing 
on the points in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including 
the text of the country narrative provided in para 8.  For 
countries where the State Department has lowered the tier 
ranking, it is particularly important to advise governments 
prior to the Report being released in Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of Papua New Guinea,s country narrative 
in the 2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
Papua New Guinea (Tier 3) 
-------------------------------- 
 
Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit 
country for men, women, and children trafficked for the 
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. 
Women and children are trafficked within the country for the 
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic 
servitude; men are trafficked to logging and mining camps for 
the purpose of forced labor.  Women and children from 
Malaysia, Thailand, the People,s Republic of China (PRC), 
and the Philippines are trafficked to Papua New Guinea for 
 
STATE 00060527  002 OF 005 
 
 
forced prostitution and PRC men are trafficked to the country 
for forced labor.  Chinese organized crime groups still may 
traffic some Asian women and girls through Papua New Guinea 
to Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and other countries for 
forced prostitution and forced labor, though less frequently 
than in the past.  Unique and enduring cultural practices in 
Papua New Guinea reinforce the perception of females and 
children as commodities - families often sell minor girls 
into marriages to settle their debts; tribes trade females 
for guns and political advantage; men compensate the 
relatives of a girl they have raped with a payment of pigs. 
Young girls sold into marriage are often also forced into 
domestic servitude for the husband,s extended family.  The 
majority of foreign victims voluntarily migrate to Papua New 
Guinea with valid passports and visas, lured by Chinese 
organized crime units, foreign logging companies, and Papuan 
businessmen with false offers to work as engineers, 
secretaries, cooks, and guards.  After arrival in Papua New 
Guinea, most of the female victims are coerced into 
prostitution and domestic servitude at logging and mining 
camps.  Foreign and Papuan men are more often exploited for 
labor at the camps.  They work excessive hours in dangerous 
conditions, frequently with little or no safety gear.  Many 
of these men are also compelled to continue working for the 
company indefinitely through induced debt bondage.  Employers 
escalate the victims, indebtedness to the company by cutting 
workers, agreed-upon wages, taking unjustifiable payroll 
deductions and artificially inflating prices at the only 
place in the region employees can buy food, the company 
store.  Government officials facilitate trafficking by 
accepting bribes to allow illegal migrants to enter the 
country or to ignore victims forced into prostitution or 
labor, by receiving female trafficking victims in return for 
political favors, and by providing female victims in return 
for votes. 
 
The Government of Papua New Guinea does not fully comply with 
the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and 
is not making significant efforts to do so.  The government 
acknowledges the existence of forced labor in PNG, but denies 
the widespread sex trafficking of women and children.  Some 
corrupt government and law enforcement officials accept 
bribes to ignore trafficking-related activity.  Despite 
evidence of a trafficking problem, to date no suspected 
trafficking offender has been arrested, prosecuted, or 
convicted of a human trafficking offense.  The government 
lacks a systematic procedure to identify victims of 
trafficking in vulnerable populations, such as foreign women 
or children in prostitution, and has done little to prevent 
trafficking in Papua New Guinea. 
 
Recommendations for Papua New Guinea:  Continue the process 
of drafting and enacting legislation that prohibits and 
punishes all forms of trafficking; increase collaboration 
with civil society, religious, and tribal leaders to raise 
awareness about trafficking, including the need to reduce 
demand for forced labor and commercial sex acts; investigate, 
prosecute and punish officials who facilitate or benefit from 
trafficking; develop and institute a formal procedure to 
identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups; 
ensure victims of trafficking are not arrested, deported, or 
otherwise punished for acts committed as a direct result of 
being trafficked; and train law enforcement officers on 
victim identification and protection. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Government of Papua New Guinea reported minimal progress 
in law enforcement efforts against trafficking offenders over 
the last year.  The penal code of Papua New Guinea does not 
prohibit all forms of trafficking.  Its criminal code, which 
does not prohibit the trafficking of adults, prohibits the 
trafficking of children for commercial sexual exploitation, 
slavery, and abduction.  Labor laws prohibit fraudulent 
recruiting and employment practices, and prescribe weak 
penalties for offenders.  Prostitution is prohibited in Papua 
New Guinea, but the relevant laws are either selectively or 
rarely enforced even in cases involving of children.  In 
August 2008, the Transnational Crime Unit rescued a group of 
about 20 women forced to work in prostitution at a Chinese 
restaurant; no charges were filed against their alleged 
trafficker as none of the women would cooperate with police 
investigators.  Trafficking-related crimes in rural areas 
were referred to village courts which administered customary 
law, rather than criminal law, and resolved cases through 
restitution paid to the victim, rather than through criminal 
penalties assigned to the trafficking offender.  Wealthy 
business people, politicians, and police officials who 
benefit financially from the operation of establishments 
profiting from sex trafficking were not investigated or 
prosecuted.  Most government offices and law enforcement 
agencies remained weak as the result of corruption, cronyism, 
a lack of accountability, and a promotion system based on 
 
STATE 00060527  003 OF 005 
 
 
patronage.  In 2008, the government arranged for expert 
assistance with the drafting of a comprehensive 
anti-trafficking law, and began coordinating multi-agency 
preparations and contributions to the process. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
The Government of Papua New Guinea demonstrated increasing 
efforts to protect and assist victims of trafficking.  Due to 
severe resource constraints, the government continued to rely 
on international organizations or NGOs to provide victim 
services.  The government contributed funds to a shelter for 
victims of domestic violence in Port Moresby run by an NGO, 
which could provide shelter and some legal aid to trafficking 
victims, although it did not do so during the year.  Women,s 
shelters in Port Moresby and Lae could also house foreign and 
local victims.  The Department of Health, with NGO 
assistance, set up support centers in hospitals throughout 
the country for victims of domestic violence which could 
provide trafficking victims with direct counseling and 
outpatient services, although not long-term care.  The 
government did not proactively identify trafficking victims 
among vulnerable populations.  When potential victims of 
trafficking sought assistance from the government, they were 
often jailed, and some were sexually abused by police 
officers.  Immigration inspectors routinely refused entry to 
potential trafficking victims identified at the borders. 
Other government officials, however, would more likely refer 
identified victims to social groups, churches, or NGOs for 
assistance.  Rescued victims of internal trafficking often 
received compensation payments of cash or pigs from the 
offender, which is culturally acceptable in Papua New Guinea, 
and were reluctant to then notify police and bring additional 
criminal charges against their traffickers. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
The government continued to rely on international 
organizations and NGOs for the bulk of its trafficking 
prevention activities, such as efforts to raise public 
awareness about trafficking combined with education campaigns 
on child prostitution, HIV/AIDS, and domestic violence.  The 
government increased cooperation with Australian and New 
Zealand Federal Police, as well as other international law 
enforcement and customs agencies, to draft laws, investigate, 
and prevent transnational crimes including human trafficking. 
 The government made some effort to reduce the demand for 
commercial sex acts as a way to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. 
The government acknowledged that prostitution and child 
pornography are problems that need to be addressed.  Papua 
New Guinea has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
 
STATE 00060527  004 OF 005 
 
 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion." 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
 
STATE 00060527  005 OF 005 
 
 
with local media. 
 
Q1:  Why was Papua New Guinea  again given a ranking of Tier 
3? 
 
A:  The Government of Papua New Guinea does not fully comply 
with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking 
and is not making significant efforts to do so.  The 
government acknowledges the existence of forced labor in PNG, 
but denies the wide-spread sex trafficking of women and 
children.  Some corrupt government and law enforcement 
officials accept bribes to ignore trafficking-related 
activity.  Despite evidence of a trafficking problem, to date 
no suspected trafficking offender has been arrested, 
prosecuted, or convicted of a human trafficking offense.  The 
government lacks a systematic procedure to identify victims 
of trafficking in vulnerable populations, such as foreign 
women or children in prostitution, and has done little to 
prevent trafficking in Papua New Guinea. 
 
Q2:  What is the nature of PNG,s trafficking problem? 
 
A:  Papua New Guinea is a source, destination, and transit 
country for men, women, and children trafficked for the 
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. 
Women and children are trafficked within the country for the 
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic 
servitude; men are trafficked to logging and mining camps for 
the purpose of forced labor.  Women and children from 
Malaysia, Thailand, the People,s Republic of China (PRC), 
and the Philippines are trafficked to Papua New Guinea for 
forced prostitution and PRC men are trafficked to the country 
for forced labor.  Chinese organized crime groups still may 
traffic some Asian women and girls through Papua New Guinea 
to Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and other countries for 
forced prostitution and forced labor, though less frequently 
than in the past. 
 
Q3:  How can Papua New Guinea improve its anti-trafficking 
efforts? 
 
A:  To demonstrate improved anti-trafficking efforts, the 
Government of Papua New Guinea could:  continue the process 
of drafting and enacting legislation that prohibits and 
punishes all forms of trafficking; increase collaboration 
with civil society, religious, and tribal leaders to raise 
awareness about trafficking, including the need to reduce 
demand for forced labor and commercial sex acts; investigate, 
prosecute and punish officials who facilitate or benefit from 
trafficking; develop and institute a formal procedure to 
identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups; 
ensure victims of trafficking are not arrested, deported, or 
otherwise punished for acts committed as a direct result of 
being trafficked; and train law enforcement officers on 
victim identification and protection. 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON