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Viewing cable 06AMMAN1691, JORDAN'S SIXTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06AMMAN1691 2006-03-07 15:22 2011-08-26 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Amman
VZCZCXYZ0002
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #1691/01 0661522
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 071522Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8725
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHML/AMEMBASSY MANILA PRIORITY 0061
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA PRIORITY 0043
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO PRIORITY 0061
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 2206
RUEAHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAWJB/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
UNCLAS AMMAN 001691 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, NEA/RA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KCRM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN'S SIXTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 3836 
 
1. (U) Embassy point of contact on trafficking in persons is 
political officer Jonathan Peccia (grade 4), phone number 
202-536-4173, ext. 6597 or 962-6-590-6597, fax number 
962-6-592-0159. Officer spent approximately 40 hours 
preparing the report. Pol FSN spent 16 hours preparing the 
report. 
 
2. (U) The following responses reference the 
questions from the TIP report preparation cable by 
paragraph.  This information is sensitive and should 
be handled accordingly. 
 
--------- 
Checklist 
--------- 
 
3. (SBU) (21/A) Jordan is a country of destination 
for women from South Asia and South East Asia, 
primarily Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, for 
the purpose of labor exploitation.  Eastern European 
women enter Jordan for illicit purposes, but there is 
no evidence of coercion, force, or fraud.  There are 
50,000 foreign domestic workers (FDWs) estimated to 
be working in Jordan, though only 34,000 are 
registered.  The Philippine embassy reports 15,000 
Filipino workers, and in 2005 it received 1000 
complaints of abuse.  The source country embassies 
refer few of these cases to the Jordanian 
authorities.  In 2005, Jordanian police closed 16 
cases of sexual abuse against FDWs, and only 47 other 
FDWs filed complaints with the police for offenses 
ranging from slander to theft to battery.  No 
reliable system is in place to track all reported 
abuses, though the Ministry of Labor is launching in 
2006 a dedicated, stand-alone office to control and 
monitor all FDW issues, including reports of abuse. 
 
4. (SBU) (21/A) Jordan may also be a destination 
country for men from South Asia and South East Asia 
for the purposes of labor exploitation.  These men 
work primarily in factories, and may be subject to 
abuses such as extended and forced working hours, 
unpaid wages, and withholding of passports. 
 
5. (SBU) (21/A) Jordan, to a much lesser degree, may 
be a transit destination both for trafficked women 
from South and South East Asia, and for men from 
South and South East Asia.  The women would transit 
Jordan en route to other Middle East countries, such 
as Syria and Egypt, for the purpose of labor 
exploitation.  No Jordanians appear to be complicit 
in the trafficking of these women.  They would 
possess valid transit visas, and would only enter 
Jordan's airports due to the routing of flights from 
the source to the destination countries.  The men, on 
the other hand, may be brought to Jordan with the 
promise of employment within the country, only to be 
trucked overland into Iraq.  In 2005, the Ministry of 
Labor and Ministry of the Interior issued a circular 
to all border points prohibiting foreign workers from 
transiting unless their sponsor accompanies them. 
Reportedly, Jordanian middlemen are operating as 
sponsors to bypass this proclamation.  Post cannot 
estimate the extent of this practice.  Please see 
paragraph 19 for more information on transit visa 
regulations. 
 
6. (SBU) (21/B) Last year, Jordan was placed in the 
"Special Case" category because full and accurate 
data on the extent and magnitude of its trafficking 
problem was not available.  This year, that remains 
true to a large extent, though the Government of 
Jordan has made efforts to examine the problem and to 
come up with solutions.  Trafficking in Jordan is 
almost exclusively for the purpose of labor 
exploitation, and is primarily limited to FDWs coming 
from South and South East Asia.  The exploitation 
begins with the recruiting agencies in the source 
countries, but continues to the receiving agencies in 
Jordan and on to the Jordanian employers.  The FDWs 
can find themselves in conditions that include: 
extended and forced working hours, unpaid wages, 
restrictions on freedom of movement including the 
withholding of passports and residency permits, and 
verbal, physical, and sexual abuse and assault. 
These abuses occur with greater frequency when 
related to wage and working hour issues, and with 
much less frequency when related to physical or 
sexual abuse.  A common pattern that often renders 
FDWs susceptible to abuse begins when a source 
country recruiting agency drafts the FDW's resume and 
exaggerates her qualifications.  When she arrives in 
Jordan, the receiving agency is faced with the choice 
of repatriating the FDW - at a loss to the company - 
or hiring her out to Jordanian employers who expect a 
higher caliber worker.  When the employer complains 
and demands that the agency take the FDW back, the 
agency will simply find another unsuspecting 
employer.  It is not uncommon for a worker to be 
shuffled from household to household in this manner. 
Even if she does not experience the more serious 
abuses listed, she will still likely be unpaid until 
an employer agrees to accept her - a process that can 
take months. 
 
7. (SBU) (21.B) Before 2003, there were no officially 
licensed recruiting agencies in Jordan; the Ministry 
of the Interior was responsible for every facet of 
monitoring the importation of labor.  In 2003, the 
Ministry of Labor gained the authority to monitor the 
recruitment process.  Recruiting agencies must have a 
license to operate, and the agencies assumed many of 
the responsibilities that used to fall to individual 
employers.  This enables the GoJ to better monitor 
situation. 
 
8. (SBU) (21/C) The GoJ faces severe monetary 
constraints on its ability to monitor anti- 
trafficking efforts.  Additionally, Jordan's 
traditional society tends to promote a culture of 
silence and discretion with regard to matters of the 
home.  Furthermore, the most egregious of the abuses 
FDWs suffer - physical and sexual assault - are 
crimes that victims fail to report more than 50% of 
the time worldwide.  Factors such as language and 
cultural barriers also sometimes deter the reporting 
of abuse. 
 
9. (SBU) (21/C) Information-sharing between the 
source country embassies and the GoJ is poor. 
According to the GoJ, though the embassies allege 
large numbers of complaints from their FDW nationals, 
the embassies have not requested help from the GoJ or 
from the Recruiting Agencies Association, nor have 
they submitted any documentary evidence of the 
allegations. 
 
10. (SBU) (21/D) The GoJ has a well-developed police 
and court system.  Prosecutions, when they occur, are 
easy to monitor.  The steering committee driving 
anti-trafficking efforts brings together several 
ministries (Labor, Interior, Foreign Affairs, 
Justice), source country embassies, and members of 
the NGO community and the Recruiting Agencies 
Association.  Through this committee, the GoJ can 
monitor anti-trafficking efforts. 
 
---------- 
Prevention 
---------- 
 
11. (SBU) (22/A) The GoJ does acknowledge that 
trafficking is a problem in Jordan.  Jordan is mainly 
a destination country, and many within Jordanian 
society see the problems FDWs suffer as family 
matters rather than as a systemic trafficking issue. 
Withheld salaries are hard to prove in this cash 
society.  FDWs being held against their will 
consequently have no means to report their 
conditions.  All things sexual are taboo in Jordan; 
so accurate reporting of both sexual assaults and 
prostitution is hard to come by. 
 
12. (SBU) (22/A) The GoJ also contends that source 
countries and their embassies share responsibility 
for the problem. 
 
13. (SBU) (22/B) The Ministry of Labor, Ministry of 
the Interior, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are all 
involved in anti-trafficking efforts.  The three are 
part of the steering committee to combat trafficking, 
led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  However, 
most of the initiatives come from the Ministry of 
Labor. 
 
14. (SBU) (22/C) There have not been public 
government-run anti-trafficking information or 
education campaigns.  At this stage, the government 
is still learning, but does actively participate and 
patronize NGO-organized campaigns.  The government 
did, with help from UNIFEM, produce a booklet for 
distribution to all FDWs explaining their rights. 
But as of the time of this report, only a few copies 
of the booklet had been distributed. 
 
15. (SBU) (22/D) The GoJ supports other efforts to 
combat trafficking, as well as initiatives which, 
while not aimed directly at trafficking, tend to 
place sympathetic advocates in positions of 
influence, such as the quotas that boost women's 
participation in both houses of parliament.  The GoJ 
also is pursuing several initiatives to offer better 
support and greater transparency for the FDW 
community.  It recently signed a memorandum of 
understanding (MOU) with Sri Lanka to streamline the 
process by which Sri Lankan workers (approximately 
35,000 including factory workers and FDWs) gain 
employment in Jordan, and to guarantee their rights. 
Jordan has also signed MOUs with Indonesia and the 
Philippines.  Already the GoJ has endorsed a standard 
FDW contract that must be signed by the recruiting 
agency, the employer, and the employee.  The GoJ is 
in the final stages of publishing an FDW guidebook 
that the recruiting agencies will be required to 
distribute to all FDWs upon their arrival in Jordan. 
The GoJ printed the booklet in Arabic and English, 
and is now attempting to get the source country 
embassies to take responsibility to print them in the 
source country languages.  The booklets enumerate the 
worker's rights and offer hotline numbers that abused 
workers can call in the event of abuse. 
Additionally, the Ministry of Labor plans to launch 
in spring 2006 an inter-agency office that will be 
solely dedicated to FDW issues, from checking 
residency and work permits, to arbitrating salary 
disputes, to receiving complaints of abuse. 
 
16. (SBU) (22/E) The relationship between government 
officials, NGOs, other relevant organizations and 
other elements of civil society on trafficking is 
good on the working level, but still sometimes 
antagonistic.  The NGOs remain skeptical that the GoJ 
is capable of solving the problems that exist.  They 
believe that most GoJ working-level officials remain 
indifferent to trafficking and FDW abuse, and 
therefore that the ministers are still insulated from 
the true magnitude of the problem.  Conversely, the 
GoJ believes it has a firm grasp on the issue and 
that the NGO community is overstating the problem. 
However, the GoJ, NGOs, and civil society manage to 
come together for conferences to raise awareness and 
attempt to build consensus and capacity to work on 
the trafficking problem jointly.  The steering 
committee is a leading example of this cooperation. 
 
17. (SBU) (22/E) The cooperation between these 
parties has already paid dividends.  It was 
responsible for the 2003 amendment of the labor law, 
allowing the Ministry of Labor to supervise the 
recruitment of FDWs and the licensing of recruiting 
agencies.  It also resulted in the uniform employment 
contract for FDWs. 
 
18. (SBU) (22/F) The GoJ does control and monitor 
immigration patterns, but this is done more for 
security purposes than to combat trafficking.  The 
GoJ has identified training of the police and other 
security personnel who serve as border inspectors as 
an area of assistance they are interested in 
pursuing, and the Deputy Chief of Immigration at 
Jordan's Queen Alia International Airport will be 
attending the April - May 2006 Trafficking in Persons 
International Visitor Program sponsored by the USG. 
It is clear that more probing interviews at the 
airport would identify potential victims of labor 
exploitation. 
 
19. (SBU) (22/F) The GOJ requires that nationals of 
most migrant worker source countries may enter Jordan 
only after approval from the Ministry of the 
Interior.  Jordanian embassies in those countries 
also do not issue visas without MoI approval, and 
each case is individually evaluated.  Nationals of 
these "restricted" countries cannot obtain transit 
visas for Jordan unless they possess a visa for the 
destination country.  Even then, they may not enter 
Jordan for the purpose of transiting to neighboring 
countries.  Tourist visas for groups of nationals of 
restricted countries are not issued except through 
accredited Jordanian tourist offices.  All foreigners 
coming to work in Jordan need prior approval from the 
Ministry of Labor, and receive that approval only 
after the work permit is paid. 
 
20. (SBU) (22/G) There is a multilateral steering 
committee.  The committee is comprised of 
representatives from the Ministries of Labor, 
Interior, and Foreign Affairs, source country 
embassies, NGOs (UNIFEM), and the recruiting agencies 
in Jordan.  The government does have a group 
dedicated to examining corruption, which falls under 
the General Intelligence Directorate (GID). 
 
21. (SBU) (22/H) No national plan of action to 
address trafficking exists as a unified, 
comprehensive document, though various initiatives on 
different fronts are all underway, as explained 
above.  The steering committee is working on a 
comprehensive national plan.  It includes: amending 
labor legislation relating to domestic workers, their 
sponsors, recruiting agencies, and legal measures 
against violators; finding a mechanism to train a 
larger number of judicial/police officers; developing 
a mechanism to streamline the process of receiving 
complaints from FDWs; setting up a database to gather 
and register all data on FDWs; and raising awareness 
on the rights of FDWs. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
22. (SBU) (23/A) Jordanian law prohibits trafficking 
in children.  There are also anti-slavery laws and 
other legislation that can be invoked to prosecute 
and punish trafficking and related crimes.  Any 
person who, for purposes of financial gain, bribes, 
encourages, or entices another to come to or depart 
Jordan can be prosecuted under the 1929 Abolition of 
Slavery law.  It provides for the following 
punishments: 
 
- Kidnapping of domestic workers: minimum three years 
imprisonment 
- Sexual exploitation of domestic workers: not less 
than three months 
- Sexual molestation of domestic workers: not less 
than three months 
- Any attempt to force domestic workers into 
prostitution: not less than three months 
- Any intentional or unintentional physical abuse of 
domestic workers: not less than three months 
 
The law also punishes employers who withhold 
passports with the intent of compelling an FDW to 
work in violation of the terms of the contract. 
 
23. (SBU) (23/B) There is no law that specifically 
addresses traffickers of people for sexual or labor 
exploitation.  This falls under the slavery law 
explained in paragraph 22. 
 
24. (SBU) (23/C) Jordanian law provides for the death 
penalty for the rape of a girl less than 15 years of 
age.  The penalty for rape of a girl or woman 15 
years of age and older is 3 to 5 years imprisonment. 
 
25. (SBU) (23/D) Prostitution is illegal.  All 
involved parties - prostitute, brothel owner, client, 
and procurer - are subject to prosecution for 
engaging in or supporting prostitution.  The 
Jordanian national police force - the Public Security 
Directorate (PSD) - informed the Embassy that there 
are no statistics available on arrests linked to 
prostitution during the year. 
 
26. (SBU) (23/E) According to the PSD, the government 
did not charge anyone with any crime related to 
trafficking during the year.  Eight recruiting 
agencies were issued warnings for various violations, 
and another eight were closed.  As of the time of 
this report, five of those eight have reopened 
following mandatory six-month closures.  Three 
remained closed.  The recruiting agencies organized 
as a result of a 2003 amendment to the labor law. 
Agencies must front a $70,500 guarantee that they 
will conduct their work in accordance with the law. 
 
27. (SBU) (23/E) The Ministry of Labor received 250 
complaints against licensed recruiting agencies, 
mainly from employers unsatisfied with the condition 
of the imported worker.  The Ministry worked 200 of 
these complaints to conclusion; another 50 were 
referred to courts. 
 
28. (SBU) (23/E) In addition to the 16 sexual assault 
cases that the Family Protection Department of the 
national police closed during the year, another 19 
were reported.  Authorities were still investigating 
three of these, while the court system was 
adjudicating 16 others.  Eight rape cases were 
similarly at various stages of disposition at the 
time of the report. 
 
29. (SBU) (23/F) There is no evidence, anecdotal or 
otherwise, that there are organized crime syndicates 
trafficking people to or from Jordan.  Rather, the 
'traffickers' are individual recruiting agencies that 
do not uphold migrant workers' contracts, and 
employers who subject their workers to slave-like 
conditions. 
 
30. (SBU) (23/G) The GoJ does actively investigate 
cases of labor exploitation that come to its 
attention.  Unfortunately, many of the exploited FDWs 
do not feel comfortable turning to Jordanian 
authorities, and instead report the abuses to their 
embassies.  It is not clear that the embassies 
subsequently turn to the GoJ in any of these cases. 
The GoJ does not use electronic surveillance, 
undercover operations, or plea deals to actively 
investigate cases.  The GoJ, through the Ministry of 
Labor, routinely inspects recruiting agencies to 
ensure compliance with the law. 
 
31. (SBU) (23/G) Physical and sexual assault victims 
who do turn to the Jordanian authorities are referred 
to a special department within the PSD, the Family 
Protection Department (FPD).  Contacts in the GoJ 
tell us that 25% of FDW rape cases are dropped after 
the FDW changes her story to say that the sex was 
consensual.  While adultery is illegal, the law 
requires a complainant in order to file charges.  The 
amounts of shame and attention to which this would 
expose a family are considerable.  As a result, it is 
unusual for a complainant (typically the wife of the 
adulterer) to press charges.  Additionally, both 
partners in the adulterous act must be charged, 
according to the law.  The implication is that rape 
victims might be subject to payoffs or threats in 
order to convince them to change their stories and 
admit to a consensual, adulterous relationship.  The 
authorities have no grounds to pursue a rape case 
once the victim states that the sex was consensual. 
 
32. (SBU) (23/G) The FPD dealt with 16 cases of 
sexual abuse against FDWs during 2005.  The victims 
were Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Filipino. 
 
33. (SBU) (23/H) The FPD is highly trained and 
equipped to handle allegations of criminal physical 
and sexual assault. The FPD has specialists in 
forensics and counselors on hand, and employs state 
of the art interviewing equipment to ensure 
transparency in investigations.  Eight Jordanian 
police officers participated in anti-trafficking 
courses and symposiums in Greece, Turkey, and Sweden 
during 2005.  Domestically, 90 officers trained at 
the Royal Police Academy on combating smuggling 
persons; 60 officers trained in identifying 
physical/sexual abuse; and 20 officers trained 
specifically in anti-trafficking efforts. 
 
34. (SBU) (23/I) No cooperation with other 
governments in the investigation and prosecution of 
trafficking cases was reported.  The MOUs with the 
source countries should allow the GoJ to coordinate 
with those governments. 
 
35. (SBU) (23/J) Jordan does not have an extradition 
treaty with the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, or 
Nepal. 
 
36. (SBU) (23/K) No evidence exists of government 
involvement in, or tolerance of trafficking. 
 
37. (SBU) (23/L) Not applicable. 
 
38. (SBU) (23/M) Not applicable. 
 
39. (SBU) (23/N) ILO 182 - ratification 4/20/2000; 
ILO 29 - ratification 6/6/1966; ILO 105 - 
ratification 3/31/1958; Optional Protocol to the CRC 
- ratification 9/6/2000. 
 
40. (SBU) (23/N) Jordan has authorized its permanent 
envoy to the United Nations to submit the documents 
necessary to sign the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, 
and Punish Trafficking in Persons. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Protection and Assistance to Victims 
------------------------------------ 
 
41. (SBU) (24/A) The GoJ currently does not have a 
shelter established to house victims.  Some women may 
be imprisoned due to charges of theft or adultery. 
Others have sought shelter from their embassies. 
Employers are required to purchase health and life 
insurance for foreign workers. 
 
42. (SBU) (24/B) The GoJ provides operational 
expenses for the National Centre for Human Rights, 
and has offered non-financial support to NGOs such as 
UNIFEM and the International Office for Migration 
(IOM), both of which are pursuing programming to 
prevent trafficking and to support victims. 
 
43. (SBU) (24/C) No such process exists. 
 
44. (SBU) (24/D) As a matter of law, victims' rights 
are respected.  The Family Protection Department 
operates very professionally.  The same may not be 
true of local police stations, which are rumored to 
treat foreign workers harshly.  Often an employer 
will accuse an FDW of theft if the FDW approaches 
authorities to protest salary withholdings.  If 
charges are filed against an FDW, she will be 
arrested and detained.  If an FDW does not have a 
residency permit, she will be fined $2.12 for each 
day that she is out of status.  In many cases this 
fine accumulates into an amount that FDWs are 
incapable of paying, effectively preventing many from 
leaving Jordan. 
 
45. (SBU) (24/E) Potential witnesses in a court case 
are not permitted to leave Jordan.  Victims can bring 
civil suits against employers under civil law, not 
the labor law.  If the suit is under $4230, the 
plaintiff does not need to retain a lawyer.  For 
suits greater than $4230, the plaintiff must have a 
lawyer. 
 
46. (SBU) (24/F) The government may put sexual 
assault victims in protective custody in correctional 
facilities. 
 
47. (SBU) (24/G) The Family Protection Department is 
the only government facility that handles the crimes 
associated with Jordan's trafficking problems, and as 
mentioned above, they are highly trained.  The 
Ministry of Labor receives weekly training from IOM 
on a breadth of labor issues, including ILO standards 
that cover trafficking.  The Deputy Chief of 
Immigration at Jordan's Queen Alia International 
Airport will attend the Trafficking in Persons 
International Visitor Program sponsored by the USG. 
 
48. (SBU) (24/H) Not applicable. 
 
49. (SBU) (24/I) UNIFEM works closely with the GoJ 
and with local NGOs on women's rights issues, 
specifically FDWs.  UNIFEM guided the process to 
standardize the FDW work contract and to produce the 
FDW guidebook.  IOM's Jordan office is engaged in 
weekly training seminars at the Ministry of Labor. 
IOM also is attempting to raise funds to repatriate 
FDWs stranded in Jordan due to an inability to pay 
their overstay fines.  The GoJ has agreed to waive 
the fines if IOM can fund the travel. 
 
---------- 
TIP Heroes 
---------- 
 
50. (SBU) (25) Dr. Manal Mazahreh from the Human 
Rights Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
heads Jordan's trafficking in persons steering 
committee.  This requires Dr. Mazahreh to coordinate 
heavily with other ministries, NGOs, source country 
embassies, and recruiting agencies.  Additionally, 
Dr. Mazahreh is leading the committee into uncharted 
territory as the GoJ begins to use a different 
approach to address the trafficking problem in 
Jordan.  She returned no name check hits. 
RUBINSTEIN