VZCZCXYZ0019
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0355 1621931
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 111907Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY COLOMBO IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060355 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA -- 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 Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka 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 Sri Lanka,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
---------------------------- 
SRI LANKA (Tier 2 Watch List) 
---------------------------- 
 
Sri Lanka is primarily a source and, to a much lesser extent, 
a destination for men and women trafficking for the purposes 
of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.  Sri 
Lankan men and women migrate willingly to Kuwait, Jordan, 
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, 
Bahrain, and Singapore to work as construction workers, 
domestic servants, or garment factory workers.   Some of 
these workers find themselves  in situations of involuntary 
servitude when faced with restrictions on movement, 
withholding of passports, threats, physical or sexual abuse, 
and debt bondage that is, in some instances, facilitated  by 
large pre-departure fees imposed by labor recruitment 
agencies and their unlicensed sub-agents.  Children are 
trafficked within the country for commercial sexual 
exploitation and, very infrequently, for forced labor.  The 
designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, Liberation Tigers 
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to recruit, sometimes 
forcibly, children for use as soldiers in areas outside of 
the Sri Lankan government,s control.  Government security 
forces may be complicit in letting a breakaway LTTE faction 
that has aligned itself with the government, to unlawfully 
recruit child soldiers, sometimes with force.  A small number 
of women from Thailand, China, and Russia, and other 
countries of the former Soviet Union may be trafficked into 
Sri Lanka for commercial sexual exploitation. 
 
Sri Lanka does not fully comply with the minimum standards 
for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making 
significant efforts to do so.  Despite these overall efforts, 
the government has not shown evidence of progress in 
convicting and punishing trafficking offenders; therefore, 
Sri Lanka is placed on Tier 2 Watch List.  While the Sri 
Lankan government did not achieve any convictions of 
trafficking offenders, it arrested 29 alleged traffickers and 
started prosecutions against ten people for 
trafficking-related offenses, an increase from the previous 
year when no one was arrested or prosecuted for 
trafficking-related crimes.  It also drafted a national 
policy on migration that promises to prevent the trafficking 
of Sri Lankan migrants and it developed a national 
anti-trafficking task force that should become operational in 
the coming year. 
 
Recommendations for Sri Lanka:  Vigorously investigate and 
prosecute suspected trafficking offenses and convict and 
punish trafficking offenders, particularly those responsible 
for recruiting victims with fraudulent offers of employment 
and excessive commission fees; follow through with the 
creation of the national anti-trafficking task force; develop 
and implement through training of law enforcement personnel 
formal victim referral procedures; and ensure that victims of 
trafficking found within Sri Lanka are not detained or 
otherwise penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct 
result of their being trafficked. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
Although the Government of Sri Lanka made strides in arrests 
and prosecutions of alleged traffickers, it did not 
demonstrate adequate law enforcement efforts in addressing 
human trafficking cases over the reporting period.  Sri Lanka 
prohibits all forms of trafficking through an April 2006 
amendment to its penal code, which prescribes punishments of 
up to 20 years, imprisonment; these penalties are 
sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed 
for other grave offenses, such as rape.  While the government 
conducted over 400 raids of fraudulent foreign recruiting 
agencies and took legal action against 80 of them )  which 
resulted in their licenses being suspended and the initiation 
of two prosecutions ) the majority had not yet been 
prosecuted criminally for trafficking-related offenses.  The 
government canceled the licenses of 32 agencies and imposed 
fines on them.  The police made 29 arrests of suspected 
trafficking offenders under the 2006 anti-trafficking 
statute.  In addition, the Attorney General,s Department has 
started prosecutions against 12 people for 
trafficking-related offenses.  There were no reported 
trafficking convictions during the reporting period. 
 
The Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE), which is 
responsible for regulating foreign employment agencies and 
protecting Sri Lankan workers going abroad, developed a 
ranking system that would publicly grade all employment 
agencies based inter alia on the number of complaints the 
SLBFE receives relating to each agency, the number of legal 
cases against each, and the time each takes to resolve 
disputes with workers.  This ranking system will be available 
on a website, but has not yet been finalized.  The Attorney 
General began drafting a circular that would advise police to 
identify possible trafficking victims among women they detain 
for prostitution; this too has not yet been finalized.   In 
collaboration with IOM, the police added a trafficking 
training module to the standard police curriculum used to 
train all new police recruits, as well as adding the 
curricula of two in-service police training institutes; so 
far, 520 police officers have received training on the new 
trafficking module. 
 
Following the November 2007 repatriation of 118 Sri Lankan 
peacekeepers from Haiti because of accusations that some of 
them had engaged in sexual misconduct, including possible 
exploitation of children, a Sri Lankan military court found 
23 officers and soldiers guilty of sexual misconduct and 
abuse of children.  During the last year, two of the officers 
were forced out of the military and one solider was 
discharged, while two other soldiers subsequently died in 
military action within Sri Lanka.  Punishment for the 
remaining eight officers and ten soldiers has not yet been 
reported. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
The government made some efforts to provide victims with 
necessary protection directly and ensure they received access 
to protective services provided by NGOs or international 
organizations. The government continued to provide limited 
counseling and day care for child victims of trafficking ) 
through the operation of six resource centers run by the 
National Child Protection Authority (NCPA).  In addition, the 
SLBFE runs an overnight shelter for international trafficking 
victims returning from overseas at Sri Lanka,s only 
international airport.  The Commissioner General for 
Rehabilitation, with the assistance of the NCPA, operated two 
rehabilitation centers specifically for children involved in 
armed conflict. 
 
Although government personnel did not employ formal 
procedures for proactively identifying victims and referring 
them to service providers, some ad hoc referrals were made 
during the year.  Police did not attempt to identify 
trafficking victims among 16 foreign women who were arrested 
on prostitution charges during the year; all were placed in 
detention until they could pay for their departure from Sri 
Lanka.  The government provided no legal alternatives for the 
removal of foreign victims to countries where they may face 
hardship or retribution.  Authorities encouraged victims to 
participate in investigations and prosecutions of trafficking 
offenders, though sex trafficking victims rarely came forward 
to cooperate with police and prosecutors out of fear that 
doing so would damage their reputations.  The slow pace of 
the Sri Lankan judicial system provided a strong disincentive 
to come forward.   The government generally did not penalize 
victims of trafficking for unlawful acts committed as a 
direct result of their being trafficked, though some sex 
trafficking victims could have been penalized because the 
government failed to identify them among persons arrested for 
prostitution offenses.  Victims who were employed abroad may 
seek assistance from the SLBFE.  The SLBFE collected fees 
from registered workers who went abroad, which were used to 
run shelters abroad, as well as domestically at the 
international airport. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
The Sri Lankan government undertook modest efforts on 
trafficking prevention during the last year.  The government 
conducted several trafficking awareness-raising activities, 
including the Women and Children,s Bureau of the Police,s 
sponsorship of a series of television docudramas that 
highlighted violence and crime against women and children, 
including the sex trafficking of Sri Lankan women and girls. 
 The SLBFE launched an awareness campaign in October 2008 to 
inform the public of the dangers of using non-registered 
employment agencies.  The Ministry of Foreign Employment 
Promotion and Welfare developed a National Policy on 
Migration and presented it to the parliament for 
consideration.  Among other things, this policy seeks to 
better protect Sri Lankan workers abroad.  The government 
continued plans started in 2007 to develop an inter-agency 
anti-trafficking task force, to be coordinated by the 
Secretary of the Ministry of Child Development and Women,s 
Empowerment, though the task force has not yet been launched. 
 The government showed some efforts to reduce demand for 
commercial sex acts during the year. 
 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶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 
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 
with local media. 
 
Q1: Why was Sri Lanka again placed on Tier 2WL? 
 
A: Sri Lanka was placed on Tier 2WL because it did not show 
evidence of progress in prosecuting human trafficking 
offenses and punishing trafficking offenders over the last 
year.   While the government conducted over 400 raids of 
fraudulent foreign recruiting agencies and took 
administrative action against 80 of them none were prosecuted 
criminally for trafficking-related offenses. 
 
Q2: What progress has Sri Lanka made in the last year? 
 
A:    While the Sri Lankan government did not achieve any 
convictions of trafficking offenders, it arrested 29 alleged 
traffickers and started prosecutions against ten people for 
trafficking-related offences. It also drafted a national 
policy on migration that promises to prevent the trafficking 
of Sri Lankan migrants and it developed a national 
anti-trafficking task force that should become operational in 
the coming year.  The Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment 
(SLBFE), which is responsible for regulating foreign 
employment agencies and protecting Sri Lankan workers going 
abroad, developed a ranking system that would publicly grade 
all employment agencies based inter alia on the number of 
complaints the SLBFE receives relating to each agency, the 
number of legal cases against each, and the time each takes 
to resolve disputes with workers.  In addition the SLBFE 
currently runs an overnight shelter for international 
trafficking victims returning from overseas at Sri Lanka,s 
only international airport.  The Commissioner General for 
Rehabilitation, with the assistance of the NCPA, operated two 
rehabilitation centers specifically for children involved in 
armed conflict. 
 
Q3:   What can Sri Lanka do to improve its fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
 
A:  The Sri Lanka government could:  Vigorously investigate 
and prosecute suspected trafficking offenses and convict and 
punish trafficking offenders, particularly those responsible 
for recruiting victims with fraudulent offers of employment 
and excessive commission fees; follow through with the 
creation of the national anti-trafficking task force; develop 
and implement through training of law enforcement personnel 
formal victim referral procedures; punish with criminal 
sanctions those peacekeeping soldiers and officers found 
guilty of sexually exploiting children in foreign countries; 
and ensure that victims of trafficking found within Sri Lanka 
are not detained or otherwise penalized for unlawful acts 
committed as a direct result of their being trafficked. 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON