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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0360 1621937
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O 111913Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY COLOMBO IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060360 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG SIPDIS MV
SUBJECT: THE MALDIVES -- 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 Maldives 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 
Maldives 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 Maldives 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 Maldives,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
 
-------------------- 
THE MALDIVES (Tier 2) 
-------------------- 
 
The Maldives is primarily a destination country for migrant 
workers from Bangladesh and India trafficked into forced 
labor and, to a lesser extent, a destination country for 
women trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual 
exploitation.  An unknown number of the 80,000 foreign 
workers currently working in the Maldives ) primarily in the 
construction and service sectors )face fraudulent 
recruitment practices, confinement, confiscation of identity 
and travel documents, debt bondage, or general slave-like 
conditions.   Twenty thousand of these workers do not have 
legal status in the country, yet both legal and illegal 
workers were vulnerable to conditions of forced labor.  While 
some migrant workers have paid agents up to $4,000 for the 
opportunity to work in the Maldives, most pay $2,000; these 
high fees may create vulnerabilities for debt bondage, as 
noted in a recent ILO report on forced labor.  A small number 
of women from Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, and China 
reportedly are trafficked to Male, the capital, for purposes 
of commercial sexual exploitation.  A small number of 
underage Maldivian girls reportedly are trafficked to Male 
from other islands for domestic servitude.  Trafficking 
offenders usually fall into two groups:  wealthy families 
that subject domestic servants to forced labor; and some of 
the 200 registered employment agents who bring low-skilled 
migrant workers to the Maldives under false terms of 
employment and subject them to conditions of forced labor 
upon arrival. 
 
The Government of the Maldives does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so.  During 
the reporting period, the government acknowledged the human 
trafficking problem on the Maldives and began taking steps to 
confront it effectively, though overall efforts were 
insufficient. 
 
Recommendations for The Maldives:  Draft and enact 
legislation prohibiting and punishing all forms of 
trafficking in persons; develop and implement systematic 
procedures for government officials to identify victims of 
trafficking among vulnerable groups such as undocumented 
migrants and women in prostitution; ensure that identified 
victims of trafficking are provided necessary assistance and 
are not penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct 
result of their being trafficked; increase efforts to 
investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and convict 
and sentence trafficking offenders; raise public awareness to 
human trafficking through media campaigns; and take steps to 
ensure that employers and labor brokers are not abusing labor 
recruitment or sponsorship processes in order to subject 
migrant workers to forced labor. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Government of the Maldives undertook minimal 
anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the last 
year.  Although the Maldives does not have an anti-human 
trafficking law, its constitution prohibits forced labor and 
slavery and some laws covering sexual offenses and child 
protection can be used to prosecute sex trafficking and child 
trafficking offenses.  The sexual offenses statute ) Section 
173 of the Rules of Procedure adopted in February 2008 ) 
prescribes penalties of up to 15 years, imprisonment, which 
are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those 
prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape.  While 
overall awareness of the Maldives, trafficking problem 
seemed low among law enforcement personnel, the government 
provided them with some training in the recognition of 
trafficking victims.  These officials, however, did not 
vigorously investigate possible cases of labor trafficking. 
The government prosecuted one case of forced labor during the 
year.  A migrant worker had been chained in a small room for 
days and let out only for work; his employer was convicted 
and sentenced to only four months, imprisonment.  A case of 
suspected transnational sex trafficking was investigated, but 
the case was dropped due to lack of evidence. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
The Maldivian government made no discernable efforts to 
identify or assist victims of trafficking for labor 
exploitation.  Over the year, there were reported cases of 
foreign workers suffering from conditions of fraudulent 
recruitment, confinement, withheld pay, physical abuse, poor 
living conditions, and even debt bondage; however, 
authorities, efforts to identify trafficking victims among 
these exploited workers were weak.   The government provided 
no services, such as shelter, counseling, medical care, or 
legal aid, to foreign or Maldivian victims of trafficking. 
When workers in distress sought assistance from the 
government, they were returned to their countries of origin, 
as the government lacked adequate resources to support them. 
 The government,s general policy for dealing with 
trafficking victims was to get them out of the country as 
quickly as possible, noting that deportation is less costly 
than incarceration.  Two foreign women identified by police 
as sex trafficking victims in 2008 were provided temporary 
shelter before being repatriated with the help of their home 
country,s diplomatic mission in Male; there was no criminal 
prosecution related to their exploitation.  There were no 
reported investigations of internal trafficking of Maldivian 
or transnational sex trafficking.  Authorities did not 
encourage victims to participate in the investigation or 
prosecution of trafficking offenses and did not provide 
foreign victims with legal alternatives to their removal to 
countries where they might face hardship or retribution.  The 
government did not ensure that victims of trafficking were 
not penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result 
of their being trafficked, though there were no reports 
during the reporting period of the government deliberately 
punishing trafficking victims. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
The Maldivian government made minimal efforts to prevent 
human trafficking over the reporting period.  The government 
conducted one anti-trafficking informational campaign, 
however, in January 2008, which attempted to educate the 
public on the provisions of the 2008 Employment Law.  Various 
government ministries and agencies lacked any mechanism ) 
such as a committee or plan of action ) for coordination on 
anti-trafficking matters.  However, various ministries were 
in frequent contact and relied on their personal 
relationships rather than a formal mechanism for contact. 
The government did not take any measures to reduce the 
substantial demand for forced labor on the islands, though it 
did start operations of a Labor Tribunal that will address 
the main form of trafficking in the country.  The Maldives 
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 
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 Maldives placed on the TIP Report this year? 
Why was it ranked Tier 2? 
 
A:   The Maldives was placed on the TIP Report for the first 
time because there is reliable information that it is a 
country of origin, transit, or destination for victims of 
severe forms of trafficking.    The Government of the 
Maldives does not fully comply with the minimum standards for 
the elimination of trafficking, though it is making 
significant efforts to do so.  The government has 
acknowledged the human trafficking problem facing the 
Maldives and it began taking steps to confront it 
effectively. 
 
Q2:   In what areas of anti-trafficking intervention is 
Maldives weak? 
 
A:  The government,s general policy for dealing with 
trafficking victims was to get them out of the country as 
quickly as possible, noting that deportation is less costly 
than incarceration. There were no reported investigations of 
internal trafficking of Maldivian or transnational sex 
trafficking.  Various government ministries and agencies 
lacked any mechanism ) such as a committee or plan of action 
) for coordination on anti-trafficking matters. The 
Government of the Maldives undertook minimal anti-trafficking 
law enforcement efforts during the last year. 
 
Q3:   What can Maldives do to improve its fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
 
A:    The Maldives government could: Draft and enact 
legislation prohibiting and punishing all forms of 
trafficking in persons; develop and implement systematic 
procedures for government officials to identify victims of 
trafficking among vulnerable groups such as undocumented 
migrants and women in prostitution; ensure that identified 
victims of trafficking are provided necessary assistance and 
are not penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct 
result of their being trafficked; increase efforts to 
investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and convict 
and sentence trafficking offenders; raise public awareness to 
human trafficking through media campaigns; and take steps to 
ensure that employers and labor brokers are not abusing labor 
recruitment or sponsorship processes in order to subject 
migrant workers to forced labor. 
 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON