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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0423 1622019
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 111954Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY DOHA IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060423 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG QA
SUBJECT: QATAR -- 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 Qatar 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 Qatar 
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 Qatar 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 Qatar,s country narrative in the 2009 
TIP Report: 
 
------------------------- 
QATAR (Tier 2 Watch List) 
------------------------- 
 
Qatar is a transit and destination country for men and women 
trafficked for the purposes of involuntary servitude and, to 
a lesser extent, commercial sexual exploitation.  Men and 
women from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, the 
Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Sudan, 
Thailand, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and China voluntarily travel 
to Qatar as laborers and domestic servants, but some 
subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary 
servitude.  These conditions include threats of serious harm, 
including financial harm; job switching; withholding of pay; 
charging workers for benefits for which the employer is 
responsible; restrictions on freedom of movement, including 
the confiscation of passports and travel documents and the 
withholding of exit permits; arbitrary detention; threats of 
legal action and deportation; false charges; and physical, 
mental and sexual abuse.  One Nepali man was reportedly 
recruited for work in Qatar as a domestic servant, but was 
then coerced or forced into labor in Saudi Arabia as a farm 
worker.  Qatar is also a destination for women from China, 
Indonesia, the Philippines, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, 
India, Africa, and Eastern Europe for prostitution, but it is 
unknown how many are trafficked for the purpose of commercial 
sexual exploitation. 
 
The Government of Qatar does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so.  In 
February 2009, Qatar enacted a new migrant worker sponsorship 
law that criminalizes some practices commonly used by 
trafficking offenders, and it announced plans to use that law 
effectively to prevent human trafficking.  Senior members of 
the Qatari government have indicated their plans to finalize 
and enact a draft comprehensive law on human trafficking. 
These measures constitute significant efforts by the Qatari 
government; because they are steps that the government has 
indicated it will carry out over the coming year, Qatar is 
placed on Tier 2 Watch List.  The Qatari government in early 
2009 launched a month-long public outreach campaign that 
involved local imams advocating anti-trafficking norms and 
designed to heighten citizen awareness of trafficking in 
persons.  However, punishment for offenses related to 
trafficking in persons remains lower than that for crimes 
such as rape and kidnapping, and the Qatari government has 
yet to take significant action to investigate, prosecute, and 
punish trafficking offenses.  In addition, the government 
continues to lack formal victim identification procedures 
and, as a result, victims of trafficking are likely punished 
for acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. 
 
Recommendations for Qatar:  Enact the draft comprehensive 
anti-trafficking legislation; significantly increase efforts 
to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and 
convict and punish trafficking offenders; institute and 
consistently apply formal procedures to identify victims of 
trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as those arrested 
for immigration violations or prostitution; and abolish or 
significantly amend provisions of Qatar,s sponsorship law ) 
such as the provision requiring workers to obtain their 
sponsor,s permission to leave Qatar -- to prevent the forced 
labor of migrant workers. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Government of Qatar made modest efforts to investigate 
and prosecute trafficking offenses during the reporting 
period.  Qatar does not prohibit all acts of trafficking, but 
it criminalizes slavery under Section 321 and forced labor 
under Section 322 of its Criminal Law.  The prescribed 
penalty for forced labor ) up to six months, imprisonment 
) is not sufficiently stringent.  Article 297 prohibits the 
forced or coerced prostitution of a child below age 16; the 
prescribed penalty is up to 15 years, imprisonment, which is 
commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave 
crimes, such as rape.  In February of 2009, the Qatari 
government enacted a new sponsorship law that explicitly 
prohibited certain acts found to be common to trafficking in 
persons.  Under this new law employers face stiff penalties 
and up to three years in jail for such offenses as 
withholding employees, passports and forcing employees to 
work for people other than their sponsors.  Nonetheless, the 
government does not have any laws that specifically target 
all trafficking offenses.  During the reporting period, the 
government prosecuted two individuals under 
trafficking-related laws.  One of these resulted in the 
conviction of a foreign national for murdering a domestic 
worker, who was believed to have been subjected to conditions 
of forced labor; the defendant was sentenced to seven years, 
imprisonment.  The government provided no other evidence of 
criminally prosecuting or punishing employers or recruiters 
for forced labor or fraudulent recruitment.  Similarly, the 
government failed to report any law enforcement efforts 
against trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
Qatar failed to make significant efforts to protect victims 
of trafficking during the reporting period.  Although health 
care facilities reportedly refer suspected abuse cases to the 
government anti-trafficking shelter for investigation, the 
government continues to lack a systematic procedure for law 
enforcement to identify victims of trafficking among 
vulnerable populations such as foreign workers awaiting 
deportation and women arrested for prostitution; as a result 
victims may be punished and automatically deported without 
being offered protection.  Qatar commonly fines and detains 
potential trafficking victims for unlawful acts committed as 
a direct result of being trafficked, such as immigration 
violations and running away from their sponsors, without 
determining the underlying causes.  Some potential victims 
remain in deportation centers for several months pending 
resolution of their cases, permission from their sponsors to 
leave the country, or in retaliation for seeking to recover 
unpaid wages or request a new sponsor.  The 
government-operated shelter for victims of trafficking 
remained underutilized, although it provides some victims 
with medical, psychological, and legal assistance.  During 
the reporting period, the shelter assisted five victims in 
filing civil charges against their employers.  Qatar 
sometimes offers relief from deportation so that victims can 
testify as witnesses against their employers.  Nonetheless, 
the government did not routinely encourage victims to assist 
in trafficking investigations or consistently offer victims 
alternatives to removal to countries where they may face 
retribution or hardship. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
Qatar made significant efforts to prevent trafficking in 
persons during the reporting period.  The government 
continued to produce informational anti-trafficking brochures 
in several targeted languages, posters, and radio and TV 
commercials. In addition, a large outreach program that 
enlisted the support of local imams began in March 2009 with 
the aim of educating Qatari citizens about the moral and 
legal implications of trafficking in persons.  During the 
year, senior Qatari officials made public statements 
reflecting the government,s recognition that trafficking in 
persons is a serious problem in Qatar, though the problem was 
characterized as a phenomenon that originates in the country 
of origin rather than Qatar itself.  Qatar also tightened 
visa requirements to prevent the entry of women suspected of 
engaging in prostitution, but did not report efforts to 
distinguish these women from victims of trafficking to 
protect them.  The government did not take any other reported 
measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. 
Similarly, Qatar did not undertake any known public awareness 
campaigns targeting citizens traveling to known child sex 
tourism destinations abroad. 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
 
 
¶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 Qatar placed on Tier 2 Watch List? 
 
A:    Qatar was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List because during 
the last year its government has taken steps to draft 
comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation that it expects to 
enact in the coming year, and enacted revisions to its 
sponsorship law.   Punishment for offenses related to 
trafficking in persons, however, remains incommensurate with 
those of crimes such as rape and kidnapping, and the Qatari 
government has yet to take significant action to investigate, 
prosecute, and punish trafficking offenses.  In addition, the 
government continues to lack formal victim identification 
procedures and, as a result, victims of trafficking are 
punished for acts committed as a result of being trafficked. 
 
 
Q2:   What progress has Qatar made during the last year in 
combating trafficking? 
 
A: The Qatari government launched a month-long public 
outreach campaign in early 2009 that involved local imams 
advocating anti-trafficking norms and designed to heighten 
citizen awareness of trafficking in persons. In February 
2009, Qatar enacted a new migrant worker sponsorship law that 
criminalizes some practices commonly used by trafficking 
offenders, and it announced plans to use that law to prevent 
human trafficking.  Under this law employers face stiff 
penalties and up to three years in jail for such offenses as 
withholding employees, passports and forcing employees to 
work for people other than their sponsors.  Senior members of 
the Qatari government have indicated their plans to finalize 
and enact a draft comprehensive law on human trafficking. 
 
Q3:   What can Qatar do to further the fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
 
A: The Qatari government could: Enact the draft comprehensive 
anti-trafficking legislation; significantly increase efforts 
to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and 
convict and punish trafficking offenders;  institute and 
consistently apply formal procedures to identify victims of 
trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as those arrested 
for immigration violations or prostitution; complete 
drafting, and enact legislation that prohibits all forms of 
trafficking, including forced labor, commercial sexual 
exploitation, and the use of force, fraud, or coercion; and 
abolish or significantly amend provisions of Qatar,s 
sponsorship law that condone forced labor activities and 
slave-like conditions. 
 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON