VZCZCXYZ0003
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0437 1622028
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 112004Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060437 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG BX
SUBJECT: BRUNEI -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND 
DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 
     ¶B. (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 Brunei 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 Brunei 
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 Brunei 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 Brunei,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
BRUNEI (TIER 2) 
-------------------------------- 
Brunei is a destination country for men and women trafficked 
for the purpose of forced labor and commercial sexual 
exploitation.   Brunei is mainly a destination country for 
men and women recruited from Indonesia, Malaysia, the 
Philippines, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the People,s 
Republic of China (PRC), and Thailand for domestic or 
low-skilled labor.  A limited number of the 88,000 foreign 
workers in Brunei face poor labor conditions that amount to 
involuntary servitude.  There were credible reports of a 
limited number of nationals from Asian countries working for 
little or no pay for up to two years to pay back foreign 
recruitment agents.  Many of the 25,000 female domestic 
workers in Brunei were required to work exceptionally long 
hours without being granted a day for rest, creating an 
environment highly conducive to involuntary servitude. 
There were isolated instances of women forced into 
prostitution in Brunei, and there were also isolated reports 
that women arrested for prostitution attested to having been 
victims of trafficking. 
 
The Government of Brunei does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so.   While 
the government has laws to prosecute trafficking, it did not 
investigate, prosecute, or convict any offenders of 
trafficking during the reporting period.  The government did 
not identify any victims of trafficking in 2008. 
 
Recommendations for Brunei:  Enforce the 2004 
anti-trafficking in persons law by investigating and 
prosecuting sex trafficking and labor trafficking offenses 
and convicting and punishing trafficking offenders; adopt a 
proactive, comprehensive system to formally identify victims 
of trafficking among vulnerable groups such as foreign 
workers and foreign women and children in prostitution; train 
law enforcement, immigration, and prosecutors on the use of 
the anti-trafficking law;  and implement a visible 
anti-trafficking awareness campaign directed at employers of 
foreign workers. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The government did not demonstrate significant 
anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the reporting 
period.  The Government of Brunei prohibits sex and labor 
trafficking in its Trafficking and Smuggling Persons Order of 
2004, which prescribes penalties of up to 30 years, 
imprisonment - penalties that are sufficiently stringent and 
commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious 
offenses; however, there have never been any prosecutions 
under this order.  There were no trafficking cases 
investigated by Brunei authorities during the reporting 
period and there were no complaints or allegations of 
trafficking filed.  Foreign workers, complaints of 
exploitation, such as contract switching and non-payment of 
salaries, are usually tried under the Labor Act, which 
carries administrative penalties.  The Department of Labor 
regularly investigates foreign workers, labor complaints 
such as job switching, salary deductions for recruitment 
fees, salary based on false promises, and high recruitment 
fees paid by the prospective employee - though it did not 
identify any cases of trafficking among them. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
Brunei did not demonstrate significant efforts to protect and 
assist trafficking victims this year.  While the Brunei 
Immigration Department questions foreign workers during 
immigration raids to identify possible trafficking victims, 
Brunei does not have a proactive, comprehensive system to 
formally identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable 
groups, such as foreign workers and foreign women and 
children in prostitution.  Although immigration authorities 
actively identified violators of immigration law, the 
government did not identify any trafficking victims during 
the reporting period.  Although it is illegal for employers 
in Brunei to withhold wages of their domestic servants for 
more than 10 days, a few families are known to withhold wages 
to compensate for recruitment fees they are charged by 
overseas recruitment agencies.  Most labor laws apply only to 
citizens of Brunei, and currently fail to protect skilled and 
unskilled foreign workers from exploitation.  While there are 
no foreign NGOs or international organizations in Brunei to 
provide victim support, the embassies of several source 
countries provide shelter, mediation, and immigration support 
services to their nationals, in coordination with the Brunei 
government. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
Brunei demonstrated limited prevention efforts during the 
reporting period.  In 2008, the Brunei police ran an internal 
workshop for members of the anti-vice unit on how to identify 
trafficking victims.  Law enforcement officials participate 
in several regional training programs on trafficking.  The 
government provides arrival briefings for foreign workers, 
inspects worker facilities, and runs a telephone hotline for 
worker complaints.   It is an offence under the Labor Act for 
any local agency to charge foreign workers recruitment fees 
or to withhold a salary to recoup foreign worker processing 
fees.   Although the government forbade wage deductions to 
agencies or sponsors and mandated that employees receive 
their full salaries, foreign workers continued to pay high 
fees to overseas recruitment agents to obtain work in Brunei. 
  During the reporting period, there were 135 complaints by 
foreign workers against employers who failed to pay salaries. 
 Seventeen of the complaints by domestic workers and 73 of 
the complaints by workers in other fields were resolved, 
largely through mediation; the remaining complaints are still 
under investigation.  The Government of Brunei has not 
conducted public awareness campaign programs on trafficking. 
Brunei 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 Brunei ranked in the TIP Report this year?  Why 
was it given a ranking of Tier 2? 
 
A:In prior years, TIP Reports, a "significant number" 
(defined to be 100 or more) of trafficking victims had to be 
documented for a country to be ranked in the TIP Report.  The 
William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection 
Reauthorization Act of 2008 eliminated this requirement, 
thereby expanding the scope of countries included in this 
year,s Report.  Brunei was part of that expansion. 
Brunei was placed on Tier 2 because it does not comply with 
the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so. 
 
Q2: What progress has Brunei made during the last year in 
combating trafficking? 
A: In 2008, the Brunei police ran an internal workshop for 
members of the anti-vice unit on how to identify trafficking 
victims.  Law enforcement officials participate in several 
regional training programs on trafficking.  The government 
provides arrival briefings for foreign workers, inspects 
worker facilities, and runs a telephone hotline for worker 
complaints. 
 
Q3: What can Brunei do to improve its fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
A:   The Government of Brunei government could:  enforce the 
2004 anti-trafficking in persons law by investigating and 
prosecuting sex trafficking and labor trafficking offenses 
and convicting and punishing trafficking offenders; adopt a 
proactive, comprehensive system to formally identify victims 
of trafficking among vulnerable groups such as migrant 
workers and foreign women and children in prostitution; train 
law enforcement, immigration, and prosecutors on the use of 
the anti-trafficking law; and implement a visible 
anti-trafficking awareness campaign directed at employers of 
foreign workers. 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON