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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0473 1622059
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 112031Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060473 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG BE
SUBJECT: BELGIUM -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND 
DEMARACHE 
 
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 Belgium 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 Belgium 
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 Belgium 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 Belgium,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
-------------------------------- 
 
BELGIUM (Tier 1) 
 
Belgium is a destination and transit country for men, women, 
and girls trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and 
commercial sexual exploitation.  Women and girls are 
trafficked to Belgium for sexual exploitation primarily from 
Nigeria, Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, the People,s 
Republic of China (PRC), and through Belgium to other 
European countries, such as the United Kingdom. Male victims 
are trafficked to Belgium for labor exploitation in 
restaurants, bars, sweatshops, horticulture, fruit farms, and 
construction sites.  According to Belgian immigration, the 
number of foreign unaccompanied minors entering the country 
increased by 14 percent in 2007 compared to 2006.  The 
government determined that 9 of these minors were victims of 
trafficking, compared to 14 of 1752 unaccompanied minors who 
entered in 2006.  The government and NGOs reported two new 
trends in 2008:  an increase in the number of forced labor 
cases, and sex trafficking increasingly disguised by 
businesses including massage parlors, escort services, and 
the Internet.  The trafficking of workers for domestic 
servitude and trafficking for sexual exploitation continued 
to be committed by some members of the international 
diplomatic community posted in Belgium.  The Belgian 
government has conducted campaigns to reduce this problem and 
investigates such cases. 
 
The Government of Belgium fully complies with the minimum 
standards for the elimination of trafficking. The government 
developed a directive to improve the identification and 
referral of trafficking victims and financed NGOs to provide 
comprehensive victim assistance.  The government financed 
victim shelters providing the full spectrum of services and 
protections to victims.  The government and royal foundation 
funded several NGOs that conducted prevention campaigns. 
Recommendations for Belgium:  Improve the collection of 
comprehensive anti-trafficking law enforcement data, 
including numbers of prosecutions and convictions for forced 
labor and trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, 
along with corresponding sentencing data, and numbers of 
government-assisted repatriations; consider training for 
officials who may encounter trafficking victims that focuses 
on the needs of victims. 
Prosecution 
------------ 
Belgium prohibits all forms of trafficking through a 2005 
amendment to its 1995 Act Containing Measures to Repress 
Trafficking in Persons.  As amended, the law,s maximum 
prescribed sentence for all forms of trafficking -- 30 
years, imprisonment -- is sufficiently stringent and 
commensurate with penalties prescribed for rape.  In 2007, 
the most recent year for which data were available, the 
government reported 1,204 trafficking investigations. 
Authorities reported prosecuting and obtaining the 
convictions of 223 trafficking offenders, compared to 238 
prosecuted and convicted in 2006.  In 2007, the government 
reported that seventy percent of convicted traffickers 
received prison sentences ranging from one year to more than 
10 year,s jail time.  It is unclear how many of these cases 
involved forced labor and how many involved trafficking for 
commercial sexual exploitation. 
In July 2008, Belgian authorities opened investigations of 
seven members of the royal family of Abu Dhabi (UAE) for 
trafficking 17 girls reportedly from Indonesia, Turkey, 
Egypt, Syria, India, Iraq, Morocco and the Philippines for 
domestic servitude while staying at a Brussels hotel; 11 of 
these victims were subsequently granted victim status by 
Belgian authorities.  However, the implicated sheikha and 
seven other family members have since left the country.   The 
investigation remains ongoing.  In January 2009, Belgian 
authorities arrested and charged nine suspects involved in 
the trafficking of 17 Thai women in massage parlors; one of 
the arrestees was an employee of the Ministry of Justice. 
NGOs reported blatant exploitation of undocumented Bulgarian 
women by human trafficking networks in Brussels and also 
claimed that some officials abused their positions to obtain 
sexual services from possible victims.  One NGO indicated 
that judges and other officials could benefit from increased 
anti-trafficking trafficking training. 
Protection 
---------- 
The government improved its capacity to identify and protect 
trafficking victims during the reporting period.  In 
September 2008, the government issued an interagency 
directive on coordination and assistance to trafficking 
victims, which included procedures on identification of 
victims and their referral to shelters.  The government 
continued to fund three NGOs that sheltered and provided 
comprehensive assistance to trafficking victims in 2008. 
During the reporting period, 495 adults were referred to the 
three specialized shelter centers, compared to a total of 619 
persons registered the previous year.  Of those 495 people, 
202 were identified as potential trafficking victims. 
Forty-seven victims qualified for full victim status in 2008, 
compared to 62 qualifying in 2007.  In 2008, an additional 
122 victims received permanent residency permits, even though 
they did not receive final victim status.  Belgian law allows 
the provision of extendable temporary residence status and 
permanent residence status to victims who participated in 
trafficking investigations and prosecutions.  Residence can 
be granted before an investigation is completed at judicial 
discretion; residency can also be granted even without a 
successful prosecution.  Children who were victims of 
trafficking reportedly were granted three months in which to 
decide whether to testify against their traffickers.  If they 
did not qualify for victim status, they may still have 
qualified for protection under the government,s rules for 
unaccompanied minors.  Victims who served as witnesses in 
court were entitled to seek legal employment during the trial 
process.  Identified victims were not inappropriately 
incarcerated, fined, or penalized for unlawful acts committed 
as a direct result of being trafficked. 
Prevention 
---------- 
In 2008, the Belgian government demonstrated progress in its 
anti-trafficking prevention efforts.  The Belgian government 
funds all domestic NGOs involved in combating human 
trafficking in Belgium.  Demand reduction and prevention are 
two main objectives of the 2008-2011 Belgian National 
Anti-Trafficking Plan.  The government funds websites and 
conducts campaigns to reduce demand.  "Stop Child 
Prostitution" is a particularly noteworthy ongoing campaign 
sponsored by the government-funded NGOs Child Focus, ECPAT, 
FIT, the Federal Police, and the Ministries of Defense and 
Foreign Affairs.  The Royal King Baudouin Foundation has 
funded campaigns aimed at the situation of diplomatic 
household personnel.  The Center to Combat Racism and 
Discrimination and the three trafficking victim shelters 
participated in the European Anti-Trafficking Day awareness 
campaign.  Belgian law allows for the prosecution of Belgian 
nationals for child abuse crimes committed abroad.  The 
government provided specific anti-trafficking training to 
Belgian troops before they were deployed on international 
peacekeeping missions. 
-------------------------------- 
 
 
¶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 Belgium given a ranking of Tier 1? 
 
A: The Government of Belgium fully complies with the minimum 
standards for the elimination of trafficking. 
 
Q2: What progress has Belgium made in the past year? 
 
¶A.  The government developed a directive to improve the 
identification and referral of trafficking victims and 
financed NGOs to provide comprehensive victim assistance.  In 
addition, the government and royal foundation funded several 
NGOs that conducted prevention campaigns. 
 
Q3: What can Belgium do to improve its fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
 
¶A. To enhance its anti-trafficking performance, the 
Government of Belgium could: improve the collection of 
comprehensive anti-trafficking law enforcement data, 
including numbers of prosecutions and convictions for forced 
labor and trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation, 
along with corresponding sentencing data, and numbers of 
government-assisted repatriations; consider training for 
officials who may encounter trafficking victims that focuses 
on the needs of victims. 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON