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DE RUEHC #0563 1622334
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O 112306Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY CAIRO IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060563 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG EG
SUBJECT: EGYPT -- 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 Egypt 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 Egypt 
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 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 Egypt 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 Egypt,s country narrative in the 2009 
TIP Report: 
 
--------------------------- 
EGYPT (TIER 2 WATCH LIST) 
--------------------------- 
 
Egypt is a source, transit, and destination country for women 
and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and 
sexual exploitation.  Some of Egypt,s estimated one million 
street children ) both boys and girls ) are exploited in 
prostitution and forced begging.  Local gangs are, at times, 
involved in this exploitation.  Egyptian children are 
recruited for domestic and agricultural labor; some of these 
children face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude, 
such as restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, 
threats, and physical or sexual abuse.  In addition, wealthy 
men from the Gulf reportedly travel to Egypt to purchase 
&temporary marriages8 with Egyptian females, including 
girls who are under the age of 18; these arrangements are 
often facilitated by the females, parents and marriage 
brokers.  Child sex tourism is increasingly reported in 
Cairo, Alexandria, and Luxor.  Young, female Sudanese 
refugees, including those under 18, may be coerced into 
prostitution in Cairo,s nightclubs by family or Sudanese 
gang members.  Egypt is a transit country for women 
trafficked from Uzbekistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, and 
other Eastern European countries to Israel for sexual 
exploitation; organized crime groups are involved in these 
movements. 
 
The Government of Egypt does not fully comply with minimum 
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is 
making significant efforts to do so.  The government enacted 
amendments to the Child Law prohibiting child trafficking, 
provided training for government officials on the use of 
these amendments, and began the prosecution of several 
alleged sex trafficking offenders.  Despite these overall 
efforts, the government did not show adequate progress in 
advancing anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts over the 
last year; therefore Egypt is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. 
The government continues to lack formal victim identification 
procedures and protection services, and some victims of 
trafficking are punished for acts committed as a direct 
result of being trafficked.  The government took minimal 
steps to combat the serious issues of child sex tourism and 
the involuntary domestic servitude of children or to raise 
awareness of trafficking among the general public. 
 
Recommendations for Egypt:  Substantially increase law 
enforcement activity against trafficking, including the 
growing problems of  the involuntary domestic servitude of 
children and child sex trafficking; draft and enact 
legislation criminalizing all forms of human trafficking; 
institute and apply a formal victim identification procedure 
to ensure that trafficking victims are not punished or 
otherwise treated as criminals for acts committed as a direct 
result of being trafficked; provide in-kind or financial 
support to NGOs providing protection services to victims; and 
implement a comprehensive public information campaign to 
educate the public on the definition and dangers of 
trafficking. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
Egypt made progress on punishing trafficking crimes during 
this reporting period.  The Egyptian penal code does not 
prohibit all forms of trafficking; the Unified Labor Law does 
not define forced labor and there are no provisions against 
it.  In June 2008, however, the government enacted amendments 
to the Child Law (No. 126 of 2008), which include provisions 
prohibiting the trafficking of children for commercial sexual 
exploitation and forced labor.  These amendments prescribe 
sentences of at least five years, imprisonment, which are 
sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties 
prescribed for other grave crimes.  The National Council on 
Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) began drafting by-laws to 
guide enforcement of the amendments to the child protection 
law.  The Anti-Prostitution Law of 1961 prohibits the use of 
coercion, threats, or abuse to induce a person into 
prostitution and the commercial sexual exploitation of those 
under 21 years old.  Penalties prescribed for the above 
crimes range from one to seven years, imprisonment; these 
are also sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those 
prescribed for other grave crimes.  Unlike other child 
laborers, however, child domestic workers are not protected 
under existing labor laws.  In September 2008, the National 
Coordinating Committee to Combat and Prevent Trafficking in 
Persons began drafting a comprehensive anti-trafficking law. 
 
Under the Child Law and the Anti-Prostitution Law, the 
Alexandria Public Prosecutor,s Office commenced in March 
2009 with the prosecution of two defendants suspected of 
kidnapping eight street children and forcing them to engage 
in prostitution with wealthy Egyptians and tourists from the 
Gulf States in exchange for money.  Also in March, the South 
Giza Prosecutors Office initiated the prosecution of a man 
and his wife on charges of selling their three daughters into 
prostitution to tourists from the Gulf for $550 a week per 
child.  The Egyptian government did not, however, report 
efforts to investigate or prosecute cases of the involuntary 
domestic servitude of children.  The Public Prosecutor,s 
office created and distributed a booklet on investigating and 
prosecuting trafficking cases to prosecutors working with 
children, and trained 125 prosecutors working on children,s 
cases.  In 2008, the NCCM trained 45prosecutors and judges on 
human trafficking. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
Egypt made minimal progress in protecting victims of 
trafficking during the reporting period.  The Ministry of 
Social Solidarity continued to operate 19 drop-in centers for 
street children, women, and the disabled that may have 
provided care to trafficking victims in 2008; these centers, 
however, are only open during the day and do not provide 
comprehensive services for trafficking victims.  In January 
2009, the NCCM, in partnership with an international NGO, 
launched a day center in Cairo to rehabilitate abused street 
boys involved in forced begging or petty crime; to date, NCCM 
provided 25 boys with counseling, medical care, and literacy 
and computer classes, while the NGO operated the facility. 
In March 2009, the Alexandria Public Prosecutor,s office 
transferred eight boys victimized by sex trafficking to the 
NCCM and the Ministries of Health and Social Solidarity for 
medical, psychological, and rehabilitation services.  The 
NCCM operated a 24-hour hotline to respond to complaints of 
child abuse, though it lacks the capability to retain 
information on whether any of the calls received concerned 
trafficking.  Specialized care for adults or foreign victims, 
including Sudanese women in forced prostitution, was not 
provided.  Despite receiving training in victim 
identification, the government did not employ formal 
procedures to identify victims of trafficking and refer them 
to providers of care; as a result, trafficking victims, 
including street children and women arrested for 
prostitution, were often treated as criminals rather than 
victims.  In prisons or detention centers, law enforcement 
officers may have further mistreated these victims through 
verbal, physical, and sexual abuse.  Foreign victims are not 
offered legal alternatives to removal to countries in which 
they may face hardship or retribution.  The government does 
not actively encourage victims to assist in investigations 
against their traffickers. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
Egypt made minimal efforts to prevent trafficking in persons 
during the reporting period.  The National Center for 
Criminological and Social Research officially began a 
comprehensive study on the scope of trafficking in Egypt.  In 
November 2008, the National Council for Human Rights held a 
seminar and a roundtable discussion on human trafficking. 
During the second half of 2008, NCCM trained 107 social 
workers, 35 health inspectors, and 191 officials from various 
ministries on the Child Law,s amendments and the UN TIP 
Protocol.  The first lady,s anti-trafficking advocacy during 
the reporting period led to a substantial increase in press 
coverage on the subject.  Nonetheless, the government did not 
institute any public campaigns to raise awareness on 
trafficking.  The government similarly made no discernible 
efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts or to 
raise awareness of sex tourism.  In March 2009, Giza Security 
arrested and criminally charged three men from the Gulf who 
had paid the parents of three young girls in order to 
sexually exploit the girls.  There were no reports of the 
Egyptian government,s efforts to provide anti-trafficking 
training for its troops before they 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 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 Egypt placed on Tier 2 Watch List? 
 
A:  Egypt was placed on Tier 2 Watch List because it did not 
show adequate progress in advancing anti-trafficking law 
enforcement efforts over the last year.  In addition, the 
government continued to lack formal victim identification 
procedures and protection services, and some victims of 
trafficking were punished for acts committed as a result of 
being trafficked.  The government took minimal steps to 
combat the serious issues of child sex tourism and child 
domestic servitude or to raise awareness of trafficking among 
the general public. 
 
Q2:  What progress did Egypt make in combating trafficking 
during the reporting period? 
 
A:  The government enacted amendments to the Child Law 
prohibiting child trafficking, provided training for 
government officials on the use of these amendments, began 
the prosecution of several alleged sex trafficking offenders, 
provided care to eight boys victimized by sex trafficking, 
and launched a day center for the rehabilitation of street 
boys, some of whom are involved in forced begging. 
 
Q3:  What can Egypt do to further its fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
 
A:  To advance its anti-trafficking efforts, the Government 
of Egypt could: substantially increase law enforcement 
activity against trafficking, including the growing problems 
of  child domestic servitude and child sex trafficking; draft 
and enact legislation criminalizing all forms of human 
trafficking; institute and apply a formal victim 
identification procedure to ensure that trafficking victims 
are not punished or otherwise treated as criminals for acts 
committed as a result of being trafficked; provide in-kind or 
financial support to NGOs providing protection services to 
victims; and implement a comprehensive public information 
campaign to educate the public on the definition and dangers 
of trafficking. 
 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON