VZCZCXYZ0004
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0606 1630039
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 120015Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY WINDHOEK IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 060606 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG WA
SUBJECT: NAMIBIA -- 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 Namibia 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 Namibia 
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 Namibia 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 Namibia,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
---------------- 
NAMIBIA (TIER 2) 
---------------- 
 
Namibia is a source, transit, and destination country for 
children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and 
commercial sexual exploitation.  Namibian children are 
trafficked within the country for domestic servitude and 
forced agricultural labor, cattle herding, vending, and 
commercial sexual exploitation.  In some cases, Namibian 
parents may have unwittingly sold their children into 
trafficking conditions, including child prostitution.  There 
have been reports of Namibian children being trafficked to 
South Africa, typically by truck drivers, for the purpose of 
sexual exploitation.  Zambian and Angolan children are 
trafficked to Namibia for domestic servitude, agricultural 
labor, and livestock herding.  There is evidence that a West 
African labor trafficking syndicate transports West African 
adults through Namibia to Angola to work under false 
pretenses. 
 
The Government of Namibia does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so.  The 
Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare,s (MGECW) 
distribution of anti-trafficking brochures and commissioning, 
with foreign funding, of a baseline study on human 
trafficking in Namibia demonstrates the government,s 
increasing awareness of the issue and commitment to 
addressing it.  The government also hosted the ninth annual 
INTERPOL working group meeting on trafficking in persons in 
September 2008. 
 
Recommendations for Namibia:  Draft and enact 
anti-trafficking legislation that prohibits and punishes all 
forms of trafficking; implement already enacted legislation 
against forced labor to prosecute trafficking offenses and 
convict labor trafficking offenders; launch a national 
anti-trafficking public awareness campaign, particularly in 
the border areas; provide further training to law enforcement 
and social services officials on the identification and 
provision of assistance to trafficking victims; and begin 
maintaining statistics on specific human trafficking offenses. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Government of Namibia,s anti-trafficking law enforcement 
efforts were moderate during the reporting period.  The 
Prevention of Organized Crime Act of 2004 has a provision 
that criminalizes trafficking in persons and prescribes up to 
50 years, imprisonment or fines of up to $140,000 for those 
convicted.  This act was implemented in May 2009.  Section 4 
of Namibia,s Labor Act of 2007, which was signed into law in 
2007 and came into force in November 2008, prohibits forced 
labor and prescribes penalties of up to four years, 
imprisonment or a fine of up to $2,000, or both.  Section 3 
of the Labor Act prohibits various forms of exploitative 
child labor, prescribing penalties equal to those for forced 
labor offenses.  Existing laws prohibiting child 
prostitution, pimping, and kidnapping could also be used to 
prosecute trafficking cases.  Prescribed penalties for the 
above crimes are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with 
those prescribed for other grave crimes.  The government did 
not prosecute any cases of human trafficking during the 
reporting period.  In mid-2008, before the November 2008 
implementation of the Labor Act which prescribes criminal 
penalties for forced and child labor, the Ministry of Labor 
issued three administrative compliance orders to potential 
child trafficking offenders under the 2004 Labour Act. 
Though an August 2008 case involving Angolan children forced 
to herd cattle was slated to be reopened in 2009 under the 
Act,s new criminal penalties, the Ministry of Labor 
discovered in March 2009 that the suspect, a farmer, had 
disappeared.  Police initiated various investigations during 
the year into suspected cases of pimping and brothel-keeping, 
but the lack of appropriate anti-trafficking legislation 
prevented the prosecution of alleged perpetrators. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
Though the Women and Child Protection Unit of the police and 
the MGECW,s gender liaison officers attended a half-day 
workshop on trafficking during the reporting period, 
government officials did not identify any trafficking cases. 
The government lacked the financial resources and capacity to 
provide direct care to victims.  NGOs and other civil society 
entities provided short-term shelter facilities to which 
government authorities referred victims of crime for 
assistance; however, shelters are often full and cannot 
accommodate all victims of abuse referred. Neither long-term 
shelter facilities nor services specifically tailored to the 
needs of trafficking victims exist in Namibia.  MGECW social 
workers are assigned to the Namibian Police,s 15 Women and 
Child Protection Units; these units implemented a formal 
referral agreement with a local NGO that offers counseling to 
victims of trauma, but there is no record they have ever 
referred a trafficking victim to this organization.  The 
Namibian legal system provided protection to victims who wish 
to testify against their abusers, as well as a legal 
alternative to foreign victims, removal to countries where 
they faced hardship or retribution in the form of a 
comprehensive asylum policy. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
Understanding of what constitutes human trafficking remained 
limited in Namibia, though the government made efforts during 
the year to raise awareness throughout the country.  There 
were, however, no discernible efforts made to reduce the 
demand for commercial sex acts during the reporting period. 
In 2008, the MGECW designed, printed, and distributed 13,000 
brochures explaining human trafficking to local populations 
in the country,s 13 regions through its gender liaison 
officers, community liaison officers, social workers, and 
officials from each Regional Council.  In addition, the 
Ministry of Labor conducted a national public awareness 
campaign to introduce the new labor legislation that included 
radio and television programs, visits by Ministry of Labor 
and Social Welfare officials to all regions, and the 
production and distribution of 300,000 copies of a 12-page 
pamphlet explaining the act,s provisions, including those 
prohibiting exploitative child labor. 
 
 
¶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 is Namibia ranked in the 2009 TIP Report? 
 
A:  Namibia was ranked in the 2009 TIP Report because it is a 
source, transit, and destination country for children 
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial 
sexual exploitation.  Namibian children are trafficked within 
the country for domestic servitude and forced agricultural 
labor, cattle herding, vending, and commercial sexual 
exploitation.  There have been reports of Namibian children 
being trafficked to South Africa, typically by truck drivers, 
for the purpose of sexual exploitation.  Zambian and Angolan 
children are trafficked to Namibia for domestic servitude, 
agricultural labor, and livestock herding. 
 
Q2:  What progress did Namibia make in combating trafficking 
during the year? 
 
A:  The Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare,s 
distribution of anti-trafficking brochures and commissioning, 
with foreign funding, of a baseline study on human 
trafficking in Namibia demonstrates the government,s 
increasing awareness of the issue and commitment to 
addressing it.  The Ministry also designed, printed, and 
distributed 13,000 brochures explaining human trafficking to 
local populations in the country,s 13 regions through its 
gender liaison officers, community liaison officers, social 
workers, and officials from each Regional Council. The 
government hosted the ninth annual INTERPOL working group 
meeting on trafficking in persons. 
 
Q3:  What can Namibia do to further the fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
 
A:  To improve the effectiveness of its fight against human 
trafficking, Namibia could:  Draft and enact anti-trafficking 
legislation that prohibits and punishes all forms of 
trafficking; implement  already enacted legislation against 
forced labor to prosecute trafficking offenses and convict 
labor trafficking offenders; launch a national 
anti-trafficking public awareness campaign, particularly in 
the border areas; provide further training to law enforcement 
and social services officials on the identification and 
provision of assistance to trafficking victims; and begin 
maintaining statistics on specific human trafficking offenses. 
 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON