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Viewing cable 09STATE61339, MOROCCO -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09STATE61339 2009-06-14 23:55 2011-08-24 16:30 UNCLASSIFIED Secretary of State
VZCZCXYZ0001
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #1339 1660018
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 142355Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT IMMEDIATE 0000
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA IMMEDIATE 0000
UNCLAS STATE 061339 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG MO
SUBJECT: MOROCCO -- 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 Morocco 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 Morocco 
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 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 Morocco 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 Morocco,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
---------------- 
MOROCCO (Tier 2) 
---------------- 
 
Morocco is a source, destination, and transit country for 
men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced 
labor and commercial sexual exploitation.  Children are 
trafficked within the country from rural areas to urban 
centers to work as maids or laborers, or for exploitation in 
the sex trade.  Men, women, and children are trafficked to 
European and Middle Eastern countries as illegal migrants who 
become exploited for forced labor and prostitution.  Young 
Moroccan girls from rural areas are recruited to work as 
child maids in cities, but often face restrictions on 
movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or 
sexual abuse.  Moroccan boys experience involuntary servitude 
as apprentices in the artisan and construction industries and 
in mechanic shops.  Transnational human trafficking in 
Morocco is associated with people smuggling and drug 
trafficking.  Some Moroccan women are trafficked to Gulf 
States, Jordan, Libya, Syria, Cyprus, and European countries 
for commercial sexual exploitation.  There were reports of 
Moroccan men who were promised jobs in the Gulf; upon arrival 
their passports were confiscated and they were forced into 
debt bondage.  Men lured to Italy with job offers were forced 
to sell drugs.  In addition, men and women from sub-Saharan 
Africa, South Asia, and the Philippines enter Morocco 
voluntarily, but illegally, with the assistance of smugglers; 
once in Morocco, some of the women are coerced into 
commercial sexual exploitation. 
 
The Government of Morocco does not comply with the minimum 
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is 
making significant efforts to do so.  The government did not 
take adequate steps to collect data on trafficking, identify 
victims, increase overall law enforcement efforts to 
investigate, convict, or punish traffickers, or provide 
adequate protection for victims of trafficking, who were 
often detained and subject to deportation.  Moroccan 
authorities, however, moved to engage international 
organizations to conduct a first baseline assessment of human 
trafficking in the country, which is expected to be completed 
in 2009. 
 
Recommendations for Morocco:  Enact comprehensive 
anti-trafficking legislation that increases prescribed 
penalties for forced labor; significantly increase 
prosecutions of trafficking offenders; collect data on 
incidence of trafficking (as distinct from smuggling); 
institute a victim identification mechanism; ensure that 
victims are not punished for acts committed as a direct 
result of being trafficked; and conduct public awareness 
campaigns, encompassing child sex tourism. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Government of Morocco made inadequate efforts to 
investigate trafficking offenses and punish trafficking 
offenders during the reporting period.  Morocco appears to 
prohibit all forms of trafficking.  Its Penal Code prohibits 
forced child labor through Article 467, forced labor through 
Article 10, and forced prostitution and prostitution of a 
minor through Articles 497-499.  The Government of Morocco 
reports that it also employs the Immigration Law of 2003 and 
other statutes, such as those prohibiting kidnapping, fraud, 
and coercion, to prosecute trafficking offenses.  Penalties 
prescribed by these various statutes for sex trafficking 
offenses are sufficiently stringent, and commensurate with 
those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape.  In 
contrast, prescribed penalties for labor trafficking appear 
not to be sufficiently stringent; penalties for child labor 
under Article 467 range from one to three years, 
imprisonment, while general penalties for forced labor under 
Article 10 are limited to fines for first-time offenders or 
six days, to three months, imprisonment for repeat 
offenders.  Authorities claim they dismantled 220 trafficking 
or smuggling rings in 2008; however, the government made no 
distinction between migrant smuggling and trafficking, so it 
was unclear how many were truly human trafficking rings. 
Authorities reported prosecuting 42 individuals for 
exploiting children trafficked for the purpose of domestic 
servitude under trafficking-related statutes during the 
reporting period.  In 2008, the government also prosecuted 
200 individuals for &inciting8 children into prostitution 
or sexually abusing children; some of these prosecutions 
likely involve trafficking offenses.  The government did not 
report the number of individuals convicted or punished for 
trafficking offenses in 2008.  The government offered 
anti-trafficking training to judges, prosecutors, the 
territorial police, and border security officials. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
Morocco made insufficient progress in protecting victims of 
trafficking over the last year.  Foreign trafficking victims 
are often treated as illegal migrants, subject to arrest and 
deportation.  Government officials continued to round up 
illegal sub-Saharan migrants -- failing to make efforts to 
identify trafficking victims among them -- and left them at 
the Algerian border, often without food or water; there were 
reports that some were robbed, assaulted, and sexually abused 
by criminal gangs that operate in the area.  The government 
did not offer legal alternatives to the removal of foreign 
victims of trafficking to countries where they might face 
retribution.  Morocco does not encourage victims to 
participate in investigations against their traffickers, 
although some victims reportedly testify during prosecutions. 
 Reports from NGOs indicate that some potential trafficking 
victims suffered physical abuse at the hands of Moroccan 
police.  NGOs provided most services to domestic victims of 
trafficking.  Government-operated centers in Casablanca and 
Marrakech offered assistance to street children and other 
victims of violence, abuse, and sexual exploitation, 
including victims of trafficking.  Also, during the reporting 
period, Moroccan diplomatic missions provided assistance with 
passports and transportation home to Moroccan women 
trafficked to Middle Eastern countries for commercial sexual 
exploitation. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
The government periodically undertook awareness-raising 
campaigns related to the abuse of children, child labor, and 
sexual exploitation during the year.  The 2006-2015 National 
Plan for Action for Children includes the goal of protecting 
children from abuse, violence, and exploitation; in part by 
reducing the incidence of child labor.  Authorities did not 
make significant efforts to raise public awareness of the 
commercial sexual exploitation of children and women, 
especially in tourist areas, and did not take any reported 
measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. 
 
The government fully supported UN efforts to investigate 
accusations that Moroccan peacekeepers in Cte d,Ivoire 
sexually abused underage girls.  An inquiry team consisting 
of UN investigators and Moroccan army officers was unable to 
find any conclusive evidence of abuse.  An investigation by 
the UN Office of Internal Oversight was ongoing at the end of 
the reporting period.  The government provided Moroccan 
soldiers participating in UN peacekeeping missions with 
training on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse. 
Morocco has not ratified the 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 Morocco given a Tier 2 ranking? 
 
A:    Morocco was placed on Tier 2 because the government did 
not take adequate steps to collect data on trafficking, 
identify victims, increase overall law enforcement efforts to 
investigate, convict, or punish traffickers, or provide 
adequate protection for victims of trafficking, who were 
often detained and subject to deportation. 
 
Q2:   What progress did Morocco make in combating 
trafficking? 
 
A:    Moroccan authorities moved to engage international 
organizations to conduct a first baseline assessment of human 
trafficking in the country, which is expected to be completed 
in 2009. The government offered anti-trafficking training to 
judges, prosecutors, the territorial police, and border 
security officials. Authorities reported prosecuting 42 
individuals for exploiting children trafficked for the 
purpose of domestic servitude under trafficking-related 
statutes during the reporting period.  In 2008, the 
government also prosecuted 200 individuals for &inciting8 
children into prostitution or sexually abusing children; some 
of these prosecutions likely involve trafficking offenses. 
 
Q3:   What can Morocco do to further the fight against 
trafficking in persons? 
 
A: The Moroccan government could: Enact comprehensive 
anti-trafficking legislation that increases prescribed 
penalties for forced labor; significantly increase 
prosecutions of trafficking offenders; collect data on 
incidence of trafficking (as distinct from smuggling); 
institute a victim identification mechanism; ensure that 
victims are not punished for acts committed as a direct 
result of being trafficked; and conduct public awareness 
campaigns, encompassing child sex tourism. 
 
12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON