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O 221815Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY BEIRUT IMMEDIATE 0000

UNCLAS STATE 064424 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG LE
SUBJECT: LEBANON -- 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 9:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary released 
the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a press 
conference in the Department's press briefing room.  This 
release received substantial coverage in domestic and foreign 
news outlets. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with press 
guidance.  Also provided is demarche language to be used in 
informing the Government of Lebanon 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 Lebanon 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:  Please inform the appropriate official in 
the Government of Lebanon 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. 
 
¶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: Please answer media inquiries on 
the Report's release using the press guidance provided in 
para 11. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of Lebanon,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
--------------------------- 
LEBANON (Tier 2 Watch List) 
--------------------------- 
 
Lebanon is a destination for Asian and African women 
trafficked for the purpose of domestic servitude, and for 
women from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union 
trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. 
 Lebanese children are trafficked within the country for the 
purpose of forced labor (mostly street vending), and sexual 
exploitation.  Women from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and 
Ethiopia who travel to Lebanon legally to work as household 
servants often find themselves in conditions of forced labor 
through withholding of passports, non-payment of wages, 
restrictions on movement, threats, and physical or sexual 
assault.  In some cases, employers have kept foreign 
domestics confined in houses for years.  Reports from NGOs 
indicate that 15 percent of foreign domestics encounter 
physical abuse from their employers, a potential indicator of 
involuntary domestic servitude. 
 
In April 2008, the Ethiopian government banned its nationals 
from traveling to Lebanon to work as household maids for 
numerous cultural and socio-economic reasons, but also 
because of some incidents of mistreatment, including physical 
abuse, rape, and murder.  The Philippines government lifted a 
similar ban on its nationals traveling to Lebanon for work in 
March 2009.  The Lebanese government,s &artist8 work 
permit program, which facilitates entry of women from Eastern 
Europe and the former Soviet Union  to work in the adult 
entertainment industry, serves to sustain a significant sex 
trade and facilitates sex trafficking.  Some women are 
reportedly held in debt bondage, receiving little or no 
income until the employer has forced the women to repay 
fraudulently imposed debts allegedly associated with the cost 
of their recruitment, transportation and employment. 
 
The Government of Lebanon does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so. 
Despite these efforts, the government failed to show 
significant progress in identifying foreign victims of 
trafficking ) particularly victims of domestic servitude ) 
and punishing their exploiters.  Nonetheless, it cooperated 
with NGO,s, namely Caritas, by referring eight victims to 
Caritas in 2008.  In October 2008, the Ministry of Justice, 
in cooperation with UNDOC, launched a national report on 
trafficking in persons and committed to undertake efforts to 
combat trafficking.   The assessment revealed a number of 
policies and practices that contribute to the phenomenon of 
trafficking in Lebanon.  While the report represents a step 
forward in recognizing and bringing to light the nature of 
the problem, it may underestimate the overall magnitude of 
Lebanon,s human trafficking problem ) particularly with 
regard to domestic servitude. 
 
Recommendations for Lebanon:   Criminalize all forms of 
trafficking in persons;  investigate and prosecute 
trafficking offenses under existing law and convict and 
punish trafficking offenders; develop and institute formal 
procedures to identify victims of trafficking among 
vulnerable populations, such as women holding &artist8 work 
permits and foreign domestic workers who have escaped from 
abusive employers; consider measures to lessen the abuse of 
the &artist8 work permit as a conduit for sex trafficking; 
enforce Lebanese law prohibiting the confiscation of 
passports of foreign maids; implement the March 2009  Labor 
Code revision that provides a unified contract; and ensure 
that victims of trafficking are referred to protection 
services rather than detained for crimes committed as a 
direct result of being trafficked, such as immigration 
violations and prostitution. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
Lebanon made modest but insufficient efforts to prosecute or 
punish trafficking offenses during the reporting period. 
Although trafficking is not defined as a crime in Lebanese 
law, some trafficking-related offenses are codified in the 
criminal code, including commercial sexual exploitation, 
depriving a person of his or her freedom, and use of 
documents belonging to another person.  The prescribed 
penalties for commercial sexual exploitation -- a maximum of 
two years, imprisonment -- and forced prostitution -- a 
minimum of one year,s imprisonment -- are not commensurate 
with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. 
Penalties for other forms of trafficking are not sufficiently 
stringent:  temporary hard labor is prescribed for the 
offense of depriving a person of freedom.  During the past 
year, five cases were reported of foreign household servants 
who had been victims of violence, insufficient payment of 
salary, and withholding of passports; these may have 
constituted trafficking.  In one case of rape of a domestic 
worker, an employer was prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced 
to five years, imprisonment and ordered to pay the victim 
compensation.  Other cases involved financial compensation 
and/or two-month prison sentences.  The Ministry of Labor 
closed down two employment agencies for violation of 
workers, rights, including physical abuse.  The General 
Security reported 47 complaints of physical abuse, rape, and 
withheld earnings of foreign women working in adult clubs in 
2008 ) complaints that may have involved conditions of 
involuntary servitude.   Most were settled out of court and 
the victims deported.  These cases were hampered by a lack of 
resources; court backlogs; corruption; cultural biases, 
particularly against foreign women; bureaucratic indifference 
and inefficiency; difficulty proving cases of reported abuse; 
and victims' lack of knowledge of their rights.  Given the 
significant hurdles to pursuing criminal complaints in the 
Lebanese court system, and in the absence of alternate legal 
recourse, many foreign victims opted for quick administrative 
settlements followed by mandatory repatriation. 
 
Protection 
---------- 
The Government of Lebanon did not make sufficient efforts to 
protect victims of trafficking during the reporting period. 
The government did not provide trafficking victims with any 
services directly; only an NGO, funded by a foreign donor, 
provided shelter to foreign victims of involuntary domestic 
servitude.  However, this NGO has a Memorandum of 
Understanding with the Government of Lebanon, which 
stipulates that the government will cooperate with the NGO by 
referring trafficking victims to the shelter.  The government 
also provides security for the shelter and protects the 
location,s whereabouts as requested by the NGO.  That NGO 
provided shelter for 92 victims of trafficking in 2008.  The 
government did not employ formal procedures to identify and 
refer victims of trafficking, although some victims are 
referred informally to NGOs for assistance.  Moreover, the 
government pursued policies and practices that significantly 
harmed foreign victims of trafficking.  For example, 
authorities required that women recruited for prostitution 
under its &artist8 work permit program be confined in 
hotels for most of the day and summarily deported them if 
they complained of mistreatment.  Similarly, the government 
regularly detained and deported foreign domestic workers who 
left their employers and did not have valid residency and 
work permits, without attempting to determine if any were 
victims of forced labor.  Previously, domestic workers signed 
a contract with an employment agency before leaving their 
home country and signed a second contract in Arabic upon 
arrival in Lebanon, a language they may not understand, and 
on terms that may not be consistent with initial contract. 
The new unified contract provided in the March 2009 amendment 
to Lebanon,s Labor Code is printed in nine languages and 
provided to prospective employees in their home countries; 
domestic workers now sign the same contract, in their native 
language, upon arrival in Lebanon.   It is common practice 
for employers to force a domestic worker who breaks his or 
her contract to repay residency and work permit fees, or pay 
for a paper releasing him or her from their contract; there 
is no exception for workers who break their contracts due to 
employers, abuse.  Victims were neither encouraged to 
participate in trials, nor offered legal alternatives to 
removal to countries where they would face hardship or 
retribution.   Rather, the government often deported victims 
to their countries of origin before giving them the 
opportunity to testify against their traffickers. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
Lebanon made minimal efforts to prevent trafficking in 
persons over the last year.  In February 2009, the Ministry 
of  Labor published a unified contract to be used by all 
employment agencies hiring domestic workers locally or 
overseas; the contract regulates working hours and stipulates 
that workers be given days off for vacations and holidays. 
During 2008, 50 members of the armed forces and law 
enforcement officials participated in training conducted by 
an NGO on basic awareness of human rights, migrant workers' 
rights, and trafficking issues.  In addition, the Ministry of 
Labor conducted routine training courses for its inspectors, 
although the Ministry has limited jurisdiction in cases of 
household employment.  Aside from the introduction of the 
aforementioned unified contract for domestic workers, the 
government did not take additional steps to reduce the demand 
for domestic servitude or commercial sex acts in Lebanon 
during the reporting period.  The government similarly did 
not institute a public awareness campaign targeting citizens 
traveling to known child sex tourism destinations. 
 
-------------------------------- 
 
 
¶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).  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 Lebanon given Tier 2 Watch List ranking? 
 
A:    Lebanon was placed on Tier 2 Watch List because it did 
not show evidence of progress in prosecuting human 
trafficking offenses and punishing trafficking offenders over 
the last year.  Moreover, the government did not provide 
trafficking victims with any services directly. The 
government pursued policies and practices that significantly 
harmed foreign victims of trafficking.  Women who had been 
recruited for prostitution under the &artist8 work permit 
program were confined in hotels for most of the day and 
summarily deported if complaints of mistreatment were made. 
The government did not take significant steps to reduce the 
demand for domestic servitude or commercial sex acts in 
Lebanon during the reporting period.  The government 
similarly did not institute a public awareness campaign 
targeting citizens traveling to known child sex tourism 
destinations. 
 
Q2:    What progress has Lebanon made during the last year in 
combating trafficking? 
 
A:    The Lebanese government cooperated with NGO,s, namely 
Caritas, by referring eight victims to Caritas in 2008.   In 
October 2008, the Ministry of Justice, in cooperation with 
UNDOC, launched a national report on trafficking in persons 
and committed to undertake efforts to combat trafficking. 
In February 2009, the Ministry of  Labor published a unified 
contract to be used by all employment agencies hiring 
domestic workers locally or overseas; the contract regulates 
working hours and stipulates that workers be given days off 
for vacations and holidays.  During 2008, fifty members of 
the armed forces and law enforcement officials participated 
in training conducted by an NGO on basic awareness of human 
rights, migrant workers' rights, and trafficking issues.  In 
addition, the Ministry of Labor conducted routine training 
courses for its inspectors, although the Ministry has limited 
jurisdiction in cases of household employment. 
 
Q3:   What can Lebanon do to improve its anti-trafficking 
efforts? 
 
A:  The Lebanese government could: Criminalize all forms of 
trafficking in persons;  investigate and prosecute 
trafficking offenses under existing law and convict and 
punish trafficking offenders; develop and institute formal 
procedures to identify victims of trafficking among 
vulnerable populations, such as women holding &artist8 work 
permits and foreign domestic workers who have escaped from 
abusive employers; consider measures to lessen the abuse of 
the &artist8 work permit as a conduit for sex trafficking; 
enforce Lebanese law prohibiting the confiscation of 
passports of foreign maids; implement the March 2009  Labor 
Code revision that provides a unified contract; and ensure 
that victims of trafficking are referred to protection 
services rather than detained for crimes committed as a 
direct result of being trafficked, such as immigration 
violations and prostitution. 
 
 
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the 
preceding action requests. 
CLINTON