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DE RUEHC #4654 2802001
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TO AMEMBASSY MUSCAT PRIORITY 0000

UNCLAS STATE 104654 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP KCRM KWMN PHUM SMIG MU
SUBJECT: OMAN: ACTION GUIDE TO COMBAT TIP (2009-2010) 
 
¶1.  (U) This is an action request (see para 5). 
 
¶2.  (U) The 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report rates 
countries as Tier 2 when host governments are not meeting the 
minimum standards to combat trafficking in persons (TIP) as 
defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), but 
are making significant efforts to do so.  Remaining on Tier 
2, however, is not guaranteed; governments must continue to 
combat TIP and especially address areas that need further 
work.  Tier 2 countries will move to Tier 1 if and when they 
evidence satisfaction of all of the minimum standards.  Tier 
2 countries are also subject to slipping to Tier 2 Watch List 
or Tier 3 if they do not continue to make significant efforts 
to meet the minimum standards from one year to the next. 
 
¶3.  (U) Please keep in mind the TIP Report measures host 
government efforts.  To be useful for tier placement 
purposes, there should be a concrete role or tangible 
value-added by a host government in activities by NGOs, 
international organizations, or posts. 
 
¶4.  (U) The following explains steps the government needs to 
take in order to comply fully with the Minimum Standards for 
the elimination of trafficking, and therefore qualify for a 
Tier 1 ranking, and offers suggestions to address specific 
areas of concern highlighted in the 2009 TIP Report.  Legal 
standards are excerpted from the Trafficking Victims 
Protection Act, as amended.  Implementation Principles are 
excerpted from guidance issued in 07 State 150188 (October 
29, 2007) and are not specific to any country or region. 
Country-specific points are not exhaustive, but offer steps 
and possible ways to address specific areas of concern.  The 
Department assesses government efforts each year.  All 
governments must show concrete evidence of serious and 
sustained efforts in eliminating severe forms of trafficking 
from the previous year.  Tier ranking determinations will be 
based on the government's efforts to comply with the Minimum 
Standards to Combat TIP during the April 2009 - March 2010 
reporting period. 
 
¶5.  (U) Begin action request:  Post is requested to explain 
to the host government the areas of specific concern noted in 
the TIP Report and why the government failed to meet the 
minimum standards (and thus did not meet the requirements for 
Tier 1 placement).  Post may utilize the talking points in 
para 6 and offer steps in para 7 to the host government as 
possible ways to address specific areas of concern.  While 
the list is not exhaustive, it should focus the host 
government on deficiencies in meeting the minimum standards 
and examples of ways to overcome them.  As every year, the 
Department will weigh the government's level of support and 
participation in reported activities, as well as the efficacy 
and sustainability of government actions, in light of its 
resources and capabilities. 
 
¶6. (U) Background Points: 
 
Begin talking points: 
 
-- The United States is committed to working with other 
countries to combat the global problem of human trafficking, 
in part because of the significant problem of human 
trafficking in our own country. 
 
-- The U.S. Government's Trafficking Victims Protection Act 
requires the State Department to submit an annual report to 
Congress on the status of foreign governments, efforts to 
combat trafficking in persons. 
 
-- We offer the following suggested actions to tackle 
specific shortcomings highlighted in the 2009 TIP Report.  We 
believe these to be within the reasonable ability of your 
government to fulfill in the near-term and encourage you to 
take prompt action for a positive narrative in the interim 
assessment.  We will reconsider your government,s tier 
placement when we conduct our annual full assessment for the 
2009-2010 reporting period in early 2010. 
 
-- We would welcome the Government of Oman,s comments on 
these recommendations and any other ideas you might have to 
advance our common struggle against trafficking in persons. 
 
End talking points. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Begin Action Guide and internal numbering: 
 
¶1. Legal Framework: The government should criminalize 
trafficking in persons (TIP) and punish acts of such 
trafficking. 
 
(A) For knowing commissions of acts of trafficking, 
punishment should be prescribed that is sufficiently 
stringent to deter and that adequately reflects the heinous 
nature of the offense. 
 
(B) For knowing commissions of acts of sex trafficking, 
punishment should be prescribed that is commensurate with 
that for grave crimes, such as forcible sexual assault. 
 
Implementation Guideline: At minimum, governments must 
criminalize and prescribe penalties for all forms of 
trafficking relevant in the country, including forced labor. 
This must include the elements of "severe forms of 
trafficking in persons" -- force, fraud, and coercion. 
Although desirable, this need not be accomplished through a 
comprehensive law, so long as relevant elements of 
trafficking, specifically including fraud/deception and 
coercion along with force, are covered by the country's laws. 
 
 
Consistent with the UN Convention Against Transnational 
Organized Crime, criminal penalties against acts of such 
trafficking should include a maximum of at least four years 
deprivation of liberty, or a more severe penalty. 
 
Sanctions for sex trafficking should be on par with rape. 
The prescribed penalties for sex trafficking crimes or 
trafficking involving rape, kidnapping or death should be 
substantially similar to those for rape, taking into account 
the full range of sentences available. 
 
COMPLIANCE:  The government is fully compliant as reported in 
the 2009 TIP Report. 
 
 
¶2. Prosecution and other Law Enforcement Efforts:  The 
government should show serious and sustained efforts to 
combat TIP by vigorously investigating and prosecuting TIP 
acts, and convicting and sentencing persons responsible for 
such acts. 
 
(A) The government must provide data regarding 
investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences, 
consistent with its capacity to do so, or it shall be 
presumed not to have vigorously investigated, prosecuted, 
convicted or sentenced such acts. 
 
Implementation Guideline: All governments, consistent with 
their capacity to do so, are required to submit full 
comprehensive data on trafficking enforcement actions, 
including length of sentences actually imposed on convicted 
traffickers, as evidence of their vigorous law enforcement 
efforts.  Imposed sentences should involve significant jail 
time, with a majority of cases resulting in sentences on the 
order of one year's imprisonment or more, but taking into 
account the severity of an individual's involvement in 
trafficking, imposed sentences for other grave crimes, and 
the judiciary's right to hand down  punishments consistent 
with that country's laws.  Convictions obtained under other 
criminal laws and statutes can be counted as trafficking if 
the government verifies that they involve trafficking 
offenses. 
 
COMPLIANCE:  The government was partially compliant as 
reported in the 2009 TIP Report. 
 
Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded: 
 
-- In March 2009, the government charged 13 suspects with 
bringing foreign women into Oman as their wives and then 
transiting them to another country to engage in prostitution. 
 Eleven defendants were sentenced to seven years, 
imprisonment. 
 
Recommended measures to bring the country into full 
compliance with Minimum Standards: 
 
The Government of Oman did not report any prosecutions of 
labor trafficking offenses in 2008 or early 2009. 
 
-- Vigorously investigate and prosecute labor trafficking 
offenses, and convict and sentence trafficking offenders. 
Provide law enforcement data about these actions. 
 
-- Develop a plan for providing training on the Law Combating 
Human Trafficking (Royal Decree No. 126/2008) and its 
provisions to law enforcement and social welfare officials, 
including judges, lawyers, police, immigration officers, and 
social workers. 
 
-- Consider instituting training on human trafficking as a 
standard part of the mandatory training program for new 
police and border guards.  Ensure that graduating law 
enforcement officials can distinguish between human 
 
trafficking and smuggling; have developed skills in 
interviewing suspected victims of trafficking; are aware of 
procedures for transferring victims to the care of NGOs or 
other social service providers; and understand how to 
properly report and document the crime. 
 
¶3. Victim Protection and Assistance:  The government should 
demonstrate serious and sustained efforts to combat TIP by 
protecting TIP victims and encouraging their assistance in 
the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers. 
Protection should include: 
 
(A) provisions for legal alternatives to victims' removal to 
countries in which they would face retribution or hardship. 
 
(B) ensuring that victims are not inappropriately 
incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized solely for 
unlawful acts that were committed as a direct result of being 
trafficked. 
 
Implementation Guideline: Critical factors considered in 
whether a country fully satisfies this part of the minimum 
standards are: (1) Formal, systematic screening procedures 
that proactively identify victims and guide law enforcement 
and other front line responders in the process of victim 
identification.  (2) Shelter, health care, and counseling 
should be available to victims, allowing them to recount 
their trafficking experience to trained social counselors and 
law enforcement with minimal pressure.  Shelter and care may 
be provided in cooperation with NGOs, but part of the 
government's responsibility includes funding and referral to 
NGOs providing services.  To the best extent possible, 
trafficking victims should not be held in immigration 
detention centers, or other detention facilities.  Factors 
also considered and strongly recommended for favorable 
placement are: (1) Victim/witness protection, rights and 
confidentiality; i.e., governments should ensure that victims 
are provided with legal and other assistance and that, 
consistent with its domestic law, proceedings are not 
prejudicial to victims' rights, dignity or psychological 
well-being; and that victims are provided information in a 
language they understand.  (2) Source and destination 
countries share responsibility in ensuring the safe, humane 
and, to the extent possible, voluntary 
repatriation/reintegration for victims.  At a minimum, 
destination countries should contact a competent governmental 
body, NGO or IO in relevant source country to ensure that 
trafficked persons who return to their country of origin are 
provided with assistance and support necessary to their 
well-being.  Trafficking victims should not be subjected to 
deportations or forced returns without safeguards or other 
measures to reduce the risk of hardship, retribution, or 
re-trafficking. 
 
COMPLIANCE:  The government was partially compliant as 
reported in the 2009 TIP Report. 
 
Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded: 
 
-- The government provided 13 female trafficking victims 
shelter at a Royal Oman Police &accommodation center.8 
 
-- In December 2008, the government instituted a mechanism 
for identifying trafficking victims among migrant workers 
employed by private companies. 
 
Recommended measures to bring the country into full 
compliance with Minimum Standards: 
 
-- Complete construction and begin operation of a shelter 
that provides appropriate protection services to both labor 
and sex trafficking victims, including medical, 
psychological, and appropriate legal assistance. 
 
-- Establish systematic policies and procedures for officials 
to proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable 
groups (for example: women and girls in prostitution, and 
illegal migrants), refer victims to appropriate care 
facilities, and ensure victims are not punished for unlawful 
acts directly resulting from their being trafficked. 
 
 
¶4. Prevention:  The government should demonstrate serious and 
sustained efforts to combat TIP by adopting measures to 
prevent TIP, such as: 
 
(A) steps to inform and educate the public, including 
potential victims, about the causes and consequences of TIP, 
 
(B) measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and 
for participation in international sex tourism by nationals 
of the country, 
 
(C) measures to ensure that its nationals who are deployed 
abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other similar mission do 
not engage in or facilitate severe forms of trafficking in 
persons or exploit victims of such trafficking, 
 
(D) measures to prevent the use of forced labor or child 
labor in violation of international standards. 
 
Implementation Guideline: The government should provide/fund 
a hotline or similar mechanism that offers victims and 
potential victims assistance/information about TIP.  Per the 
Minimum Standards, countries should, for example where 
applicable: (1) Reduce demand for commercial sex acts: 
Implement or support some form of visible awareness campaign 
that educates the clients of the sex trade (and potential sex 
trafficking victims) if the country has a significant sex 
trafficking problem, or a campaign that targets those who 
form the demand for victims of forced labor about the nature 
of the relevant form of TIP.  Nations with legalized 
prostitution should make additional efforts to proactively 
identify TIP victims among those in prostitution in the 
legalized sex trade. This includes the systematic and 
sensitive screening of persons in the legalized sex trade. 
(2) Address child sex tourism: Countries that have a 
significant number of nationals traveling abroad as child sex 
tourists should undertake an awareness campaign that targets 
tourists traveling to known child sex tourism destinations. 
(3) Address trafficking and exploitation committed by 
multinational peacekeepers:  Governments with more than 100 
troops on peacekeeping or other similar missions abroad 
should provide anti-TIP training for these troops (directly 
or through multilateral efforts), and should investigate and, 
if appropriate, prosecute any allegations of trafficking 
crimes or crimes of facilitating trafficking or exploiting 
trafficking victims committed by these troops abroad and 
referred to it by the UN or another competent organization. 
 
COMPLIANCE:  The government was partially compliant as 
reported in the 2009 TIP Report. 
 
Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded: 
 
-- The government established a National Committee for 
Combating Trafficking in Persons and convened its first 
meeting. 
 
-- The government hired 94 additional male and female labor 
inspectors and funded the travel of ILO trainers to Oman to 
provide additional training to the labor inspectorate and 
Ministry of Manpower officials. 
 
-- The government launched a public campaign to educate 
workers, employers, and the general public on labor laws and 
potential abuses. 
 
Recommended measures to ensure that the country continues to 
fully comply with Minimum Standards: 
 
-- Enact and enforce penalties against employers who withhold 
their employees, passports.  For the offense of withholding 
passports as a means of coercing someone into or keeping 
someone in a form of labor or service, criminal penalties 
(i.e., imprisonment) should be imposed.  For the offense of 
withholding passports with no element of coercion, either 
administrative or criminal penalties could be administered. 
 
-- Expand previous awareness raising efforts into a 
nationwide campaign that fosters public awareness among all 
levels of government officials and private citizens.  The 
focus should include not only general public awareness of 
human trafficking as both a local and global phenomenon, but 
also information that will specifically help victims identify 
government or NGO sources of assistance.  This could be 
carried out in a variety of locally appropriate ways.  For 
example: 
 
a) Air brief informational spots on local radio stations or 
create opportunities for public officials or appear on radio 
talk shows; 
b) Place opinion editorials (op eds) on trafficking in 
persons in local newspapers; 
c) Sensitize journalists to trafficking in persons to enable 
more in-depth and sensitive coverage of exploitation within 
the country; and 
d) Display posters in public places depicting the dangers of 
human trafficking, how to report a case, or where to go to 
seek assistance. 
 
 
¶5. Corruption and Official Complicity:  The government should 
vigorously investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence 
public officials who participate in or facilitate TIP, and 
take all appropriate measures against officials who condone 
such trafficking. 
 
(A) This should include nationals of the country who are 
deployed abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other similar 
mission who engage in or facilitate severe forms of 
trafficking in persons or exploit victims of such trafficking. 
 
(B) The government must provide data regarding such 
investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences, or 
it shall be presumed not to have vigorously investigated, 
prosecuted, convicted, or sentenced such acts. 
 
Implementation Principle: Governments, consistent with their 
capacity to do so, must provide full comprehensive data on 
actions taken against TIP related complicity.  Information on 
general government corruption does not satisfy this minimum 
standard, except in cases in which specific cases of 
complicity are not reported by the government or known to the 
USG, but where there is a reasonable probability of such 
complicity within the wider context of generalized corruption 
in that country. 
 
COMPLIANCE:  There were no specific cases of complicity 
reported by the government in the 2009 TIP Report. 
 
Recommendation for measures to ensure that the country fully 
complies with Minimum Standards: 
 
-- Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking-related 
corruption at all levels of law enforcement.  Share 
comprehensive data on investigations, prosecutions, and 
convictions of complicit officials, and the lengths of 
sentences imposed on those convicted, if specific cases of 
complicity have occurred. 
 
 
End Action Guide and internal numbering. 
 
¶8.  (U) The Department appreciates Post's continued efforts 
to address trafficking in persons issues. 
CLINTON