SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS
Page 1 TOP OF DOC
28–104PDF
2006
MODERN DAY SLAVERY: SPOTLIGHT ON
THE 2006 ''TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT,''
FORCED LABOR, AND SEX TRAFFICKING
AT THE WORLD CUP
BRIEFING AND HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
JUNE 14, 2006
Page 2 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Serial No. 109–188
Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey,
Vice Chairman
DAN BURTON, Indiana
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
PETER T. KING, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
RON PAUL, Texas
DARRELL ISSA, California
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia
Page 3 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
JERRY WELLER, Illinois
MIKE PENCE, Indiana
THADDEUS G. McCOTTER, Michigan
KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida
JOE WILSON, South Carolina
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina
CONNIE MACK, Florida
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
MICHAEL McCAUL, Texas
TED POE, Texas
TOM LANTOS, California
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American Samoa
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
BARBARA LEE, California
Page 4 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
ADAM SMITH, Washington
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
DENNIS A. CARDOZA, California
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri
THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel
ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California,
Vice Chairman
Page 5 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
BARBARA LEE, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
MARY M. NOONAN, Subcommittee Staff Director
GREG SIMPKINS, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member
NOELLE LUSANE, Democratic Professional Staff Member
SHERI A. RICKERT, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member and Counsel
LINDSEY M. PLUMLEY, Staff Associate
C O N T E N T S
BRIEFING BY
Ms. Julia Ormond, Goodwill Ambassador for the Abolition of Slavery and Human Trafficking, UN Office on Drugs and Crime
WITNESSES
The Honorable John Miller, Director, Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State
Page 6 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Ms. Sharon Cohn, Vice President of Interventions, International Justice Mission
Ms. Masha Gnezdilova, Russian Trafficking Victim
Ms. Irina Veselykh, Russian Trafficking Victim
Mr. Charles Kernaghan, Director, National Labor Committee
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations: Prepared statement
Ms. Julia Ormond: Prepared statement
The Honorable John Miller: Prepared statement
Ms. Sharon Cohn: Prepared statement
Ms. Masha Gnezdilova: Prepared statement
Ms. Irina Veselykh,: Prepared statement
Page 7 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Mr. Charles Kernaghan: Prepared statement
APPENDIX
Material Submitted for the Hearing Record
MODERN DAY SLAVERY: SPOTLIGHT ON THE 2006 ''TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT,'' FORCED LABOR, AND SEX TRAFFICKING AT THE WORLD CUP
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2006
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights
and International Operations,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:05 a.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. SMITH. Good morning, everyone. Today's proceeding will begin as a briefing and will proceed to an actual hearing. This is due to our protocol that dictates that when we have a representative from the United Nations, it be technically called a briefing. We have done this in the past; it has worked extremely well.
And I do want to thank Ambassador Ormond for being here, and the United Nations for playing this constructive role, as they are doing so well, on the issue of human trafficking.
Page 8 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Subcommittee will hear expert testimony today concerning the scourge of human trafficking—modern-day slavery. As I know many people know by now, the United States Government estimates that between 600,000 to 800,000 women, children, and men are brought and sold across international borders each year and exploited through forced labor or commercial sex exploitation. Potentially millions more are trafficked internally within the borders of countries.
Eighty percent of the victims are women and girls. An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign citizens are trafficked into the United States each and every year. And now we know that many American girls and young women—many of whom start out as runaways—are bought, sold, abused, and raped throughout the United States.
To combat the exploitation of American girls, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2005 not only requires the Attorney General to conduct prevalent studies of sex trafficking and unlawful commercial sex acts in the U.S., but the new law requires both the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to prepare reports on best practices to reduce demand. For the first time the new law also authorizes $20 million for HHS (Health and Human Services) grants programs for U.S. victims, $10 million for long-term residential treatment facilities, and provides $50 million for a new grants program for state and local law enforcement.
In the past we have focused primarily on international trafficking. Since the enactment of this law, we are realizing we have our own internal trafficking problem that must be ended.
Page 9 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Today's hearing will focus on the findings of the State Department's sixth annual Trafficking in Persons Report, with a focus on progress made and on the significant challenges ahead.
The Committee is indeed privileged to have, as our special guest, Julia Ormond in her capacity as the UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Abolition of Slavery and Human Trafficking. Ms. Ormond has travelled to Ghana, India, Cambodia and Thailand to raise awareness about the horrors of human trafficking.
Ms. Ormond has been a leader on a number of humanitarian issues, including AIDS and refugee issues. She is the founding Chair of FilmAid International, and is well known for her film roles in numerous movies, including Legends of the Fall, Sabrina, First Knight, which is my favorite, Barber of Siberia, Iron-Jawed Angels, and many, many others.
Ms. Ormond is also the Executive Producer of a 1996 Emmy Award-winning documentary called A Calling of the Ghosts, a story about two women in Bosnia caught in war, where rape was as much an everyday weapon as bullets and bombs. We are extremely honored and privileged to have her here with us today.
This is also the second of a two-part series of hearings on sex trafficking in connection with the World Cup Soccer Championship.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, the traffickers who use and abuse human beings as commodities to be bought and sold must be tracked down, their nefarious operations crushed, and the individuals who commit these heinous crimes sent to jail for a long, long time.
Page 10 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
All profits derived from selling women and children into slavery must be seized and put to good use, like providing some semblance of restitution to the victims, or for the construction of shelters.
The TIP Report itself, as most of us know by now, is mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which was signed in October 2000. In 2003 we sponsored the expansion of that act, and as I indicated earlier, on January 10, President Bush signed into law still another bill that expands significantly the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
These pieces of legislation have created a comprehensive framework for combatting trafficking in persons abroad, the trafficking of foreign nationals in the United States, and the domestic trafficking of our own citizens. As a result, the U.S. has become a leader in addressing this human rights violation, while simultaneously encouraging other governments to do the same.
Since taking office, the Bush Administration has devoted more than $40 million to combat trafficking in more than 149 countries. The new law authorizes an additional $361 million over 2 years to expand those efforts. Across the globe, governments are taking action to prevent trafficking, to prosecute the exploiters, and to give hope and restoration to those victimized by trafficking. With 4,700 convictions worldwide this year alone, the heinous crime of trafficking is, at long last, being punished, but still more needs to be done. In the last 2 years alone, convictions have topped 7,700.
Because a significant portion of U.S. foreign assistance is now contingent on whether a nation is making basic minimum standards specifically described by the three TPVAs to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers, 41 countries in the last year alone have passed tough new laws to end this modern-day slavery. Shelters have been set up for victims, NGOs and faith communities have reached out to help heal survivors of trafficking.
Page 11 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I want to applaud Ambassador John Miller for keeping trafficking in the forefront of our human rights agenda, and for the progress that we are making. I also welcome the emphasis on forced labor in this year's report. Forced labor in which people are enslaved and exploited for purposes of labor, often within their own countries, is infrequently mentioned, but affects anywhere from 4–27 million people worldwide.
In places such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Brazil, Jordan, Kuwait, and Taiwan, all ranked as either Tier 3 or on the Tier 2 Watch List in this year's report, foreign migrant workers or these countries' own citizens are trapped and held in slave-like working conditions.
Not only must the victims be freed and properly compensated, their employers must be held responsible, and forced labor punished for the heinous crime that it is.
While the TIP Report is good—the best yet, I would submit—I am nevertheless disappointed that the State Department has failed to place India on Tier 3 with other governments which are not making significant anti-trafficking efforts. Millions of men, women, and children, predominantly from India's Dalit caste, are in debt bondage and face involuntary servitude in brick kilns, rice mills, and zari embroidery factories. India's placement on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year, despite its failure to create a national law enforcement response to the crime of trafficking, and its blatant unwillingness to address the massive problems of bonded labor and trafficking-related corruption, reeks of political considerations within the Department of State, overriding the facts about human trafficking.
The Watch List was created by my legislation to send a clear warning and enable egregious offenders to make specific reforms. It is not a place to hide our friends who fail to make real improvements.
Page 12 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
It is also deeply troubling that some countries not only turn a blind eye to trafficking, but actually embrace inhumane policies that facilitate or encourage the very crime they profess to abhor.
Athletes and fans are gathering in Germany for one of the premier worldwide sporting events of our day, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which opened last Friday—and many of us have already watched a number of those games on ESPN over the weekend. Over the course of 1 month, national soccer teams will be competing. And as we know, it is a scatter-sited competition spread over 12 venues throughout Germany.
Millions of fans will join in the festivities. For most soccer fans like myself, this quadrennial event is a showcase of world-class athleticism and teamwork. But looming in its shadow is the very real threat that the World Cup matches have become a catalyst and a magnet for sex trafficking into Germany. Those who work with victims report that trafficking for the so-called ''sex industry'' often heightens during major sports events. In Germany, the problem is exacerbated by the legalization of prostitution.
Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers, in a June 8 interview, observed that in Germany, many women are forced into prostitution. ''This is a fundamental human rights violation,'' he said. ''Women have become market commodities, which can be bought. And they cost less than a ticket for a football match.''
For the last year, the German Government has prepared for the World Cup, coordinating security efforts with all neighboring countries, and attending to a myriad of details associated with such international events. Traffickers have also worked overtime to exploit this opportunity to improve their illicit revenues through the expected rise in demand in the so-called sex industry.
Page 13 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Sadly, this is not idle speculation. AFP reported over the weekend that police in Latvia arrested a man suspected of selling at least six women to German brothels. Latvian and German police collaborated in a month-long investigation in which a suspect allegedly paid his friends 100 euros for each woman found. He, in turn, was paid 400 euros per woman by the German brothel.
We will hear testimony today from two women who have travelled from Russia to tell us about their horrific experiences being trafficked in Germany. Ms. Masha Gnezdilova and Ms. Irina Veselykh were deceived by offers of non-existent jobs in Germany, had their passports seized, were raped, and forced to work as prostitutes controlled by the Russian mafia.
I would just point out, parenthetically, that during the February meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly—and I serve as head of delegation—I raised this issue with our German counterparts, and raised it in the plenary session, and was met with an enormous amount of derision by some of the members of Parliament who thought that we should not be raising these kinds of issues.
I would point out that of the approximately 400,000 prostitutes in Germany, it is estimated that 75 percent of those who are abused in these houses of prostitution are foreigners, and many of those same women are raped and cruelly mistreated. And if they could, they would leave. Add to that the approximately 40,000—that is one estimate—who are expected to have been brought in by force, fraud, or coercion—trafficked to be part of the houses of prostitution's offerings.
Page 14 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The State Department gave Germany a Tier 1 rating again this year, and frankly, I think they missed the mark. I have raised that with Ambassador Miller on a number of occasions, and maybe he will speak to that during his testimony.
One other area that this Committee and I, personally, have spent a lot of time on is UN peacekeepers' complicity in trafficking and the abuse of young girls, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
We heard from Jayhall Lute, who came down from the United Nations, and we know that others within the UN system are trying extremely hard to excise this blight. She said that the blue helmets have become black and blue, and she is determined to rid all forms of trafficking and exploitation from the United Nations, as are many others within the UN system. And whether it be military deployments under the NATO, U.S., or any other banner, trafficking in that context needs to be stopped.
In conclusion, I want to applaud President Bush. In 2002 he issued an Executive Order that calls for zero tolerance within the United States military with regards to trafficking. And the Uniform Court of Military Justice recently has been reformed to include prostitution as an actionable offense, and hopefully that will lead to fewer women being mistreated by U.S. servicemen, or by any other nation, because we do need to lead by example.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Smith follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
Page 15 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Good morning. The Subcommittee will today hear expert testimony concerning the scourge of human trafficking—modern day slavery.
The U.S. Government estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 women, children and men are bought and sold across international borders each year and exploited through forced labor or commercial sex exploitation, and potentially millions more are trafficked internally within the borders of countries. Eighty percent of the victims are women and girls. An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign citizens are trafficked into the United States each year.
And now we know well that many American girls and young women—many of whom start out as ''runaways''—are bought, sold, abused, and raped throughout the United States.
(To combat the exploitation of Americans, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2005 not only requires the Attorney General to conduct prevalence studies of sex trafficking and unlawful commercial sex acts in the U.S. but the new law requires both the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to prepare reports on best practices to reduce demand. For the first time, the new law also authorizes $20 million for a Health and Human Services grants program for U.S. victims, $10 million for long-term residential treatment facilities and provides $50 million for a new grants program for state and local law enforcement.)
Today's hearing will focus on the findings in the State Department's sixth annual Trafficking in Persons Report, with a focus on progress made and on the significant challenges ahead.
Page 16 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Committee is privileged to have as our special guest Julia Ormond in her capacity as the UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Abolition of Slavery and Human Trafficking.
Ms. Ormond has traveled to Ghana, India, Cambodia, and Thailand to raise awareness about the horrors of human trafficking. Ms. Ormond has been a leader on a number of humanitarian issues including AIDS and refugee issues. She is the founding Chair of Film Aid International and is well known for her film roles in numerous movies including ''Legends of the Fall,'' ''Sabrina,'' ''First Knight,'' ''Barber of Siberia'' and many others. Ms. Ormond is also the Executive Producer of the 1996 Emmy award-winning documentary ''Calling of the Ghosts,'' a story about two women in Bosnia, caught in war where rape was as much an everyday weapon as bullets and bombs. We are extremely honored and privileged to have her with us today.
This is also the second of a two-part series of hearings on sex trafficking in connection with the World Cup soccer championship. (http://www.house.gov/international_relations/afhear.htm)
The traffickers who use and abuse human beings as commodities to be bought and sold must be tracked down, their nefarious operations crushed and the individuals who commit these heinous crimes sent to jail for a long, long time. All profits derived from selling women and children into slavery must be seized and put to good use like providing some semblance of restitution to the victims or for the construction of shelters.
The TIP report itself is mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), which I sponsored and which was signed into law in October 2000. In 2003, I sponsored a reauthorization and expansion of that Act which also became law, and, on January 10, 2006, President Bush signed into law my third anti-trafficking bill—the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005.
Page 17 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
These pieces of legislation have created a comprehensive framework for combating trafficking in persons abroad, the trafficking of foreign nationals into the United States, and the domestic trafficking of our own citizens. As a result, the United States has become a leader in addressing this human rights violation and encouraging other governments to do the same.
Since taking office, the Bush Administration has devoted more than $400 million to combat trafficking in more than 149 countries. The new law authorizes an additional $361 over two years to expand these efforts. Across the globe, governments are taking action to prevent trafficking, to prosecute the exploiters, and to give hope and restoration to those victimized by trafficking. With 4,700 convictions worldwide this year alone, the heinous crime of trafficking is at long last being punished. In the last two years alone, convictions have topped 7,700. Because a significant portion of U.S. foreign assistance is now contingent on whether a nation is meeting basic minimum standards specifically prescribed in the three TPVAs to prevent trafficking, protect victims and prosecute traffickers, 41 countries in the last year alone have passed tough new laws to end this modern day slavery. Shelters have been set up for victims. NGOs and faith communities have reached out to help heal survivors of trafficking.
I applaud Ambassador John Miller for keeping trafficking in the forefront of our human rights agenda and for the progress we are making. I also welcome the emphasis on forced labor in this year's report. Forced labor, in which people are enslaved and exploited for purposes of labor often within their own countries, is infrequently mentioned but affects anywhere from 4 to 27 million people worldwide. In places such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Brazil, Jordan, Kuwait, and Taiwan—all ranked as Tier 3 or on the Tier 2 Watch List in this year's Report—foreign migrant workers or these countries' own citizens are trapped and held in slave-like working conditions. Not only must the victims be freed and properly compensated; their employers must be held responsible and forced labor punished as the heinous crime it is.
Page 18 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
While the TIP report is good—the best yet I would submit—I am nevertheless disappointed that the State Department has again failed to place India on Tier 3 with other government who are not making significant anti-trafficking efforts. Millions of men, women, and children, predominantly from India's Dalit caste, are in debt bondage and face involuntary servitude in brick kilns, rice mills, and zari embroidery factories. India's placement on the Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year, despite its failure to create a national law enforcement response to the crime of trafficking, and its blatant unwillingness to address the massive problems of bonded labor and trafficking-related corruption, reeks of political considerations within the State Department overriding the facts about human trafficking. The Watch List was created by my legislation to send a clear warning and enable egregious offenders to make specific reforms. It's not a place to hide our friends who fail to make real improvements.
It is also deeply troubling that while some countries not only turn a blind eye to trafficking others embrace inhumane policies that actually facilitate or encourage the very crime they profess to abhor.
Athletes and fans are gathering in Germany for one of the premiere, world-wide sporting events of our day, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which opened last Friday. Over the course of one month at 12 venues throughout Germany, national soccer teams will be competing. Millions of fans will join in the festivities. For most soccer fans like myself, this quadrennial event is the showcase of world class athleticism and teamwork. But, looming in its shadow is the very real threat that the World Cup matches have become a catalyst and magnet for sex trafficking into Germany. Those that work with victims report that trafficking for the so-called sex industry often heightens during major sports events. In Germany, the problem is exacerbated by the legalization of prostitution.
Page 19 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, in a June 8th interview, observed that in Germany, many women are forced into prostitution. ''This is a fundamental human rights violation,'' he said. ''Women have become market commodities, which can be bought. And they cost less than a ticket for a football match.''
For the last year, the German Government has prepared for the World Cup, coordinating security efforts with all neighboring countries, and attending to the myriad of details associated with such major international events. Traffickers have also worked overtime to exploit this opportunity to improve their illicit revenues through the expected rise in demand in the so-called ''sex industry.''
Sadly, this is not idle speculation. AFP reported over the weekend that police in Latvia arrested a man suspected of selling at least six women to German brothels. Latvian and German police collaborated in a month-long investigation in which the suspect allegedly paid his friends 100 euros for each woman found. He, in turn, was paid 400 euros per woman by the German brothel.
We will hear testimony today from two women who have traveled from Russia to tell us about their horrific experiences being trafficked to Germany. Ms. Masha Gnezdilova and Ms. Irina Veselykh were deceived by offers of non-existent jobs in Germany, their passports seized, beaten, raped, and forced to work as prostitutes, controlled by the Russian mafia.
During the February meeting in Vienna, as Head of the U.S. Delegation and as Special Representative on Human Trafficking for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, I vigorously raised concerns about the trafficking prevention efforts for the World Cup. I was joined by other European parliamentarians who were sobered by the expectation that, especially since the matches are being held in Germany which legalized pimping and prostitution in 2001, the World Cup fans would be legally free to rape women in brothels or even in mobile units designed specifically for this form of exploitation. Of the approximately 400,000 prostitutes in Germany, it is estimated that 75 percent of those who are abused in these houses of prostitution are foreigners, many from Central and Eastern Europe.
Page 20 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act requires the State Department to analyze and report annually on the efforts of governments to combat trafficking in persons around the world. Germany received a Tier 1 rating again this year—meaning that the Government is meeting minimum standards to combat trafficking. Frankly, the German Government has done some good work to identify and protect victims of trafficking and to prosecute their exploiters. And yet, these efforts are at odds with its laws on legalized prostitution, and in some cases the facilitation of prostitution by local governments, which provides direct and indirect sanction for sex trafficking.
Legalized prostitution is not a policy that the German Government has to embrace. I am aware that the German Government is supporting public awareness efforts regarding trafficking for forced prostitution in the context of the World Cup. This is a somewhat absurd effort given that the legalized prostitution infrastructure is gearing up to expand its capacity during the World Cup and there is every reason to believe that the ''new recruits'' will be trafficked women and girls. I see this as flagrant state complicity in promoting sex trafficking. I believe Germany can do much more to prevent the sexual exploitation of women and children by attacking the demand that fuels this problem.
It is time for Chancellor Merkel to take a stand and speak out against the exploitation of women and children in the name of sport. I would encourage her government to turn the tables—beginning now with the World Cup—by committing to reverse Germany's laws on prostitution.
In this regard, on June 9th I introduced House Resolution 860, calling on the Government of Germany to take immediate action to combat sex trafficking in connection with the 2006 FIFA World Cup. I ask that my Colleagues expeditiously support and move this bill forward to the House floor. As the world's attention is turned to soccer, those committed to ending the tragedy of trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation will be watching how Germany protects the most vulnerable.
Page 21 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Finally, let me say a few words about the prevention of trafficking by armed forces. In response to evils such as the sexual exploitation of young women and girls by UN peacekeepers in the Congo—some as young as 11 or 12, and in exchange for a banana or a dollar—the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 includes provisions requiring the US government to press international organizations to do more in this area. Section 104(e)(1) requires the annual trafficking report to include information on measures taken by the UN, NATO, OSCE, and other similar bodies to prevent trafficking, and I am pleased to see the inclusion of such information in this year's report. Section 104(e)(2) requires a report by the Secretary of State at least 15 days prior to voting for a new or reauthorized peacekeeping mission which describes measures taken by the international organization to prevent trafficking and analyzes their effectiveness. I have not seen any such reports by the Department to date, and would ask for a clarification of where we are on this.
In conclusion, I look forward to hearing the testimony of all of our distinguished witnesses who have a vast amount of experience with these and other international trafficking issues.
Mr. SMITH. I would like to now turn to my friend and colleague, Tom Tancredo, for any opening comments he might have.
Mr. TANCREDO. I have no opening statement.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Again, I have already briefly introduced Ambassador Julia Ormond, but just let me say how delighted this Committee is to have her as our witness today to provide insights from her trips, and tell us about the work the United Nations, and she personally, are doing on behalf of the victims of human trafficking.
Page 22 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Ambassador Ormond, the floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF MS. JULIA ORMOND, GOODWILL AMBASSADOR FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING, UN OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME
Ambassador ORMOND. Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members of the Committee and staff, good morning.
On behalf of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime and its Executive Director, Antonia Maria Costa, who unfortunately could not join me here today, I thank you very warmly for convening this hearing.
As the UN's Goodwill Ambassador to combat human trafficking and slavery, I recently, as you said, had the opportunity to visit Ghana, India, Cambodia, and Thailand. I am deeply grateful to all parties for the opportunity to testify this morning about my insights and observations during those travels.
I am going to give an abbreviated version of the written testimony, I just wanted to say that.
Honorable Members of Congress, we applaud your outstanding efforts to combat modern-day slavery, your passage of the landmark Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Law, and subsequent legislation, and are grateful to the United States Government for providing, in 2005 alone, over $25 million in voluntary contributions for UNODC's work, of which over $2 million were allocated for our anti-human trafficking efforts.
Page 23 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I have learned that in the realm of trafficking, the solutions lie in finding culturally appropriate answers that reflect not only a country's present circumstance, but specifically embrace that culture's history, and often our intertwined histories.
On my recent trip to India, I learned about the different range of debt bondage and how it keys into trafficking and modern-day slavery. That bondage in India exists in different levels, and, as opposed to debt, it is illegal. Culturally, however, even in its severest form, the practice often is not regarded as slavery.
Thankfully, India is now enjoying enormous economic expansion, overcoming the aftermath, for instance, of British Colonial policy, which has hugely contributed to India's current challenges and relationship to trafficking and modern-day slavery.
The 2000 UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime contains the anti-trafficking protocol which lays out a holistic strategy referred to as the three Ps: Prevention, protection, and prosecution. And to this list, I would like to add my own fourth P, prioritization.
Of course, I am on a learning curve as the UNODC Goodwill Ambassador. However, in a short amount of time, one crucial reality has become clear to me: Governments, and only governments, are uniquely situated to reverse the course of trafficking.
Thousands of extraordinary NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), are providing incredibly effective rehabilitation for the victims. And while they can be supportive, they cannot attack the problems at source in the same way the governments can, especially the United States.
Page 24 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
We know that trafficking involves millions of people and produces billions of dollars, rivaling the drug trade. We also know that criminals are shifting from the trafficking of weapons and drugs into the trafficking of people, especially children, because it is easy to get away with. And unless we prioritize, the traffickers will profit.
While we commit to the eradication of global poverty, the lack of economic opportunity and lack of free education worldwide remain key contributory factors. For example, in recent years Thailand has made great strides to offer and sustain girls' education, which greatly has reduced the number of Thai girls falling victim to trafficking. However, the hill tribes in Thailand remain especially vulnerable due to an inability to speak Thai, which hugely impacts the educational options.
Today we shall hear testimony from Marsha and Irina, two Russian women, who themselves were victims of trafficking. I commend them for their courage, and I thank them for being here today. They stand with many women globally who believe that they are departing for better opportunities and promises of decent salaries as household help, waitresses, or teachers, and instead they end up forced into prostitution.
Part of my role is to talk to these victims, when they are willing, about their experiences. In Cambodia and Thailand, I spoke with many such women, children, and men—the vast majority of whom had specifically been trafficked into forced prostitution.
The conversations are always painful, and I am still learning. I believe, though, that it is important to appreciate the level of abuse that virtually always goes hand-in-hand with being trafficked.
Page 25 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The reality is that not everyone survives this ordeal. These people are often functionally invisible. They lack either birth records through lack of birth registration, or citizenship, or they lack legal status in a country. Not surprisingly, invisible people are incredibly disposable. Victims and survivors and NGOs ask that I carry their message to others that may be in a position to effect change.
I have met with many girls and women from many shelters, some girls so young it was just hard to comprehend their fate. Girls as young as 5, 7, and 12 who had been victims of rape, then sold into prostitution.
There is a specific phenomena in this era of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Clients seeking HIV-negative assurances will pay large sums to buy very young girls, who are promised to be virginal. Over the period of the week, these girls are raped repeatedly by their client. The girls then are returned to the brothel, only to be taken to clinics where they are sewn up and sold again. This cycle can be repeated as many as eight or nine times before the girl enters a life of forced prostitution.
Other girls talked of being chained by their relatives in order to force them to enter marriage or prostitution. Some NGOs in one Asian country reported that it is common for girls to be electrocuted, drugged, beaten with or without instruments. One girl lost a finger for supposedly not satisfying a client.
It is common to be stripped naked and caged with snakes and insects, such as scorpions and millipedes, placed not just in the cage with them, but into their mouths and private parts as punishment. These girls often die from the stings and bites.
Page 26 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I believe it is worth reminding ourselves that this is what is termed as force and coercion in the protocol against trafficking in persons. And it is worth our absorbing that reality for the individuals concerned.
Sexual abuse is often present in many different types of trafficking. One of the last girls I met with in India had been trafficked into domestic service. She is 12. She is the victim of rape by five different men. She is 7 months pregnant.
Trafficking is not just women and girls, there are many male victims, too. In Thailand, I spoke with a boy who had been trafficked into the fishing industry. He escaped by spending 2 days floating at sea on a barrel before luckily being rescued.
In India, I met with boys who were trafficked into the carpet loom industry, one particular boy who had been enslaved for 10 years, since he was 5 years old. He showed me scars from beatings with implements from when he had tried to escape. He told of having a cut finger placed in boiling water in place of proper medical treatment.
In Ghana, I recently visited Yeji and worked with the local nongovernmental organization called APPLE, which investigates the child slavery around Lake Volta and the fishing villages. Children, some as young as 4 years old, are made to dive in dangerous and extremely cold water to untangle nets. They are beaten with oars when they surface for breath, and then they are forced to dive again. One recalled intense memories of his nose bleeding because he was forced to dive deeper and deeper. Another described how he would calm the fish by placing his fingers in their eye sockets and pressing, and how you had to avoid getting your fingers trapped in the gills of the fish, or the fish could overpower you and may drown you. When I asked him how big the fish were, his arms spread wide. I think we need to imagine that life.
Page 27 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Someone said to me that if people aren't finding evidence of trafficking, then they are not looking. It is everywhere, and it affects us all. But this is not yet another global problem that cannot be solved. I don't want anyone to leave believing that there are no solutions. There are fantastic models out there, and they are working. Business communities and NGOs are stepping up to take responsibility.
The Cocoa Protocol, put together by Free the Slaves, demonstrates the cocoa industry's commitment to bringing slave-free labor practices to the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Microsoft's initiative of worldwide training for police on computer-facilitated crimes against children is another excellent initiative.
Close to 1,000 children have been released from Lake Volta. In Cambodia, an NGO called Hagar provides such a fabulously comprehensive approach—showing that rehabilitated victims can take on skills training and work in profitable businesses, from design to catering to soy product manufacturing—to such a successful degree that they now sell some of their products in Niemann Marcus. Hagar also helped an 11-year-old girl stand before a judge and send her trafficker to prison for 17 years.
Nothing is more moving to me than the resilience and spiritual strength shown by victims. Those girls who suffered mercilessly have been helped to re-find their voices and joyfully sing about walking into the light. The terrifyingly young girls whose virginity was repeatedly stripped from them have found the dignity and grace to sing of the flowering that is our passage to womanhood.
Page 28 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
We, as men and women, must do everything in our power to support the shelters' work, and make it the safety net for victims, not rely on the victims to deliver the solution of piece-meal prosecution.
The media has played a phenomenal role in bringing this issue to the public's attention. So often issues don't get traction because politicians feel that the public hasn't shown that it cares enough. But the media has ensured that the public knows about this issue, and the public definitely cares.
We must appreciate that while modern-day slavery and trafficking is a global issue, it is also in our back yard. We must make trafficking a priority, we must focus on solutions, and we must allocate the resources needed to achieve the vision allowed by the anti-trafficking protocol. Together we can all achieve these goals, strategically and financially. And to that end I look forward to working with you all.
Thank you, and I would be glad to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Ormond follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MS. JULIA ORMOND, GOODWILL AMBASSADOR FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING, UN OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME
Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the Committee and staff—good morning. On behalf of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (''UNODC'') and its Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, who unfortunately could not join me here today, I thank you warmly for convening this hearing.
Page 29 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
As the UN's Goodwill Ambassador to combat human trafficking and slavery, I recently had the opportunity to visit Ghana, India, Cambodia and Thailand. I am deeply grateful to all parties for the opportunity to testify this morning about my insights and observations during those travels.
Honorable members of Congress, we applaud your outstanding efforts to combat modern day slavery, your passage of the landmark Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Law, and subsequent legislation, and are grateful to the United States government for providing in 2005 alone over $25 million in voluntary contributions for UNODC's work, of which over $2 million were allocated for our anti-human trafficking efforts.
In the words of Hermann Melville: ''We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads and along these sympathetic fibers our actions run as causes and return to us as results.''
So I have learnt that in the realm of trafficking,(see footnote 1) the solutions lie in finding culturally appropriate answers that reflect not only a country's present circumstance but specifically embrace that culture's history. And often, our intertwined histories.
On my recent trip to India, I learned about the different range of debt bondage and how it keys into trafficking and modern-day slavery.
Debt bondage in India exists in different levels, and as opposed to debt, it is illegal. Culturally, however, even in its severest form, the practice often is not regarded as slavery.
Page 30 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
But within this broken system, momentum is building to regard debt bondage for its true nature—as slavery—in an effort to liberate those slaves. I visited quarries where entire villages had been enslaved for generations. Under a brutal heat, men and women clothed in beautiful saris bust up rock to make sand. I spoke with a wizened and elderly man who remembered his grandfather being enslaved. They never knew they were slaves though, until educated by a local non-governmental organization called Sankal, which helped liberate one villager, who in turn worked to liberate the next, who together worked to liberate another.
Once reaching a certain tipping point, the entire village was prepared to walk out, despite threats of violence, the burning of their village and the loss of a village girl. They now quarry their own land and have influenced many others in debt bondage. Their liberation continues; I met with villagers who were either thinking of or who had successfully run for local election, and who have participated in a movement that has now freed more than 10,000 slaves. To witness their backbreaking work, to hear their stories, it is difficult to comprehend their being unaware of their own plight.
I had flown to New Delhi from a conference in Bangkok, but as a British citizen, my journey to India really had began much earlier. On 2nd February 1835 Lord Macaulay addressed the British Parliament:
I have traveled across the great length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and Therefore, I propose that we replace her old & ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native self culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.
Page 31 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
This was the genesis of British policy that has hugely contributed to India's current challenges and relationship to modern-day slavery. Thankfully, India now enjoys enormous expansion, and even those liberated only recently from slavery have developed an unbroken self-esteem.
I know how lucky I am to have been born into a different generation. To have been born when and where I was—in a country where no one is shooting at me, I face no unnecessary risk of dying of HIV/AIDS, nor do I lack access to clean water. But merely through a twist do I hear about—rather than experience—the horrors of trafficking and slavery, because I know in my heart that ''there but for the grace of God go I.'' I know that the victims are victims of circumstance. All of us must change that circumstance, and change it we can.
The path has been created with the 2000 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which contains the Anti-Trafficking Protocol. Otherwise known as the Palermo Protocol, this document lays out a holistic strategy, referred to as the ''Three Ps'': Prevention, Protection and Prosecution. By implementing this approach, we can change the circumstance.
To tackle prevention, among other areas, we must educate through skills training for adults, so that they are not vulnerable to being trafficked, trafficking their own children, or becoming traffickers themselves.
In prosecution, Governments must deal seriously with corruption. They must understand that the international community condemns corruption, which deters investment in their country, thus providing a breeding ground to trafficking and slavery. The rule of law is meaningless without enforcement. And enforcement is meaningless without a strong and just judicial system.
Page 32 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Trafficking is one of the most fantastically difficult problems that we face today. But traffickers cannot create demand; were there no demand whatsoever, criminals would be unlikely to generate it, because criminal businesses tend to be opportunistic and not developmental. The Anti-Trafficking Protocol presents our opportunity to unite internationally against this criminal element, which threatens our global security. It provides a consensus definition of trafficking that becomes the springboard to change.
As the UNODC Goodwill Ambassador, I face a steep learning curve. However, in a short amount of time I have been horrified by the extent of the problem—the searing depth of pain experienced by the victims, and the extraordinary level of profit to the traffickers. And so I have been given permission to add my own ''P'' to the ''Three Ps'' of prevention, protection and prosecution: Prioritize. [Prioritization?]
If we are to reverse course on the rise of trafficking, one crucial reality has become clear to me—governments, and only governments, are uniquely situated to implement the systemic changes necessary.
Thousands of extraordinary NGOs and CSOs are providing incredibly effective rehabilitation for the victims. Yet while they can be supportive, they cannot attack the root problems in the same way as Governments. Governments and member states need to rise to the challenge of making this issue a priority and work together—without shaming and blaming—to create a structure recognizing the extremity of this issue.
Your presence here today reflects not only the highly commendable lead assumed by the United States. It is, I trust, a reflection of this country's commitment and stamina moving forward. Despite the difficulties even in defining the nature of trafficking, the U.S. government already has shown particular tenacity. Moreover, your bipartisan collaboration has yielded exemplary results. It is an honor to speak before you, and I urge the Congress to continue to recognize and embrace this Nation's global influence on other member states, not least of all by it's own internal example.
Page 33 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
It is clear that before prevention, protection, prosecution and prioritization can be effective, we must form a clear picture of the nature of this beast. And as we gathered further research, this grim picture becomes more clear.
Despite the excellent work demonstrated in the recent U.N. Global Report on Trafficking in persons and the (second?) recently released TIP report, we all know that we don't yet have accurate statistics on trafficking and slavery because of its inherently covert nature.
We do know, however, that it's millions of people and it's billions of dollars and that it is rivaling the drug trade. We do know that criminals are in fact shifting from the trafficking of weapons and drugs into the trafficking of people—especially children—because until we prioritize, the traffickers will profit.
Tass, the Russian News service, reported in 2002 that increasingly organized crime is moving away from guns, drugs and tobacco to children, especially pornography. This is due to its very low cost, ease to produce, and huge consumer demand. It is extremely profitable with very low risk.
One of the things that research reveals is why people are vulnerable to being trafficked in the first place. Lack of economic opportunity and lack of free education worldwide are key contributory factors.
In recent years, Thailand has made great strides to offer and sustain girls' education. This effort greatly has reduced the numbers of Thai girls falling victim to trafficking. However, the hill tribes in Thailand remain especially vulnerable. Due to an inability to speak Thai, educational options are limited, creating a strong drop-out rate and vulnerability to being trafficked. Combined with the immense cultural pressure for young girls to support their families, these hill tribe girls have become more and more present in the shelters.
Page 34 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The vast majority of trafficked victims are those seeking to better their lives, or the lives of their parents and children. Many families are duped into believing that their children are being taken to receive an education. By definition, all trafficked victims then are coerced, forced, or in more brutal circumstances, kidnapped and transported into slavery where they are horrifically exploited, or possibly killed.
For many years, they can be trapped in these circumstances. Commonly, they are convinced that if they try to escape, local police will punish them, deport them, throw them into jail or worse.
Frequently, traffickers convince victims that they are working to pay off debts accrued by their transportation, room, and board. In reality, however, this is an illegal debt that they can never pay off because, if they are lucky, they are provided only a meager subsistence.
Trafficked victims of all types often are held by psychological threats to their families or to themselves and are subjected to all manner of abuses. I heard the first-hand story of a domestic help who was physically, emotionally, spiritually, and sexually abused on a daily basis. After one particularly brutal beating, she was given a spade and told to dig her own grave. When she said that the police would find her body, her captor told her that he would use a special liquid to dissolve her bones so that no one could tell she'd existed. It's not what you expect when you dream of coming to California.
Another woman in America told me of how her captor gave her no food, so she had to try to grow food surreptitiously in order to survive. For years her subsistence consisted of one pot noodle each day. She slept on the cement floor of her captor's garage, unable to reach out to anyone due to a lack of community support and her inability to speak English. Repeatedly, her trafficker threatened to kill her and her family back home, should she try to escape or turn her in.
Page 35 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The vast majority of victims take time—often months—to open up. This makes identification more difficult, but not impossible. One Romanian victim I heard took three months to open up having been arrested in Italy working the streets, a euphemism that when she first heard it she thought meant she was going to be a street cleaner. Her first so-called client was a police officer. Often she would service police officers; she knew because they expected it for free, flashing their badge instead of payment.
We can better support victims by educating police on how to identify trafficking victims, by being knowledgeable about victims' rights, by engaging the support and resources of NGOs working on the issue, and by briefing law enforcement officials on how to deal with rape victims. It is especially important that officials recognize battered wives syndrome and Stockholm Syndrome, since victims often are in these states when and if they are discovered.
It is not acceptable that law enforcement in any country is understaffed, under-equipped and under-funded to fight trafficking. However, we need the education of all participants in the chain—whether an impoverished fisherman in Ghana, who is as much at risk of becoming a trafficker as a local child is of being trafficked. It's educating government, judicial systems, local police, border control, and Goodwill Ambassadors.
A large part of current spending goes to protection, which currently is provided by the excellent rehabilitative care of NGOs and some CSOs.
Today we shall hear the testimony of Marsha Gnezdilova and Irina Veselykh, two Russian women, who themselves were victims of trafficking. I commend them for their courage and thank them for being here today. They stand with many women globally who believe that they are departing for better opportunities and promises of decent salaries as household help, waitresses, or teachers. Instead, they end up forced into prostitution.
Page 36 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Part of my role is to talk to victims, when they are willing, about their experiences. In Cambodia and Thailand, I spoke with many such women, children and men—the vast majority of whom had specifically been trafficked into forced prostitution. The conversations always are painful, and I am still learning. I believe though, that it's important to appreciate the level of abuse that virtually always goes hand-in-hand with being trafficked.
I have experienced the moving testimony of brave victims transcending their trauma in the hope of assisting others. I also have heard from ashamed and repentant traffickers, who openly acknowledge their wrong-doing, and parents who have either fallen foul of false promise or have faced the horrific moral dilemma of knowingly selling one child into a life of servitude in order to save other children.
Victims and survivors and NGOs ask that I carry their message to others that may be in a position to effect change. For me, this first-hand testimony has become a primal motivating factor.
Ironically one of the issues the UNODC itself has discovered is that they need to give specific training to female police officers who struggle to comprehend that it is possible to force someone to prostitute themselves. Some have a hard time relating to this, believing that they sooner would kill themselves. Not only the female police struggle with this misconception. In some instances, a disregard for prostitutes and their well-being reportedly has impaired political resolve.
Of course, the reality is that not everyone survives this ordeal. These people often are functionally invisible—they lack either birth records or citizenship, or they lack legal status in a country. Not surprisingly, invisible people are incredibly disposable. I have heard reports of women jumping from windows to end their plight. I have heard reports of women either shot or beaten to death for trying to escape. Often, this occurs in front of others, in order to secure their obedience.
Page 37 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I met with many girls and women from many shelters. Some girls so young it was hard to comprehend their fate. Girls as young as 5, 7 and 12 who had been victims of rape then sold into prostitution.
There is a specific phenomenon in this era of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Clients seeking HIV-negative assurances will pay large sums to buy very young girls, who are promised to be virginal. Over the period of a week, these girls are raped repeatedly by their client, who are satisfied only by seeing blood. The girls then are retuned to the brothel, only to be taken to clinics where they are sewn up and sold again, as many as eight or nine more times before entering a life of forced prostitution.
Other girls talked of being chained by their relatives in order to force them to enter marriage or prostitution. At an NGO called Hagar, one particular victim, whom I shall call Bopha, told me that at eleven years old, she was beaten so badly that she now struggles with a colostomy bag. Her potential to have her own children viciously beaten from her, traffickers forced sand down her throat in an effort to strangle her, and then they left her to bleed to death.
Some NGOs in one Asian country reported that it's common for girls to be electrocuted, drugged, beaten with or without instruments; one girl lost a finger for supposedly not satisfying a client. It's common to be stripped naked and caged with snakes and insects such as scorpions and millipedes—placed not just in the cage with them but into their mouths and private parts as punishment. These girls often die from the stings and bites.
Page 38 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I believe it is worth reminding ourselves that this is what is termed as ''force and coercion'' in the Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons, and why victims often find it difficult to return home. I believe it is worth our absorbing that reality for the individuals concerned.
Trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery and has many faces, but follows very strong patterns with almost identical outcomes. This is the face of forced prostitution in today's world but in fact forced prostitution accounts for less than half of all trafficking worldwide.
Sexual abuse is often present in many different types of trafficking. One of the last girls I met with in India had been trafficked into domestic service. She is twelve. She is the victim of rape by five different men. She is seven months pregnant.
Trafficking is not just women and girls, there are many male victims too.
Imagine being three years old and being taken from your family in Pakistan and trafficked to the Middle East to be used in the elitist sport of camel racing as a jockey. Imagine being starved to keep your weight down, brutalized so you will work for nothing, and sexually abused by your captors. Imagine knowing that as you grow older and bigger, you increasingly become disposable. Imagine that life.
In Thailand, I spoke with a boy who had been trafficked into the fishing industry. He escaped by spending two days floating at sea on a barrel before luckily being rescued. In India, I met with boys who were trafficked into the carpet loom industry. One particular boy had been enslaved for ten years, since he was five years old. He showed me scars from beatings with implements from when he had tried to escape. He told of having a cut finger placed in boiling water in place of proper medical treatment.
Page 39 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Someone said to me that if people aren't finding evidence of trafficking, then they're not looking. It is everywhere, and it affects us all.
In Ghana they were not particularly looking for trafficking but found it when a number of bodies washed up on the shores of Lake Volta.
I recently traveled to Yeji, Ghana and worked with a local NGO called Apple, which investigates the child slavery around Lake Volta and the fishing villages. Children; some as young as four years old are made to dive in dangerous and extremely cold water to untangle nets. They are beaten with oars when they surface for breath, and then they are forced to dive again. One recalled intense memories of his nose bleeding because he was forced to dive deeper and deeper. Another described how he would calm the fish by placing his fingers in their eye sockets and press, and how to avoid getting your fingers trapped in the gills or the fish could overpower you and may drown you. When I asked him how big the fish were, his arms spread wide.
These children are not allowed to go to school, to hospital if ill or to return to their families. Some are forced to dive at night, and many of the children drown. I was told that in years past, live but sick children would be thrown into the water with weights attached to their bodies—treated as bait. Imagine that life.
Imagine checking into the Ramada Inn in Florida, only to discover that right next door is a slave camp for male agricultural workers, held by armed guards.
In the developed world, we are simply better placed to be able to make the eradication of trafficking and modern-day slavery a priority. With the UN protocols in place on anti-trafficking, that chiefly means making it a financial priority.
Page 40 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
While every government confronts the reality of limited resources, I think it is worth remembering that the billions of dollars that traffickers make on their victims are billions of dollars that should be going into the world's economy to make countries thrive rather than into the traffickers' pockets. These victims are a silenced work-force who, given the right amount of care and rehabilitation to set themselves on the path to sustained freedom, become productive members of society, taxpaying members of society at that.
We have a responsibility not out economic sense or out of noble obligation, but because the West has either contributed in a present cultural dynamic or is currently creating demand. We are very much part of the problem.
We need to acknowledge the effects of trade agreements on the developing world that broadens the divide between rich developed countries and the developing poor. We need to think about free people every time we think of free trade. We need to support the MDGs with a greater percentage of our GDP and seriously commit to the eradication of poverty.
Clearly we are vulnerable to this dark side of globalization and it's impact on transatlantic crime. Today more than ever we need a unified coordinated global response that asks governments to work together and make this a priority. Traffickers show a total disregard for human life, and that makes us all vulnerable to the assistance and information that can be given by traffickers to terrorists.
Traffickers cannot create demand, and criminal businesses tend to be opportunistic rather than developmental. Poverty and corruption frequently go hand in hand; trafficking and modern-day slavery thrive in corrupt environments. Trafficking cannot exist without a degree of participation from the government, the police, and the judicial system. This is the ugly face, the dark side of globalization.
Page 41 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
It takes a tenacity and readiness to embrace and support governments around the world that demonstrate a determination to eradicate corruption and achieve transparency that perhaps could be buoyed up by an appreciation of our shared histories. And while the onus is on us to be supportive as they struggle to reach a higher goal, so we have to hold ourselves to the highest possible standards. The UN has struggled with its own issues with peacekeeping troops who have gotten involved in trafficking. I commend the zero tolerance policy advocated by the UN. But, while the problem has been recognized and a strong strategy has been developed to combat it, we have to be more vigorous in implementation and heed Prince Zeid AI-Hussein's recent report showing that this policy is not yet effective enough.
The UN like most member states is working to achieve its mandate.
I believe one of the finest documents in existence is the UN declaration on human rights and modern day slavery is one of the most egregious violations of that document; that we all agree on. Trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery; a violation that globalization has ripped open and flung to every corner of our planet. This is not a new phenomenon—it is the surviving and thriving mutation of one of the oldest issues in the world, one we have never conquered; but humanity has now surely reached the point where we are far better placed to do so.
It has been a momentous step forward to see the UNODC and global community classify trafficking as a crime, however, it is important to remember that trafficking means the abuse over and over and over again of its victims. It means that a multitude of crimes are committed to reach the end result.
Page 42 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Such offenses include but are not limited to trafficking in human beings; forgery; involuntary servitude; forced or compulsory labor; debt bondage; forced marriage; forced abortion; forced pregnancy; torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; rape; sexual assault; bodily injury; murder; kidnapping; unlawful confinement; labor exploitation; withholding of identity papers; and corruption. Yet the resources committed to resolve trafficking and prosecute the criminals are nowhere near those devoted to homicide. We have to make this a priority.
But this is not yet another global problem that cannot be solved. I don't want anyone to leave believing that there are no solutions. There are fantastic models out there, and they are working.
We should all come together and devote all of our energies, values and opinions to finding concrete ways to fight this. Trafficking is a human rights issue, from child soldiers asked to fight, kill and die for someone else's cause, to camel jockeys strapped to camels in blistering desert heat, to young fishermen boys forced to dive in the dark and drown, to the crushed domestic worker, to the child raped and filmed to be abused again and again and again in internet porn.
Business communities are stepping up to take responsibility. The Cocoa Protocol put together by Free the Slaves demonstrates the cocoa industry's commitment to bringing slave-free labor practices to the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Microsoft's initiative of worldwide training for police on computer facilitated crimes against children is another excellent initiative. They deserve our thanks, our respect and our attention.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank and commend all of the NGOs and shelters that have helped me and whose work is an example to us all of how it should be.
Page 43 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The International Organization for Migration, in collaboration with Apple and other local NGOs have implemented programs that are now close to releasing 1,000 of those trafficked children around Lake Volta, bringing alternative sustainable freedom to them and their families.
In Cambodia, the NGO called Hagar provides such a fabulously comprehensive approach showing that rehabilitated victims can take on skills training and work in profitable businesses, from design to catering to soy product manufacturing, to such a successful degree that they now sell some of their products in Neiman Marcus.
They helped now eleven-year old and barren Bopha stand before a judge, and with a hoarse but clear voice, she spoke out to send her trafficker to prison for seventeen years.
Girls at another shelter reminded me of the words of Pablo Neruda: ''You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.''
Nothing is more moving to me than the resilience and spiritual strength shown by victims. Those girls who suffered mercilessly who have been helped to re-find their voices and joyfully sing about walking into the light. The terrifyingly young girls whose virginity was repeatedly stripped from them have found the dignity and grace to sing of the flowering that is our passage to womanhood.
We as men and women must do everything in our power to support the shelters work and make it the safety-net for victims not rely on the victims to deliver the solution of piece-meal prosecution.
Page 44 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The media has played a phenomenal role in bringing this issue to the public's attention. So often issues don't get traction because politicians feel that the public hasn't shown that it cares enough. But the media has ensured that the public knows about this issue, and the public definitely cares.
We must appreciate that while modern-day slavery and trafficking is a global issue, it is also in our backyard.
We must make trafficking a priority.
We must focus on solutions.
We must allocate the resources needed to achieve the vision allowed by the anti-trafficking protocol.
Together, we can achieve these goals—strategically and financially. To that end, I look forward to working with you all.
Thank you, and I would be glad to answer any questions.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Ambassador, for that very eloquent statement and for the written submission which, without objection, will be made a part of the record, which went into even more detail. And I frankly wish you had taken the time to do it all, because it is filled with riveting cases, individual examples, some of which you began to cite orally. So thank you so much for your leadership.
Page 45 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I do have a couple of questions. I know that you visited Cambodia. Cambodia is one of those countries that the Trafficking in Persons Report has moved off the Tier 3 egregious violator list, to Tier 2 Watch List. And the point is made in the report that during the last year, the Cambodian Government stepped up efforts to arrest, prosecute, and convict traffickers; that the Cambodian Government made clear progress in its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. However, it provided only limited assistance to victims, and they made modest efforts to promote awareness on the prevention side.
I was wondering if you might share some additional insights that you had with regards to Cambodia. It would appear, after being tone deaf in previous years, the Cambodian authorities are finally getting it. And I think your visit probably helped spur them along.
Ambassador ORMOND. Thank you. I would definitely say that the sense from Cambodia was that they had definitely made progress. There was movement. But from the NGOs, the feeling was that it really needed to step up, that it needed to continue on that path.
My own experience with Cambodia was, I think, a reflection of 40 years of civil war, and a particularly violent form of trafficking. Our particular focus was asked from the NGOs for the children, and to specifically do something about the children and the rape incidences that I talked about.
So yes, they have moved forward, but they need to do a great deal more.
Mr. SMITH. Okay. Let me just raise another country that has a serious problem as a source country, and that is Russia. We have with us today Dr. Juliette Engel, who is the founder of MiraMed and has done an enormous amount of work in rescuing young girls in Russia, and has helped us with our witnesses today. She, herself, testified at our hearing just a few months ago.
Page 46 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
One of the things that your Goodwill Ambassador position can do is help wake up member states of the United Nations that they have a problem. Our Embassies are trying to do it, and every time we meet with other parliamentarians, we raise the issue.
I will never forget in 1999, I was at a parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and I offered a resolution on human trafficking, and was met with such utter disbelief by the Russian delegation, the Ukrainians and others. One year later at a parliamentary assembly, a similar venue in terms of debate on issues, they joined in and were on board, having accepted the problem in the short time of a year.
One of the things that Dr. Engel has done so well is to bring witnesses forward, not only to help them obviously get their lives back together and to rescue them, but also to help us really know the human face of a trafficked woman.
I remember in 1999 my wife, Marie, members of our staff and I met for about 3 hours with women who had been trafficked. As they told their stories, there wasn't a dry eye among any of us. And that became the mobilizing, it became a priority, your other P, for me and for others as we met with those trafficked women.
And I am wondering how you might be able to bring that message to the diplomats in New York. They deal with a lot of issues. Iran is on the docket, there are so many issues. But this issue is tearing the heart out of women, especially women, each and every day—creating new victims every day. As we all know, after the sale of drugs, trafficking in women is either second or third in terms of money maker for organized crime.
Page 47 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Maybe you might want to speak to that, whether or not, at the UN itself, you are able to reach out to diplomats. And secondly, if you do make a trip to Russia, I would hope you would visit MiraMed and see the good work of the Angel Coalition in Moscow and throughout Russia.
Ambassador ORMOND. I would be happy to explore anything with the UN in terms of approaching diplomats. We actually did start with a trip to Russia prior to the ceremony that made me the Goodwill Ambassador.
I believe that in my experience, every member state has its own level of denial or understanding of how their own specific culture makes certain people vulnerable to trafficking.
I have a particular soft spot for Russia because I have worked there many times. And I feel a great deal can be done in terms of public service announcements and educating people.
But I know that one of the times that I worked there, a survey was being done in the 1990s that asked Russian children what they wanted to be when they grew up. And 60 percent of 14-year-old boys said they wanted to be hard-currency taxi drivers, and 60 percent of 14-year-old girls said that they wanted to become high-currency prostitutes. And they think that it is a real reflection of the economic instability that Russia faced, in terms of how people were desperate for an out.
Page 48 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
But I think what has happened is that has changed over time to people wanting valid work, and being duped into being trafficked.
Mr. SMITH. Okay. I would hope, and you probably are already doing this, that you and your office will avail themselves of the good reporting that is done by the U.S. missions abroad. Because part of the data collection that goes into the TIP Report, all of which obviously does not end up on the pages of the report itself, might be very useful, and that kind of collaboration could expand. Because I know that you put out your own report just a few months ago, which I think was a very, very good effort, as well.
You made the point that functionally invisible people are disposable. Boy, that is a very powerful phrase. You also point out that the lack of language skills often prevents victims from escaping their abuse. Would you spend a moment or 2 speaking about the educational issues, since we know that microcredit lending is helpful as they are a little older, but it would seem to me that the earlier we start with education, the better.
Ambassador ORMOND. In particular with the hill tribes, one of the things that I encountered was that there are some 30 different languages within the hill tribes. So you need more than 30 teachers to go to the hill tribes and teach.
And for the Thai Government, they have a huge drop-out rate. When they take somebody from the hill tribes and they educate them in Thai, that person has incredible pressure on them to then drop out of teaching and go and take other work, say, in Bangkok.
But what I also did discover is that within the shelters, the young girls who have gone through the experience of being rescued and being rehabilitated are very keen to become advocates, and to go on to take on the role, relate very much to the women who are working in the centers. And I believe it would be possible for education to take the girls who were the victims of trafficking, educate them in Thai, and have them become teachers and advocates who have a much greater sense of their need to be that, who could teach the hill tribes, for instance, Thai.
Page 49 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
What I find from the trips is that if you can look at it from a culturally appropriate perspective, maybe you can help them not dishonor their culture, but maintain their culture, but still find a solution.
If I may, in India, one of the things that keys into India's problems is the dowry system, and mothers or fathers who fall into debt because they have to produce a dowry for their daughters. And I think rather than trying to change that cultural system, it is for us to find a way to provide a different loan system.
Mr. SMITH. You mentioned in your testimony that many victims suffer from the battered wife syndrome. Could you elaborate on that a bit? And if you also could share stories about your trip to Ghana with the Subcommittee.
Ambassador ORMOND. Absolutely. Battered wife syndrome and the Stockholm syndrome, these are syndromes where somebody who had been a victim, who has been traumatized, are so traumatized that they don't easily acknowledge, or sometimes don't recognize, the level of trauma that they have been under. They have a different relationship to abuse. They don't always behave in a way that we might expect a victim to behave.
I think we can maybe all relate to it in terms of the playground bully. You may have had the experience where you fulfill the playground bully's desires, rather than constantly fight them.
I think women who have been put in these situations, they sometimes take months to actually acknowledge, either to the police or to shelters, that they have even been a trafficking victim, because it disables their ability to recognize it.
Page 50 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I have also talked to victims in California who, for instance, have gone to testify, but haven't spoken out in defense of their case, because they are not ready yet as a victim.
So what the NGOs are dealing with is allowing people to have a safe space within the shelter to get over those things emotionally. For a lot of the children, the first step that they take is to just learn how to play again. And what is regarded as a first sign that somebody is recovering is for them to smile.
Mr. SMITH. Let me just conclude before yielding to my colleague, Tom Tancredo. The $2 million that you did mention, what kind of programs does your organization actually engage in, besides the good work that you do?
Ambassador ORMOND. They are involved in shelters. There are different offices of the UN that cover trafficking. The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime is the custodian of the protocol, but it intersects with many different offices with refugees, with UNICEF, to name but a couple.
They are also working on education. There was one particular program that I was very enthusiastic about that I discovered in Asia, which is somebody who is working on computer-based training, developing a program that could be extremely effective in teaching not just police, but border patrol, banks, all sorts of different people, from Customs to all these other people who intersect, potentially, with traffickers, and who could intervene. And that is something that the UNODC is very keen on in terms of the educational aspects.
Page 51 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The UNODC also focuses on public service announcements and doing public radio service announcements to educate people on trafficking, educate the public and take a preventative step. Those are just a couple of examples.
Mr. SMITH. I do have one additional question. Is there more, especially given your leadership on FilmAid, that you believe Hollywood might be able to bring to this issue? I mean, Lifetime, for example, did an excellent miniseries a few months back, that they have run several times since, that really nailed it when it came to what actually happens during the trafficking of women. It was very well done. And I am wondering if there are some suggestions you might have.
It seems to me that public service announcements and using that medium is a way, whether through radio or television, to get the message out, as well as through print ads. But is there some recommendations you might have?
Ambassador ORMOND. Definitely. There is a certain clout that I think people in Hollywood have in terms of getting media attention and getting public attention.
But I also think that Hollywood can take a role, in terms of if we can rally people to speak to people's own culture. For instance, in India, I would love to try and have people in Hollywood approach Baliwood and say, ''Can we work together with you to do something similar, with Baliwood?'' Or find the culturally appropriate people who can encourage something internal.
Page 52 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I think that helps take the sting out of it being a message coming in from the outside. And I think that is very important in terms of the solution to having a future and being sustainable.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Mr. Tancredo.
Mr. TANCREDO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Almost as an aside, I was just thinking as the Chairman was talking about the various trips he has taken, and the one on which I was able to accompany him. We were in Russia, and I remember an incredibly stirring discussion about the degree to which local orphanages were being used by the traffickers, and by the people who ran the orphanages. I mean, they were simply like marketplaces, and a bus would pull up, and a number of children would be sold and taken on the bus and taken away.
I wonder, again almost as an aside, just to the question that the Chairman was asking about Russia in particular, has that particular aspect of this phenomena ebbed, or is it still a major problem?
Ambassador ORMOND. It was something that did come up in my trip to Russia, but I think it was more from the perspective of they were struggling how to regulate adoption from outside, and deal with trafficking, which I think keyed into keeping children in orphanages.
It is not something that I know a great deal about, but I would be really happy to go back to the UNODC and follow up with a better response.
Page 53 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Mr. TANCREDO. It is particularly diabolical. The situation was so horrible. I mean, these people were—it was a marketplace, that is all I can say. You know, the people who ran the orphanages were selling their charges, selling these children. And literally buses would pull up, children would be put on the buses and taken away, never to be seen again. It was just incredible.
I really only have one question about your testimony. In terms of the NGOs that you mentioned and the success stories that we were certainly happy to hear about, I wondered if you could tell us, is there a template that you see there? Is there an NGO, or are there NGOs using a particular process to deal with this issue that we should highlight? Should there be, in this report for instance, a listing of the most successful processes, the most successful interventions, and the NGOs that are responsible for them? So that perhaps we could emulate them, and/or at least highlight them.
Ambassador ORMOND. Definitely. Hagar is one, or a particular NGO that I mentioned that I think has a fantastic program. There are many other NGOs, in particular in Thailand and in Cambodia, that I visited, that are doing fantastic work.
I am pulling everything together. People who are taking a holistic approach, I think, are having the most impact on providing sustainability for either victims or their families, or even in Ghana, the NGO that I worked with was doing fabulous work with traffickers.
I think there are cases that I have seen, especially in areas of extreme poverty, where a certain amount of empathy that is afforded the traffickers, and giving them an out, giving the traffickers themselves skills training, so that they have an alternative, as well.
Page 54 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I encountered families who, frankly, the moral dilemma they face is kind of a Sophie's choice. They have four children. One way out for them is either to traffic one of their children, to sell one of their children, or to traffic a child into their family to work for them. They are the kind of moral dilemmas that I guess we don't necessarily face ourselves here.
But having an enormous amount of patience in terms of dealing with the situation, revisiting villages again and again and again, seems to me something that makes it more sustainable.
Absolutely, in any report we need to acknowledge the solutions that are working. I think that is crucial in terms of them expanding, expanding those solutions and finding out, what is the solution, what does it distill down to? What does it come down to in terms of the key contributory factors that make it sustainable?
Mr. TANCREDO. Yes. I think that would be a really important thing for us to think about, Mr. Chairman, in terms of encouragement.
It is not to suggest that there are not a lot of people in the NGO business who are not—I mean, they are certainly doing it for the right reason, I don't doubt that. But I think it has just been my experience also working with some, that they are floundering themselves, looking for ways to deal with it.
And perhaps something that we could compile would give them that ability. And it would also give people who want to contribute some sort of, you know, a list, if you will, of the ones that do a better job, and I think should be rewarded by it.
Page 55 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Ambassador ORMOND. Absolutely. The NGOs that I have met with are crying out for more direct communication with government in particular. And whether that be their own government or governments in other countries.
I think globalization is clearly one of the, this is the dark side of globalization. And I think we have to look at it in terms of everybody working together, different governments working with NGOs in different countries, and working together to maybe bring pressure on their own local government, national government.
Mr. TANCREDO. And just as a very last point, as we talk about the movement of children, especially orphans, we have to remember, even in our own history, there were times when things happened for reasons of economics and a variety of other things, that perhaps make us more sensitive to this whole thing.
But there was such a thing in the late 1800s as an orphan train that used to go across the United States. It used to start out in New York and move across the West. My wife's grandmother was a person on an orphan train that left New York and was actually eventually picked off the train by a farmer in Montana. People would line up, you know. They would stop at various places, kids would get off. Farmers would come up and say, ''That one, and that one, and that one,'' take them away, and off the train would go. My wife's grandmother ended up in Montana in that process. I mean, it is kind of just an interesting historical background, I guess, for us to think about.
Ambassador ORMOND. I do think that there was a phenomena that I encountered particularly in Cambodia. And this is anecdotal, it is not something that I have any concrete evidence of. But there is a belief that there is a certain amount of adoption of HIV/AIDS orphans going on, and then that child is brought up in the belief that it is a sibling or part of the family. And then, at a certain point when they are sold, they realize that maybe they weren't. And the NGOs are sort of discovering well, maybe that wasn't that person's child at all, or they go back and talk to the families and find that it was maybe a different circumstance.
Page 56 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Mr. TANCREDO. Well, anyway, thank you very much for your work, Ms. Ormond.
Ambassador ORMOND. Thank you.
Mr. SMITH. Ambassador Watson. No, okay.
A final question. In 1984, I travelled with Jim Grant, the great leader of UNICEF, who is probably the father of the child survival revolution to El Salvador, and saw firsthand how important it was that faith-based organizations—in this case it was the Catholic Church—how important they were in making it possible to get the immunizations, and to just disseminate the message very quickly, and to get the immunization out to upwards of 200,000 kids. It was incredible.
Eleanor Nagy, some other members of our staff, my wife, and I were recently in Uganda, and saw the great work that churches were doing on the AIDS issue. Everywhere I and many of my colleagues go, I try to meet with religiously-based organizations.
And I have been amazed at the network that exists out there that can be utilized to get a prevention message out from the pulpit, or from the mosque, or from the synagogue. And also to provide shelters.
Eleanor and I were recently in Peru and saw these young Peruvian girls in Lima who were learning computer skills, sewing skills, a vast array of skills under the auspices of nuns who were running that shelter. And we have asked the TIP office to provide some funding for it, and I hope they will.
Page 57 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
So I was just wondering, as Ambassador for Trafficking, if you look to meet with religious leaders when you do travel, so as to bring them further into the prioritization. I am going to start using four Ps now, for we don't make it a priority.
Ambassador ORMOND. For myself, yes, I would be happy to meet with anybody in society. And absolutely, religious leaders. In terms of dealing with this issue, I think they can have a great deal of influence. Yes.
Mr. SMITH. It has been my experience that they have compassion and they have concern for the vulnerable and the weakest. But they also have an infrastructure that is second to none. And they always have an audience virtually every week, regardless of the denomination. So it seems to me that that is one way of reaching massive amounts of people.
I think they need to be made aware that they have a role to play. So I just respectfully submit that this is something that all of us should be doing more of.
Ambassador ORMOND. Yes. I mean, I think not only in terms of the infrastructure in terms of shelters, but also their outreach to the business community, and to civil society could be used well.
Mr. SMITH. Sure. Anything else you would like to add?
Ambassador ORMOND. I would only add that it would be great if we could work with the United States Government, if the UN could work with the United States Government to put pressure on other countries to sign and ratify the Trafficking Protocol, which is the first step to their finding and working on internal legislation.
Page 58 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Mr. SMITH. Excellent point. Thank you, Ambassador Ormond, for your testimony and your leadership; for bringing a message that is so often overlooked and neglected—especially by governments. You are doing an enormous, an extraordinary job. And I know that all of us on both sides of the aisle deeply appreciate your leadership, and look forward to working with you going forward.
Ambassador ORMOND. Thank you.
Mr. SMITH. Thank you so much. This now moves from being a briefing to a hearing.
[Whereupon, the briefing was adjourned and the Subcommittee proceeded to other business.]
Mr. SMITH. The hearing will come to order. And I would like to invite to the witness table Ambassador John Miller, who is Director of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Human Trafficking.
From 1985 to 1993, Ambassador Miller served in the United States House of Representatives from the State of Washington. Prior to this, he was active in the State and municipal governments, serving as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington.
It is a privilege to have you back, Mr. Ambassador. The floor is yours.
Page 59 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN MILLER, DIRECTOR, OFFICE TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Ambassador MILLER. Well, Mr. Chairman, it is good to be here with you, Congressman Tancredo, and Congresswoman Watson, who we have been at many meetings together.
Mr. Chairman, you asked me to come testify about this report. Of course, this report is here because years ago, when people were only dimly aware of the scourge of modern-day slavery, you took the lead in sponsoring the Anti-Trafficking Victim Protections legislation. And you have continued to lead the way. And we thank you for that.
I have a copy of my written statement for the record, and if there is no objection—and I will try to talk a little more informally.
This is the sixth annual report. It recognizes that the challenge of modern-day slavery exists in every country of the world, including the United States of America. We all have what we call a human trafficking problem.
The goal of the report, I think this was the goal that you and Congress intended, the goal is to spotlight modern-day slavery. The work that is being done, the tricks of the slave masters, and to encourage action to throw the traffickers in jail and help the victims.
Page 60 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Now, there are many ways this can be done, and it is not just from evaluating countries. As you know, in our report we have victims' stories. And this report is dedicated—her picture is on the next-to-last page—to a woman from Indonesia, Nour Miyati.
Nour Miyati, of course, represents millions who have been held in slavery. She came from Indonesia seeking a better life in the Near East, to work as a domestic, to send money back to her family. I met her at a cafe in Riyadh. She had fallen prey to owners who not only worked her 15–18 hours a day and gave her no pay and no time off, but abused her, beat her. But she was a valuable ''commodity.'' And so when they saw she was sick, they took her to the hospital for ''repairs.'' And at that time it was discovered she had gangrene. In this picture you can see several of her toes and fingers have been amputated.
The case came to light because of that hospital visit. And through a lawyer supplied by the Indonesian Embassy, she has been fighting that case. An initial court case sentenced her, not the perpetrator, sentenced her to 79 lashes. That, I am pleased to report after a visit to Saudi Arabia, that has been reversed. But Nour Miyati stands for so many other victims in this world.
In addition in this report, as you will see on page 34, we highlight best practices of countries, because we are trying to give positive examples. We give examples from Senegal to Iraq to Romania. And I think, Congressman Tancredo, you hit on this when you said NGOs need to know what is working.
This is an initial effort to highlight some efforts. We are going to try to do more on our Web site, which NGOs around the world look at, to say, ''Here, this is working here, this is working there.''
Page 61 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
And then we have a Trafficking in Persons Hero section. Last year—Ambassador Ormond has just mentioned Hagar in Cambodia—last year one of our heroes was the head of Hagar. We have eight or nine heroes this year. Of course, there are thousands of heroes, but we mention a few.
Now, getting on to the evaluations of countries. We do rank 149 countries that have on the order of 100 victims or more. There are a few countries that still aren't in here. Generally that is because we couldn't get enough information. I believe there is a trafficking problem in every country in the world, but there are still a few countries of which we haven't gotten enough information. And there are some countries where there was not an effective government to be rated.
The sources we use are Embassies, NGOs, daring activists, foreign governments, our own visits, the news media. The standards we apply are the standards that you all have set out in the law. Sometimes we are criticized by foreign governments, sometimes we are even criticized by those that look at the report, the standards get criticized. Well, maybe they are too subjective or whatever.
I think they are pretty good standards that you have laid out. And we try to apply those standards. And they are pretty darn detailed.
As I said, the goal is not to punish; it is to bring about action. This year we placed a new emphasis—or more emphasis, I should say—on forced labor, along with sex trafficking.
Page 62 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
You will see sections on bonded labor. I was personally out in India meeting with victims of bonded labor just a couple of months ago. It is a widespread practice in certain parts of the world, where generations are held at the same rice mill and brick kiln, as you mentioned.
We do have more emphasis on this. Some countries' governments got lower ratings this year because of inattention to forced labor.
One thing I would like to highlight, there is a misconception in parts of the world on the issue of commercial sex, not just under our law, but under the UN protocol. Any child under the age of 18 that is being used for a commercial sex act is considered a victim of trafficking. And this is something we really have to keep in mind.
Now, if you compare this year's report and last year's, you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, in your introductory remarks, looking around the world that there has been the start of progress. Almost a 50 percent increase in convictions of traffickers worldwide, up to 4,700. Many more shelters for victims set up. As you said, 41 countries passing anti-trafficking in persons laws. And not surprisingly, reflecting that, there has been a slight increase overall in the ratings.
And you will see that a significant number of the countries that were on Tier 3 last year moved up to Tier 2 Watch List, and a significant number that were on Tier 2 Watch List moved up to Tier 2.
Page 63 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
However, there were also numbers of countries moving down, from Tier 2 to Tier 2 Watch List, and Tier 2 to Tier 3. I think this Congress very wisely in the revision, I believe it was in 2003, said, in effect, we don't want the status quo here; we want to see appreciable progress, increasing efforts. And that is what we have asked for countries.
There are some examples of individual countries doing well. I mean, Ecuador, that was Tier 3, a First Lady jumped into this effort, and suddenly there is more investigations underway and a new law. United Arab Emirates, that got a lot of criticism last year, and deservedly so, but since being put in Tier 3 have freed almost 7,000 child camel jockeys, and, working with UNICEF, have sheltered them and helped get them back to their original countries. That doesn't mean the problem is solved, but it does mean there has been some progress.
Jamaica, Greece, some other examples of countries that have moved up.
However—there is always a however, right—you still find questions about the efforts of many major countries. We still have our friend and ally, Saudi Arabia, on Tier 3. And if you look at Tier 2 Watch List—which could be interpreted as a watch list, a warning list, a worry list—there are several countries that you mentioned that have been there before, are still there. Mexico, Russia, India, China. And some new countries on that list, Tier 2 Watch List, such as Malaysia and Brazil. So that shows the challenge that we face.
Nonetheless, in part because of the news media around the world that has increased its coverage, in part because of the attention that the Congress of the United States and our President, whenever he speaks, gives to this issue, I think we are seeing a growing momentum. I think we see more and more people becoming part of a 21st century abolitionist movement.
Page 64 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I have made enough general comments. Why don't I yield to your specific questions?
[The prepared statement of Ambassador Miller follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN MILLER, DIRECTOR, OFFICE TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Thank you Mr. Chairman, Last week, we released the State Department's 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report. As mandated by Congress, this, the sixth annual such compendium, recognizes trafficking in persons for what it is, modern-day slavery. The Report also demonstrates that every country in the world, including the United States of America, has a human trafficking problem.
Trafficking in persons relies on coercion and exploitation. It thrives on converting hope to fear. It is maintained through violence. And it is highly profitable.
The State Department and our embassies' goal is to spotlight the scourge of human trafficking and work with governments to jail traffickers, protect victims and ultimately eliminate this problem. These efforts aim also to expose the tricks of the slave masters, which are the same as they were back in the 19th century, namely, deception, fraud, kidnapping, and control through confinement, beating, rape, and, in some cases, murder.
This year's Report ranks 149 countries found to be a source, destination, or transit country for on the order of 100 victims, the threshold for inclusion in the report. Nine additional nations are listed as special cases. Generally, countries not listed in the Report are either those about which we have insufficient knowledge of human trafficking—oftentimes countries where there are fewer than 100 documented trafficking cases—or those where there has not been an effective government to rank during the reporting period.
Page 65 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Woven throughout the introduction of this year's Report are the stories of victims of trafficking. In fact, this year's edition is dedicated to one such victim, Nour Miyati, a young Indonesian woman who went to the Near East as a domestic servant hoping to find money for her family.
I met with Nour Miyati in Riyadh. Nour Miyati, as you will see from the picture in the back of the Report, has missing fingers, missing toes; a victim of abuse, servitude, and torture. She is a reminder that although the Report describes governments and categories, it is in the end about individual human beings who have suffered the terrible indignities of this evil trade.
Our sources are diverse: law enforcement, U.S. Embassies, NGOs worldwide, daring activists, foreign governments, and our own visits. Everything enters the mix. Extensive analysis and review goes into the assessment of each country and its assignment into Tier 1, 2, 2 Watch List, or 3.
Country ratings are based strictly on governments' actions to combat trafficking in persons, as defined by U.S. law. The standards are set forth in the Trafficking Victim's Protection Act, as amended, and are applied equally to every country. We examine each country individually.
The goal of this report is not to punish, but to stimulate government action to end modern-day slavery.
Page 66 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
This year, we decided to place special emphasis on trafficking for labor exploitation, particularly involuntary servitude of foreign laborers. Forced labor may involve foreign workers who end up in conditions of involuntary servitude, or domestic servants, or victims trafficked within their own country.
Sex trafficking is still the largest category of transnational slavery, we believe. It is intrinsically linked to prostitution and U.S. policy states that prostitution contributes to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons. That is why, to combat sex slavery, we are urging a greater focus on demand-educating and dissuading the so-called ''customers.''
I want to highlight that under U.S. federal law and international law, If a child is under the age of 18 and is being used for a commercial sex act, the child is considered a victim of trafficking; and a crime victim, regardless of the child's consent, and an individual who exploits a prostituted child should be punished. Anyone who facilitates that act of exploitation is a trafficker. Yet many countries around the world simply do very little about children who are victims of trafficking.
Comparing this year's report with that of last year, we have hard evidence that Tier 2 Watch list and Tier 3 are effective designations. Thanks to intensified engagement by the Department of State and increased political commitment from the governments themselves, anti-slavery efforts improved in many countries.
Of the 14 countries placed on Tier 3 this time last year, eight have moved up: five moved up within three months (when the President made a final determination of ranking last September) and another three, Cambodia, Ecuador, and Kuwait, moved up on this year's report.
Page 67 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Tier 2 Watch list countries showed similar improvement: of the 27 countries placed on Tier 2W in 2005, 16 moved up to Tier 2 while three fell to Tier 3 (Belize, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe).
Ecuador is a good example. This past year, its government enacted new measures to identify trafficking situations, arrest and prosecute traffickers, assist victims, and raise public awareness. Ecuador has jumped from Tier 3 to Tier 2 in the 2006 TIP Report.
United Arab Emirates and Jamaica, with very different slave problems, both took exemplary action to move off Tier 3.
In the United Arab Emirates, hundreds of camel jockey boys—former slaves—have been repatriated, returned to their home countries (especially to Bangladesh and Pakistan). UAE opened a shelter devoted to rescued victims of human trafficking and robots are riding camels instead of children.
Jamaica increased efforts to investigate trafficking crimes, undertook raids and arrests, and temporarily suspended work permits for foreign ''exotic dancers,'' some of whom were victims of human trafficking.
Greece is an excellent example of improvement over time. In 2003: Tier 3 and in 2005: Tier Two. Greece moved up to Tier 2 by demonstrating significant dedication to protecting victims in cooperation with NGOs. Greece improved cooperation with domestic NGOs with the completion of a Memorandum of Cooperation allowing Greek authorities to work more directly with NGOs, and after several years of negotiation, Greece signed an agreement with Albania for the repatriation of Albanian victims. So often, greater effort is a low cost or no cost initiative. And the good news is positive, increased efforts on the part of many countries.
Page 68 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The bad news is lack of effort by some of the world's largest countries. On every continent, countries are failing to live up to their obligation to protect the weak, and bring criminals to justice.
In every case, as for all Tier 3 and Tier 2 Watch list countries, the U.S. will outline a mini-action plan through which to spur commitment, together, on behalf of modern-day slaves.
Notice that several Tier 2Watch list designees are there largely as a result of labor trafficking, including Brazil, Israel, the Gulf States, Taiwan, and India.
Shining through this global tragedy are rays of hope. In addition to the tremendous efforts of heroic individuals and private organizations, governments around the globe are awakening to the issue and taking action to end this form of modern-day slavery.
Worldwide, the number of trafficking-related convictions has increased to more than 4,750 in 2005—a 63 percent increase in just two years.
An additional 41 countries passed anti-trafficking legislation last year—strengthening the world's legal tools with which to hold traffickers accountable.
The movement to end modern slavery, therefore, continues to