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ACCOUNTABILITY OVER POLITICS: SCRUTINIZING

THE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

JULY 12, 2016

Serial No. 114–218

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

PAUL COOK, California 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin 

DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan 

LEE M. ZELDIN, New York 

DANIEL DONOVAN, New York 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

DANIEL DONOVAN, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

The Honorable Susan Coppedge, Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State ...................................... 5

Mr. David Abramowitz, managing director, Humanity United Action ............... 27

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable Susan Coppedge: Prepared statement ......................................... 8

Mr. David Abramowitz: Prepared statement ........................................................ 31

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 46

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 47

Mr. David Abramowitz: A report titled ‘‘Assessing Government and Business 

Responses to the Thai Seafood Crisis’’ ............................................................... 48

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global 

Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations: A resolution adopted by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on Law Enforcement 

Co-Ordination to Prevent Child Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking by 

Known Sex Offenders .......................................................................................... 51

Written responses from the Honorable Susan Coppedge to questions submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H. Smith ........................ 54

(1)

ACCOUNTABILITY OVER POLITICS: 

SCRUTINIZING THE TRAFFICKING IN 

PERSONS REPORT 

TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2016

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2 o’clock p.m., in 

room 2200 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. 

Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. The subcommittee will come to order, and welcome 

to everyone, especially Madam Ambassador. Thank you for being 

here. 

As you know, the Trafficking and Victims Protection Act of 2000 

launched a bold comprehensive public-private sector strategy that 

included sheltering, political asylum, and other protections for the 

victims, long jail sentences and asset confiscations for the traffickers, and a myriad of preventative initiatives and tough sanctions for governments that failed to meet minimum standards prescribed by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. 

It was bipartisan and I know David Abramowitz is here, who 

worked very hard, as did others on both sides of the aisle. It was 

3 years in the making. It was not passed overnight. It was given 

a great deal of looks by everyone, especially the administration, 

which initially opposed most of it, but in the end was signed into 

law by President Clinton. 

The bill also created the Trafficking in Persons Report and tier 

rankings and I, in all candor, while I like much of what’s in the 

product and I’ve read through most of it now and I think it was 

a very effective effort on country after country—the number of 

countries that are on Tier 1 is a record, as you point out in your 

testimony, Madam Ambassador, I think that’s a good thing, a number of countries, probably a record again have actually updated or 

passed laws that are more responsive particularly to victims. But 

there were concerns. I raise these because to me it’s all about the 

victims and how do we prevent victimization and how do we assist 

those who are currently or in the future going to be victims. 

And I remain concerned that both last year’s TIP Report and the 

current one gave passing grades to several nations with horrific 

records of government complicity in human trafficking. 

2

Falsifying a country’s human rights record, particularly when it 

comes to branding what tier it ought to be not only undermines the 

credibility of the report but was especially dehumanizing to the victims who suffer rape, cruelty, and horrifying exploitation. 

There are several instances, and I’ll get to those in a moment, 

where you read the report and it inevitably leads to this ought to 

be a Tier 3 country and then it doesn’t merit that, for some reason. 

The passing grades for failing, done for more than a dozen governments, was exposed by a series of investigative reports last year 

by Reuters, which found that professionals at the State Department’s TIP Office made one set of recommendations only to overruled at a higher level for political reasons. 

Today’s hearing will look closely at the newly-released Trafficking in Person’s Report which assesses and ranks 188 countries 

each year on their records of prosecuting traffickers, protecting victims, and preventing human trafficking. 

Some of the rankings comport with the records of certain countries. Burma and Uzbekistan, for example, are designated Tier 3, 

as they should be. 

The other nations including trading partners Malaysia and 

China are given a free pass despite their horrific records of government complicity in human trafficking. 

Cuba, a dictatorship highly-favored by this administration, is 

again falsely touted with a passing grade. China was allowed to 

keep its Tier 2 Watch List rankings despite the fact that the reason 

for their upgrade 2 years ago was found to be a fraud. 

Alexandra Harney, Jason Szep, and Matt Spetalnick of Reuters 

authored an expose on China’s politicized ranking, find that, and 

I quote them, ‘‘Two years after China announced it was ending the 

‘re-education through labor’ system, extrajudicial networks of detention facilities featuring torture and forced labor thrive in its 

place.’’ I would note parenthetically as chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China we just held another—it’s 

my 60th hearing on human rights issues in China and we focused 

exclusively on the systematic use of torture in China. It is growing, 

not diminishing, in its usage, exploiting so many people including 

people who are forced into labor. 

China has deceived the United States—had deceived it in 2014—

and when it became apparent last year we let them keep their illgotten upgrade in 2015 and again in 2016. 

I would hope that that would be revisited again at any time you 

deem it necessary to make a change; obviously you do have that 

capability to do so. 

Malaysia, whose ranking was upgraded to the Tier 2 Watch List 

last year on the flimsiest of justifications and fears—it would be 

disqualified from the TPP—was allowed to maintain its Tier 2 

Watch List ranking despite the fact that Malaysia faltered in its 

anti-trafficking progress over the last year. 

In fact, Malaysia, a country with 4 million migrant workers, 

prosecuted fewer trafficking cases and convicted only seven traffickers last year. That’s less than when it was a Tier 3 country. 

Meanwhile, women from Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Nepal are trafficked to China for forced marriages and 

I read with special interest that what you write in the report about 

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the Philippines and their efforts, maybe even Herculean efforts to 

try to mitigate trafficking there and that’s recognized in their significant upgrading. 

North Korean laborers worked under conditions described by experts as forced or slave labor to earn income for the North Korean 

Government. Prisoners of conscience and other prisoners continue 

to be held in administrative detention facilities where there are numerous credible reports of prisoners being trafficked for the purpose of organ harvesting and on that score just a couple of weeks 

ago I chaired a hearing on organ harvesting and it was brutal to 

hear first person reports and human rights reports by NGOs about 

what is actually occurring there. 

The State Department must get the TIP Report right or we will 

lose the foundational tool created to help the more than 20 million, 

maybe more, victims of trafficking and slavery around the world. 

The tier ranking is about protecting vulnerable lives—lives destroyed or saved by the on-the-ground impact of a government’s action or its inaction. 

The easiest case for Tier 3 ranking should be those where the 

government itself is profiting from human trafficking such as in 

Cuba, where thousands of Cuba medical professionals labor in dangerous countries not of their choosing, their passports taken, their 

movements restricted, their families and licenses threatened and 

their salaries heavily garnished by the Cuban Government. 

It is not a coincidence that Cuban law does not recognize labor 

trafficking. Maria Werlau testified at our hearing in March that, 

and I quote her, ‘‘trafficking is a huge operation run by the government through numerous state enterprises, with . . . accomplices, 

participants, sponsors, and promoters all over the world.’’ Cuba is 

also known as a known destination country for child sex tourists 

and Cuba reports no convictions for child sex tourism. Yet Cuba, 

although it had been previously year after year ranked Tier 3, is 

ranked Tier 2 Watch List again this year. 

We have seen many countries take a Tier 3 ranking seriously 

and make real systemic changes and improve their tier rankings, 

but more importantly, protect trafficking victims. Countries such as 

South Korea and Israel come to mind. 

When the Bush administration rated South Korea and Israel 

Tier 3 based on their records, both countries—I met with Ambassadors several times from those countries—who wanted to get off 

as quickly as possible, and I would tell them and I wasn’t the only 

one—the TIP office said it ad nauseam to them—it’s all about performance. It’s all about what you do, not what you say. 

Both countries enacted and implemented policies to combat 

human trafficking and were given earned upgrades for their 

verifiable actions. 

But other countries attempt to end run the accountability system 

with endless empty promises of action or mostly meaningless gestures of compliance. China sat on Tier 2 Watch List for 8 years, 

each year promising the State Department they would implement 

their anti-trafficking plan. 

Each year the State Department took the bait until Congress put 

a limit on the Tier 2 Watch List, 2 years only unless the President 

gives the country a waiver. 

4

Well, China has once again promised to implement a plan and 

the President just gave them a waiver to stay on the Watch List 

a 3rd year. 

Tier rankings are about real prosecutions that are verifiable. We 

know they happen. It’s not just a list that is tendered by someone 

in the government to our Embassy or TIP official—real prevention 

and real protection for real people who are suffering as slaves. 

The TIP Report was meant to speak for the trafficking victims 

waiting, hoping and praying for relief. While the 2016 TIP Report 

speaks for many of them, too many are still unheard. 

I yield to Mr. Cicilline. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Bass, for this important hearing and thank you to our witnesses for being here today. 

As the 2016 Trafficking in Persons report states, and I quote, 

‘‘Despite sustained anti-trafficking efforts, millions of individuals 

are bound by mental, physical and financial coercion and manipulation by traffickers who exploit their vulnerabilities for profit.’’

Human trafficking is modern day slavery. It’s horrifying that 

there is no place in the world where children, women and men are 

safe from trafficking. Despite international and U.S. efforts to 

eliminate human trafficking, this centuries-old problem continues 

to occur in virtually every country in the world and contributes to 

a multi-billion dollar criminal industry, the second largest criminal 

enterprise in the world, according to the FBI. 

Trafficking is a global problem. Victims can start in one country 

and end up in another and trafficking is a human rights problem. 

Victims of human trafficking are deprived of individual freedoms 

and suffer through unimaginable harsh, coercive and heartbreaking conditions. 

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today on how the 

United States can help prevent the scourge of human trafficking 

and we need an effort to end this horrific activity once and for all. 

Thank you for being here. With that, I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Cicilline. 

I’d like to now recognize and express my gratitude on behalf of 

the subcommittee to Ambassador Susan Coppedge for her leadership at the TIP office. She is our Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor 

and Combat Trafficking in Persons and senior advisor to the Secretary of State. 

She was confirmed by the Senate, having been appointed by 

President Obama in October 2015 and leads the U.S. global engagement against human trafficking. Ambassador Coppedge previously served for 15 years as Assistant United States Attorney in 

the Northern District of Georgia. She prosecuted more than 45 

human traffickers in Federal cases involving transnational and domestic sex trafficking of adults and children and labor trafficking. 

These prosecutions brought perpetrators of these heinous crimes to 

justice and assisted more than 90 victims of human trafficking. 

Ambassador, the floor is yours. 

5

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE SUSAN COPPEDGE, AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE TO MONITOR AND COMBAT TRAFFICKING 

IN PERSONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. I am happy to be here today to discuss 

human trafficking in the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report. 

Thank you for the opportunity to testify about his crucial human 

rights issue and critical foreign policy issue. The subcommittee and 

its chairman have been a consistent champion of global efforts to 

combat human trafficking. 

We very much appreciate Congress’ bipartisan support on this 

issue and provision of resources so the department has both the 

foreign assistance funds and staff it needs to advance our shared 

goals of combating this heinous crime. 

Two weeks ago on June 30th, Secretary Kerry released the 2016 

Trafficking in Persons Report. The TIP Report demonstrates the 

U.S. Government’s global leadership on combating human trafficking and it is our principal diagnostic tool to assess government 

efforts across what we call the three P’s—prosecuting traffickers, 

protecting and empowering victims, and preventing future trafficking crimes. 

The TIP Report reflects a whole of Department effort. It is the 

product of a year of research and reporting by my office, the Office 

to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, regional bureaus, 

and U.S. Embassies around the world, all informed by their engagements with foreign government officials, NGOs, faith groups, 

and international organizations. 

The report provides country-specific narratives for 188 countries 

and territories and places them on one of four tiers representing 

the extent to which they meet the minimum standards for the 

elimination of trafficking as outlined in the Trafficking Victims 

Protection Act, or TVPA. 

The report also offers recommendations for improvement in every 

country. The TIP Report is more than just an analysis of what 

countries are doing to combat trafficking. It is, above all else, an 

instrument of diplomacy, a means to effect change and motivate 

tangible progress in combating the many forms of trafficking. 

And each year, the report and the Department’s year round diplomatic efforts on trafficking do spur further progress. There are 

some places where we saw progress in the last year and other 

countries where we saw backsliding. 

There are some examples submitted in my written testimony. I 

will just highlight one and that is the progress in the Philippines 

that the chairman mentioned where a strong coordinated government effort to combat human trafficking across the three P’s 

earned the government its first ever Tier 1 ranking. The Philippines convicted 42 traffickers, including complicit government officials, fulfilling the top recommendation from the 2015 TIP Report. 

The Philippines is also an example of successful targeting of U.S. 

anti-trafficking foreign assistance. The Department has funded programs over the last 10 years including grants to experienced and 

committed anti-trafficking NGOs to help the government improve 

its efforts. 

This has led to the creation of a dedicated anti-trafficking prosecution unit and an increase in the number of prosecutions and 

6

convictions. Unfortunately, there were several countries that did 

not make progress this year. 

For example, Sudan was ranked Tier 3 this year largely because 

the government continued to deny the existence of sex trafficking 

of adults and children and they did not report any efforts to address forced labor. 

Another example is Serbia, which went back to Tier 2 Watch List 

as there were fewer victims identified and still fewer human trafficking prosecutions. 

The Serbian Government did not afford victims sufficient protection or provide them with specialized services. We will continue our 

year round engagements with all governments to make clear that 

progress in combating human trafficking is a key priority of the 

U.S. Government, as well as a commitment of all governments that 

are a party to the Palermo Protocol. 

Globally, we saw some promising trends representing growing 

political will. Since last year, there were 30 amendments to antitrafficking laws and three states became parties to the landmark 

Palermo Protocols: The Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, and Singapore, bringing that total to 169 countries. 

While many governments reported increase in convictions, the reported figures still pale in comparison to the global scale of human 

trafficking. Further, in some countries, courts are not imposing 

sentences on traffickers that are sufficient to deter future criminal 

activity or reflective of the heinous nature of this crime. 

In addition to the narratives for each country, the introduction 

to this year’s report focuses on effective strategies to prevent 

human trafficking. 

We witnessed a broad range of prevention efforts during the reporting period from strategic intervention programs to public/private partnerships that leverage expertise and facilitate creative solutions. 

Those positive examples are also included in my written testimony. We are extremely encouraged by these prevention efforts, 

yet much work remains. As the 2016 report indicates, two areas of 

particular concern include the need for stronger efforts to root out 

corrupt and complicit officials who are themselves either engaged 

in or benefiting from trafficking and the need for support services 

and protections for victims so that they are not penalized for 

crimes committed as a direct result of being trafficked. 

It is impossible to truly quantify the vast scope of modern slavery today. It is impossible to describe in words and tier rankings 

the full extent of the horror of human trafficking and what it inflicts on people and families and societies across the world. 

Despite this, I would like to close with a positive and personal 

reflection on the TIP Report. I have seen firsthand that it continues to serve as the gold standard for analyzing government efforts to combat human trafficking and as a catalyst for a more humane world. 

I am very proud of the hard work that went into the report this 

year and I look forward to using it to advance our ongoing diplomatic efforts to combat trafficking in the months ahead. 

7

I understand there are specific countries the subcommittee wants 

to discuss and I’m happy to answer questions on these or other 

countries. 

Thank you for having me. 

[The prepared statement of Ambassador Coppedge follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Madam Ambassador, thank you so very much. 

Without objection, your full statement will be made a part of the 

record. 

And I would like to just begin by asking about China. You know, 

the tierage of China, obviously, has kept them off Tier 3, which is 

where I and so many others who work on human rights in China 

believe they ought to be. 

And I’ve read very carefully the China narrative but it is deeply 

troubling that even where there is talk of the number of traffickers 

who have been convicted, there’s language that follows that although it’s unclear how many of these victims met the international definition of human trafficking, there’s talk about the 

written plan which still defies implementation. 

I remember any time a Chinese official would come to the United 

States during the 1990s and into 2000 and beyond but for about 

5 straight years there would always be an announcement before 

the Premier came here or President that they’re looking at signing 

and then after they signed it, ratifying the International Covenant 

on Civil and Political Rights, and they got a groundswell of good 

will about the promise and then the Premier would leave, go back 

and nothing would happen. 

The written plan is still awaiting implementation as far as I can 

tell. Maybe you can provide better insight on that. On the Chinese 

sex trafficking of women, exacerbated in a huge way by the dearth 

of women and girls who have been killed through sex-selection 

abortion is we all know the numbers are tens of thousands of missing females as a part of that heinous crime of gender, and it is a 

crime, in my opinion. 

They’re missing. They are not there and they’re not going to be 

recovered, the balance or the ratio for generations to come, even if 

they turned on a dime tomorrow. 

And I’m wondering, when it comes to the magnet that China has 

become if there is an appreciation within the TIP office of how that 

has so exacerbated human trafficking, sex trafficking in particular 

and the exploitation of women. 

When I raised this during the Bush administration there was an 

effort to look at that and it was when Tier 3 was meted out to 

China by the Obama administration that was listed as one of the 

criteria. 

That has not abated. I was just in China. I gave a human rights 

speech over there. I talk to diaspora and especially human rights 

leaders in the Chinese community all the time. There has been no 

diminution of sex trafficking. It is only getting worse. It’s a worsening, not a lessening situation. So if you could speak to that as 

well. 

And finally, on the reform through labor which was a decided 

reason for the upgrade 3 years ago, the information that we have 

clearly contradicts that while they got rid of what they called reform through labor, and I was in one of those Beijing Prison Number One where 40 Tiananmen Square activists were doing labor 

and exporting the shoes and socks that they were making and that 

was back in the early 1990s. 

But we know from the Chinese deputy director of Ministry of 

Justice who said in November 2014 that most of the reformed labor 

15

facilities were converted into costly drug detoxification centers, 

which is a euphemism, and that those individuals had increased by 

29 percent and that these are reform through labor camps with a 

different name, a different shingle outside suggesting what they do 

inside. 

How do you respond to that, all of those questions? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me know 

if I forget to respond to one of those points. 

I want to start by telling you how much we appreciate your dedication to anti-trafficking efforts and all human rights efforts in 

China. It’s very important to have that support on the Hill and we 

appreciate the work you have done in that area. 

I will say that China received, as you noted, a Tier 2 Watch List 

ranking this year. That means it does not fully meet the minimum 

standards for the elimination of trafficking and that it did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period. So that is not a passing grade. 

If you look at the tier rankings as a pass/fail system, then China 

is still failing. It is on a Tier 2 Watch List, and we continue to urge 

them to take steps in many of the areas that your question highlighted. 

We did receive this year numbers for the conviction of sex trafficking and they reported that 714 traffickers were convicted. They 

then also submitted that number that you mentioned that is a little 

murkier. It’s a little harder to figure out whether that next figure 

is about trafficking because it’s a crime that’s called abduction of 

women and children. 

And so it is counted in the report under the laws that China 

used. There may be some sex trafficking prosecutions in there. 

There may not. But as you know, the report says a country has to 

report data to us and if the data isn’t clear we include that lack 

of clarity in the report when we provide the numbers. 

So there was an increased reporting this year and there were 714 

trafficking cases as well as other convictions that we could not discern clearly what they were. 

With respect to the forced labor camps, we continued to get reports, as you yourself have, that some of those facilities have been 

rebranded and may still be used to cause forced labor. 

We hunt down all the leads we get and we include those in the 

Trafficking in Persons Report. We are having great difficulty quantifying the extent of forced labor that occurs in these centers. But 

we certainly get reports beyond just from the government. The government provides reports but we also talk to NGOs and citizens 

and people who have left the country. 

And individuals like yourself—when you travel I know that you 

share the information you gain with us and all of that goes into 

the report ranking for any country. 

Mr. SMITH. On the sex trafficking, if you could speak to the missing girls phenomena and how that might be impacting this magnet 

that China has become. 

And again, on the reform through labor, do our personnel in our 

Embassies or consulates have access to independently verify any of 

this? 

16

And even on the 714 traffickers presumably that were convicted, 

is that a piece of paper they convey to us or do we have a capability 

to independently verify that this is true? 

Because it is the land of deceit by government officials. There’s 

no doubt about it. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. It’s challenging sometimes when governments present information including China to understand what 

happens behind those statistics and in some countries that are 

smaller with fewer prosecutions I know we are able to look behind 

the number and see what the trafficking cases were composed of. 

In this case, our clearest ability to look behind the numbers is the 

different laws that China self-reported it used to prosecute these 

individuals. 

We do have officers at our Embassy in China and at our consulates looking at and looking for information there. So we do try 

to verify information as best we can. We use independent reports, 

human rights reports as well, so we do, to the best of our ability, 

look behind those numbers and try to verify them. 

With respect to the missing girls, that touches on an area of 

fighting trafficking where demand has been created because there’s 

a problem and this happens in other countries too where there appears to be heightened demand for commercial sex and that does 

lead to an increase in sex trafficking. 

And what we have asked countries to do pursuant to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards is to report to 

us what efforts they are doing to prevent the demand for young 

girls and adult women who might be engaged in commercial sex 

acts against their will. 

Mr. SMITH. Finally, on China, the report notes that China is 

granted a waiver from otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because its government had devoted sufficient resources to a sufficient written plan that, and I quote, ‘‘if implemented would constitute making significant efforts to meet.’’

So, again, it’s the promise of implementing a plan that has not been implemented. They’ve allocated $8 million in a country the 

size and girth of the People’s Republic of China with a problem 

that is beyond words big. That doesn’t seem like much money for 

a country of that size. 

But you even acknowledge that if implemented and it’s like we’ve 

gotten that promise before and with great respect I would hope 

that we would not just take that at face value that they’re doing 

us. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. As you know, Congressman, there’s only 

the ability to remain on the Tier 2 Watch List for 4 years and those 

last 2 years we do require the national action plan. I believe this 

is China’s first waiver and so they only have 1 more year where 

the national action plan would keep them on the Tier 2 Watch List. 

After that, they would have to move up to Tier 2 on their own efforts or down to Tier 3. So that period of time where they can rely 

on the national action plan is a 2-year period. 

Mr. SMITH. Let me just ask you, Madam Ambassador, in your 

testimony for the Senate this morning you said there were a handful of cases where J/TIP recommendations on rankings were opposed by other offices of the State Department. Was China, Cuba, 

17

or Malaysia—and Malaysia three of those countries and what was 

the recommendation of the TIP office and who made decisions to 

counter that? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Well, with respect to the recommendations my team at the Trafficking in Persons office works with individuals at Embassies and posts that are stationed abroad. 

We also work with the regional officials at the State Department 

and come up with the consensus recommendations we present to 

the Secretary. 

He approves all of those consensus recommendations or has the 

final approval on all of those. With respect to a handful of countries, there may have been some facts that were missing that we 

were striving to reach still from countries seeking more information. 

There was debate on factors potentially pointing in separate directions. So those were the internal deliberations and I was able 

to present arguments to the Secretary on any of those countries 

and ultimately the final decision was made by the Secretary for 

any that there was not a consensus recommendation. 

Mr. SMITH. Again, on the written plan is that the 2013 plan, if 

that’s when it was originally written? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. It is the 2013 plan. You’re correct. 

Mr. SMITH. So we’re still awaiting its implementation? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. We are. It was a 2013 to 2020 national 

plan of action against trafficking in persons. 

Mr. SMITH. Okay. Let me, very briefly, and then I will yield to 

my distinguished colleagues, on the issue of Malaysia and, you 

know, David Abramowitz, who served under Sam Gejdenson, Tom 

Lantos was always involved with crafting the best possible bipartisan effort on human trafficking. 

In his testimony today he talks about the report. It is not without its troubling flaws when we start with Malaysia, he says, and 

he makes—and not only is it unjustified that Malaysia is not on 

Tier 3 which all of us, I think, are deeply concerned about. 

But he makes a point that upgrading Thailand to Tier 2 Watch 

List was also unwarranted but points to the perils that the Malaysia upgrade created. In other words, because Malaysia was to be 

given a free pass a country like Thailand that had more convictions—35 last year, for example—that was upgraded artificially to 

make it look as if there’s a sense of balance. 

That’s a terrible outcome. Who made that decision? Was it a TIP 

recommendation for the Watch List or was that someone else’s? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. The final decisions are made by the Secretary and he spoke at the TIP Report release saying that the conclusions are based on facts and based on analysis that occurs over 

the course of the year. 

He also acknowledged that he worked with the experts in this 

area. I will say that we don’t compare countries to one another. We 

compare a country to its efforts the previous year. 

So Malaysia’s efforts were compared to its efforts the previous 

year and Thailand to its efforts the previous year. They weren’t 

compared to each other. 

Mr. SMITH. And on Cuba, Cuba was Tier 3 from the very beginning until last year. I read the narrative and I said how is that not 

18

a Tier 3 country, particularly when they claim labor trafficking 

doesn’t exist? 

I can’t even get a visa to go to Cuba. I met with the Ambassador 

and he said only if I agree to pre-set parameters of who I meet 

with would I be given a visa, because I would go and investigate 

human trafficking and talk to people in the country as well as dissidents. 

I can’t even get in the country and I’ve been trying for 20 years. 

I don’t know how Cuba escaped the Tier 3 rating. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. As you know, it is on the Tier 2 Watch 

List for the second year, meaning it did not make increased efforts 

to combat trafficking. 

I did travel to Cuba in January and met with individuals at the 

Ministry of Health to talk about our concerns with respect to the 

medical missions and people participating in those missions who 

don’t have their travel documents or personal identification documents with them when they travel. 

So we continue to press the Cuban Government on indicators of 

trafficking that may exist. We also press them to reform their law 

to address all forms of trafficking. So, certainly, the problems that 

Cuba has are highlighted in the report and they do have a lot of 

areas with which they need to improve. They have improved with 

respect to sex trafficking prosecutions and to their coordination 

with law enforcement, both U.S. law enforcement and law enforcement in the region that they are working with to prevent sexual 

predators from coming into Cuba for sex tourism, but also to share 

information about any who do come in to engage in those prosecutions with other countries. 

Mr. SMITH. So if we notice then, pursuant to the International 

Megan’s Law, we are confident they will respond that a convicted 

pedophile from the U.S. will be watched or perhaps denied a visa? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. I believe denied a visa, Congressman. 

We spoke with them about cases where they had turned away 

those who had been convicted in the U.S. of predatory sexual practices. 

Mr. SMITH. You make a great point about human trafficking, the 

TIP heroes, including a group or a person fighting with trafficking, 

combating hereditary slavery in Mauritania. 

For the record—and I’m glad to see that, I think that’s a great 

award for that person to get—but on March 13, 1996, I chaired a 

hearing called ‘‘Slavery in Mauritania and Sudan’’ and the State 

Department told me and my subcommittee, Mr. Twaddell, who was 

then the Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, that the 

Human Rights Report for 1995 indicates that such practices as coercive slavery and commerce in slaves appeared to have virtually 

disappeared. 

I was told that this was a hearing in search of a problem, that 

there was no problem there. Matter of fact, one of our colleagues, 

former colleagues, who was a paid consultant for the country of 

Mauritania, actually testified and said there’s no slavery and he 

had seen it. I asked him well, how often do you go there. Twice, 

every year. Mervyn Dymally had said that. No slavery. 

This is why I get concerned about reports that suggest it’s not 

as big of a problem or, I mean, we had this and tried to do someVerDate 0ct 09 2002 14:07 Sep 29, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\071216\20743 SHIRL
19

thing back in 1996 and sitting in that witness chair just like you 

I was told go fish. There is no problem in Mauritania, and there 

is and there continues to be. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. You won’t be told that by me today. I 

can tell you that they are Tier 3 and we were very pleased to honor 

those individuals working in Mauritania against heredity slavery 

as well as seven other individuals. 

And it was very moving to me when they said that this makes 

a difference in their fights, in their countries against trafficking because they can go back and say it is a problem, it’s a documented 

problem in this report and I have been honored for my work in it 

and my own Government should do better about it rather than relying on me to do this work and being honored by a foreign government. 

Mr. SMITH. Well, thank you for honoring them and for your commitment there. I would like to yield to Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

I actually wanted to follow up little bit on Cuba because I’ve actually had a different experience. I traveled to Cuba many times 

and saw them grappling with the issue especially of sex trafficking 

and prostitution and saw them do a lot of education. 

I also recall a time an individual from California was deported. 

He was in Cuba trying to do sex tourism and they caught him and 

deported him. And I actually thought that they were downgraded 

because of our relationship with Cuba at the time and when our 

relationship became more balanced we upgraded them. 

I have some concern about the medical missions and actually 

some concern about our behavior because one of the practices that 

we had when doctors from Cuba would go over to South America 

we would try to recruit them away and offer them special status 

here and I’m hoping that that’s something that we’re not continuing to do. Do you know what I’m talking about? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. I do, and the Cuban officials did discuss 

that with me while I was down there. I don’t think our policy yet 

has changed on that. 

Ms. BASS. Because some of those folks then, instead of going 

back to Cuba where they could practice medicine would be recruited away, and we’ve done that in other countries as well and 

that concerns me where doctors are needed other places. Surely we 

need them here too. 

So the focus of my question is actually I wanted to focus on the 

United States because when I read the TIP Report and I wanted 

to ask actually that you make some changes next year in how the 

reporting on the United States has done because when I read the 

section on the U.S. it’s mixed in, domestic and international and 

even the domestic is mixed in with international people who might 

be trafficked. 

I’m concerned about domestic sex trafficking that does not have 

an international connection where the average age of girls in our 

country that are involved in sex trafficking is 12 years old. 

Many of them are foster kids. But from the way this report reads 

you can’t really pull that out. And so if the tier grading is based 

on our practice from one year to the next, I don’t know how you 

judge us. And then, of course, this is us grading ourselves, correct? 

20

I mean, there’s nobody else looking at us to say oh, the United 

States had done wonderful in the Tier 1. 

So we have passed legislation around sex trafficking and I would 

very much like to know where we are with that. So, for example, 

in this report on page 391 it talks about how we provide comprehensive services for all victims of trafficking. Services, however, 

were not provided equally. 

I sure would like to know where those comprehensive services 

are. I don’t know where they exist. One of the big problems that 

we have with sex trafficking in the United States is when we rescue the girls we have no place for them to go. 

So if there’s comprehensive services that are provided by the 

United States one of the main things we need is housing and I 

don’t know where we are providing that. 

Some of the people who are involved in the trafficking are street 

gangs in the United States. There is no reference to that unless I 

missed it. So I think we have graded ourselves very well and I’m 

not entirely sure we have done all that well. 

Victims are still arrested. That is acknowledged in one passing 

sentence here. The victims are still arrested. Sometimes when they 

are committing crimes that the pimp is forcing them to commit, the 

girls, the 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, are still taken to 

jail. 

There was a case recently in Oakland where a girl was rescued 

by a police officer who then turned around and started trafficking 

her and was trafficking her to the other police officers. So you 

might have seen in Oakland a couple of weeks ago I think they 

fired three chiefs in a week and in part it was because of this. 

You make reference to a national action plan. Do we have a national action plan in the United States that deals with U.S. girls 

and boys? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Are you ready for me to start? Okay. I 

really do appreciate your focus on the U.S. and it’s only since 2010 

that we started reporting on the U.S. and that’s actually helped us 

diplomatically to say that we look at ourselves as well as other 

countries. 

And we do—as you note, the U.S. narrative is longer than any 

other narrative. We exhaustively look at our efforts. We pull information from various branches of Federal Government. 

We don’t evaluate what the states are doing. We look at the Federal effort and that is done thoroughly in the TIP Report. 

I think it’s important that we look at ourselves and that we look 

at ourselves and what we are doing to prosecute and convict 

complicit officials so those police officers you just mentioned in 

Oakland, they shouldn’t just be fired. They should be criminally 

prosecuted for that. 

Ms. BASS. Absolutely. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. And that is something we ask other 

countries to do and we certainly grade ourselves on those same 

standards. 

Similarly, with respect to the penalization or criminalization of 

victims, I had the opportunity to speak to the gathering of state attorney generals that was here in DC. 

21

It was a wonderful opportunity to speak to 50 lawmakers about 

this very issue, about trafficking victims and how they need to not 

be criminalized by the system that is supposed to help them and 

many states have made great progress in that area. 

New York was one of the first to offer expungement of criminal 

records for crimes committed as a direct result of trafficking. Florida has gone even further and doesn’t look at just prostitution 

crimes but looks at any crimes that a trafficking victim may have 

been convicted of as a result of trafficking. 

So it’s very important that we make our cases victim-centered, 

that we make sure that we are helping and assisting the victims 

and you were right that housing is one of the key issues that victims need. 

I was a former Federal prosecutor in Atlanta and that was the 

first thing we needed to do when we found victims was get them 

somewhere safe so they weren’t retrafficked, so they weren’t subject to the trafficker finding them and pulling them back into that 

criminal activity that they did not want to be in. 

So housing is certainly an area we look at as well as other services—medical services, education, job training—and all of these are 

provided by Federal as well as state agencies and NGOs. 

There’s a lot of government funding going to NGOs to provide 

these services in our states and the Department of Health and 

Human Services can better speak to exactly what is being done and 

we do pull a lot of our data for the report from HHS, from the Department of Justice, and from the Department of Labor. 

Ms. BASS. So my state is California and my city and county is 

Los Angeles and in Los Angeles we certainly passed legislation 

there that a girl is not ever considered as a prostitute because if 

you’re under the age of consent how can you be a prostitute? It’s 

actually rape. 

And where I think more attention needs to be paid is also on the 

men because the men are called johns. They should be called child 

molesters and they should be prosecuted like child molesters. 

And oftentimes they kind of, you know, get off the hook. So I 

raise California and Los Angeles because I believe we have some 

of the most progressive legislation there. But we don’t have these 

resources that you’re talking about. 

I’ll follow up with HHS but I also think we need to highlight that 

because we might have some of these policies in theory but I surely 

don’t know where they are and if anywhere I think they would be 

in my state. 

The national action plan—do we have one? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. We do have it and we have actually a 

Senior Policy Operating Group which comprises of representatives 

from all of the Federal agencies that work on trafficking matters 

and they meet quarterly throughout the year. 

In fact, we’re meeting next week and we hear about what other 

individuals are doing, what other agencies are doing. We get outside our silos of each agency and we share our practices to make 

sure we’re enhancing each other’s efforts and not competing 

against efforts. 

Ms. BASS. Could I see that? Could you——

22

Ambassador COPPEDGE. We could get you the—I’m not sure the 

exact title of the document. We will get it for you, yes——

Ms. BASS. Okay. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE [continuing]. From the Senior Policy Operating Group. And then once a year that group convenes with cabinet-level officials and the Secretary of State chairs that and that 

happened in January of this year. So cabinet-level officials came together to hear about what other agencies are doing and to show a 

combined front against trafficking in this country. 

I will say there was an excellent non-governmental organization 

in Los Angeles that you referenced that had the campaign that 

there’s no such thing as a child prostitute. 

Ms. BASS. Exactly. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. That was a wonderful organization——

Ms. BASS. Absolutely. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE [continuing]. It really changed the way 

we talk about this crime. 

Ms. BASS. That’s right. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. And I’m very proud of the work they’ve 

done and the efforts they’ve made to redefine this so that we understand that the people engaging in these acts are criminals. 

Ms. BASS. It’s really important to call it differently which is why 

it’s important to never use the term ‘‘john.’’

Ambassador COPPEDGE. And in the Federal courts I can tell you 

we do require traffickers to register as sex offenders and I’m pretty 

sure that most states do follow that practice as well. 

Ms. BASS. So in the Federal system also one of the other areas 

is victim’s testimony where sometimes the girls are forced to testify 

in court and a much more reasonable practice would be for the 

girls to testify on video. 

And I don’t know if that’s a standard but I think it is one that 

would be helpful. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Again, I will defer to the Department of 

Justice on the legal standards. I will say that in the cases I prosecuted, I always worked with victims to obtain their consent. They 

were never forced to testify in court. 

Ms. BASS. Yes, but even obtaining a consent, when they walk in 

and when they see that pimp there, it’s very hard even with their 

consent to not be triggered to respond in a way that he could literally control from the courtroom through the nonverbal communication. 

You know, one——

Ambassador COPPEDGE. It is very hard. But in my personal experience, it was also empowering for those young women to come into 

court. 

We’re talking women over the age of 18, young women, to come 

into court and be able to tell a jury and a judge what this individual had done to them and to hear that he was convicted of what 

he did to them. 

So it’s also empowering at some level, and there are protections 

for juveniles to be able to testify in different manners if they are 

in danger. 

23

Ms. BASS. I can certainly understand that, and I was specifically 

talking about girls. But I can understand it could even be empowering for them as well. 

So another area that I’m worried about are the unaccompanied 

minors which is referenced here. We have been in such a rush to, 

one, get them placed back when we were at the height of that—

to get them placed or to deport them. 

And so I’m very concerned. When we deported them back, I don’t 

know what we deported them to. I don’t know what we did. 

I mean the ones that came with parents, you know, I imagine 

they were deported with their parents but I don’t know what we 

do. What do we do? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. It’s a real problem and certainly——

Ms. BASS. You take a 12-year-old and drop them off in San Salvador? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Certainly, migration crises around the 

world have raised awareness of individuals that trafficking victims 

are preyed upon during any political or economic crisis and natural 

disasters as well. 

Anything that causes individuals to migrate can also cause individuals to be susceptible to traffickers, to the false promises they 

make. 

Ms. BASS. But when we deport a child who do we deport a child 

to? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. I’m not sure exactly. We’d have to check 

with the Department of Homeland Security to see. 

Ms. BASS. Okay. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. I do know that the State Department 

has programs ongoing in Guatemala and Honduras to provide services to children to keep them from becoming victims of trafficking. 

Ms. BASS. Okay. I know one of the other problems that happened 

in our country too is when we placed them here some of them were 

placed inappropriately and placed with traffickers. 

I want to just wrap up my testimony because I hear they’re calling votes, I think. Is that—so I would like to make the specific request that when the report is done next year that it is separated 

out so that you can see very specifically the section that deals with 

U.S. children in the U.S., not international children coming here, 

and also U.S. trafficking. Does that make sense? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. But I will say that for—I understand 

your request but I will say that throughout the report for any country, whether it’s the U.S., France, or Germany, we look at trafficking in that country. We look at whether that country has a domestic and/or an international component to it. We call that a transit source or destiny. 

Ms. BASS. It’s just hard to look at our progress that way of 

U.S.—of what the problem is going on with U.S. children. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. What the report tries to capture is what 

the landscape of trafficking looks like and in the U.S. unfortunately 

it is both domestic victims and international victims. 

We can certainly, and I think the report does highlight services 

and whether those are going to both domestic and international 

victims. 

24

There has been a great increase in the time that I have been 

working in the anti-trafficking field with services provided to domestic victims. 

Ms. BASS. I want us to hold ourselves to a higher standard. 

Thank you. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Cicilline. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you, Madam Ambassador. 

I want to begin, you mentioned that the TIP Report relies on the 

Federal efforts with respect to trafficking in the United States and 

you just mentioned an assessment of the trafficking landscape. 

With what we know is activity at the state level, does it make 

sense to consider including in the TIP Report the state efforts and 

the success or inadequacies of state efforts as well? Seems like a 

rather big omission. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Well, the report is designed to look at 

countries, to look at the federal, in this case, effort or centralized 

government efforts around the world. It doesn’t dwell down in any 

other countries. 

For example, India has multiple states. We don’t look at what 

the states in India are doing. And so it’s consistently treating the 

U.S. the way we treat other foreign governments and evaluate——

Mr. CICILLINE. Yes, I guess I would—just following up on what 

Congresswoman Bass’ point that she just made, to the extent that 

we are leaders in this work, we create the report to shine the light 

on the activities of other countries, it seems to me that we that 

ought to be doing everything we can to surface all of the trafficking 

that exists in the United States and call that out because I think 

it gives more credibility to the balance of the reports. So just something to——

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Well, the report does—and again, the 

U.S. narrative is the longest narrative in here and it does focus on 

both domestic and international. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Right. But not—it’s happening at the local level. 

Do you think that there are sufficient protections in place that 

prohibit the importation of goods and services that have been produced in whole or in part by trafficked or slave labor? 

I know there are a number of examples of goods that have come 

into the United States and that there’s reason to believe that were 

produced by trafficked labor. Do you think we need additional legislative authority to prevent that? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. Well, I know that during this past year 

Congress closed the loophole to ban products that are made with 

slave labor and that the Department of Homeland Security, 

through the Customs and Border Protection, now has the authority 

to stop products that they believe are made with forced labor. 

So I believe that with that legislative change we should wait and 

see if that appears to be sufficient to allow us to keep out goods 

that are made with forced labor. 

We also at the State Department encourage responsible practices 

on the part of businesses to look at their own supply chains. This 

is not something that governments can do alone. It’s something we 

rely on partners and the business community needs to step up and 

police their own supply chain as well. 

25

To that end, we unveiled this year a Web site partly funded by 

the State Department called resonsiblesourcingtool.org, which allows companies who have products that may contain slave labor to 

be able to go onto that Web site and look where the issues may be 

in certain countries and how better to police and prevent slave 

labor from being used in the production of goods. 

Mr. CICILLINE. And just one final question because I know votes 

have been called, of the 20.9 million victims worldwide, the International Labor Organization estimates that 68 percent of these individuals are trapped in labor trafficking. Yet only 7 percent of the 

6,609 convictions reported worldwide last year were labor cases. So 

labor trafficking seems to be really operating with near impunity 

across the globe in large part because of the increased resources it 

takes to recognize, investigate, and prosecute these cases. 

How can the TIP Report and the State Department, and your office in particular help build this expertise globally and ensure that 

more labor cases are identified and prosecuted? What else could we 

be doing, since that seems to be such a big part of this? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. And this was similar to what happened 

in the U.S. We focused on sex trafficking and have started to increase our focus on labor trafficking and how best to find it. 

So what we are doing is training law enforcement both here in 

the U.S. but also through resources from the State Department. 

We’re training international law enforcement and we are also allowing organizations like the International Organization for Migration to train law enforcement on to what to look for with respect 

to indicators of forced labor or trafficking. 

And so it’s important to train them so they understand what to 

look for but also to call for increasing convictions in this area and 

stringent sentences that will deter labor traffickers from engaging 

in this because it really is a crime of economic opportunity, right? 

Cheaper labor means more money for the people making the product. 

And so there needs to be a sufficient consequence and throughout 

the Trafficking in Persons Report we note where there are not sufficient sentences and not sufficient labor trafficking prosecutions. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you so much. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Ambassador, we do have 11 votes. I’m not sure how 

David Abramowitz—I’m not sure—can you stay? I appreciate that. 

Thank you. And I apologize deeply for that. They’re saying it will 

take about an hour. Let me just ask a couple of final follow-up 

questions. 

On Cuba where it’s clearly stated there is no reporting on labor 

trafficking whatsoever, 84,000 workers from foreign medical missions. A significant amount of the government revenue is derived 

from that. 

How is it that that lack of reporting didn’t trigger a red flag, especially since you acknowledge in your report that some of the people said that they were coerced into that overseas mission? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. So those factors do raise a red flag and 

as you noted are called out in the narrative. But there are four 

minimum standards and the fourth has twelve indicia. 

And so we evaluate all of those standards and look at the totality 

of what’s going on in the country. Cuba has made some progress, 

26

as I indicated with respect to keeping sex tourists out of the country. They have increased their efforts to address sex trafficking. We 

continue to press them to engage more in labor trafficking and to 

allow the people involved in the medical missions to hold their documents when they are working abroad. 

Mr. SMITH. Again, just for clarification purposes, when you receive data from the People’s Republic of China, to what extent do 

we try to verify that it’s accurate? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. In every case we try to verify that information. 

Mr. SMITH. And how do we do that? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. We have individuals on the ground who 

are gathering information from sources other than the government. 

We rely on human rights organizations. We rely on dissidents. We 

rely on press. We rely on any sources of information we can to 

verify that information. 

I will say, as I alluded to earlier with respect to Cuba, that in 

that case where there’s a smaller number of convictions, we actually have lawyers at the State Department who looked at the facts 

in those cases and said yes, these are sex trafficking cases that we 

can now count and say this is the number of prosecutions they had. 

It becomes much more challenging and problematic in a country 

as large as China to verify every case. We simply can’t do that. But 

they do in China break out the prosecutions by the type of law they 

were convicted under and we did distinguish those types of prosecutions in the report this year. 

Mr. SMITH. But we don’t have access, we don’t have people in the 

courtroom. I mean, what kind of transparency is there? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. We strive for transparency in this report 

and that’s why there is——

Mr. SMITH. No, I mean in terms of the Chinese statistics. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. It’s very hard to get information, as you 

know, sir, from China. 

Mr. SMITH. Because if you look at the numbers from 2010, there 

is actually a 55-percent decline in the number of cases and 62-percent decline in the number of convictions, again, compared to 2010. 

Not last year but 2010 when they were Tier 3. 

So I have trouble understanding whether or not we have real 

numbers even in 2010 and the numbers have actually declined 

from when they were Tier 3 when it comes to convictions and prosecutions. 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. But it’s not just the numbers that the 

tier ranking is based on. It’s based on the four minimum standards 

and the 12 indicia. 

So we have to look at all of the factors. And I do know that from 

last year that China did provide increasing statistics to us, more 

information and more transparency than they had in 2014, for the 

2015 report. 

Mr. SMITH. So on China, your recommendation is comported with 

what the Secretary did? 

Ambassador COPPEDGE. So I—certainly support the book as a 

whole and the Secretary has the final authority. And so this is a 

State Department—whole of Department effort and we were able 

27

to discuss all of the countries of concern to the Trafficking in Persons office with the Secretary. 

Mr. SMITH. Okay. Let me just—and for the record, the part on 

the United States, which is a welcome depart, and it’s good that 

we’re Tier 1, but I think people tend to forget that there is an annual Attorney General’s report that is 400 pages long. This is 418 

for the entire world. 

We do look introspectively and we do it with a different part of 

our Government, the Attorney General’s office in the Justice Department. And I think sometimes that goes under recognized. 

We are looking and trying to improve all the time and what you 

have here is just a distillation of what other parts of the government are doing on a Federal level. So I think that’s important to 

point out. 

Unfortunately, we’ve got votes. I have another 20 questions but 

I won’t get to them. I’ll submit them for the record. And again, I 

apologize to Mr. Abramowitz that we have about an hour’s worth 

of votes. Then we’ll reconvene as soon as we return. 

We stand in recess. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. SMITH. The subcommittee will resume its sitting and I want 

to apologize again to Mr. Abramowitz and those who have stayed. 

Thank you for your forbearance. 

I’d like to introduce David Abramowitz who is the managing director of Humanity United Action overseeing public policy and government relations. 

Previously he served as chief counsel to the House Committee on 

Foreign Affairs where he was responsible for advising the committee of such matters as international law, justice, global human 

rights, democracy issues including and especially trafficking in persons, and promoting democracy assistance. 

He worked doggedly on the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 

2000 and especially on the reauthorization of the Wilberforce Act 

in 2008 among other important pieces of legislation. 

Prior to joining the committee staff in 1999, David worked in the 

Department of State for 10 years on arms control, the Middle East, 

and legislation relating to foreign relations and I’d like to yield the 

floor to Mr. Abramowitz. 

STATEMENT OF MR. DAVID ABRAMOWITZ, MANAGING 

DIRECTOR, HUMANITY UNITED ACTION 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to Ranking 

Member Bass for convening this important hearing and for inviting 

me to testify. 

I have a written statement and I ask that it be made part of the 

record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, so ordered. 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. It’s a pleasure to be here today representing 

Humanity United Action, a nonpartisan non-profit organization 

that along with its affiliated organization, Humanity United, is 

dedicated to bringing new approaches to global problems that have 

long been considered intractable. 

Mr. Chairman, more than 15 years after the Palermo Protocol 

and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act at any given time more 

28

than 20 million workers and individuals are still estimated to be 

trapped in modern slavery. A strong Trafficking in Persons office 

at the Department of State with effective tools such as the Trafficking in Persons Report is a powerful catalyst for change. 

But the TIP Report is only effective if the State Department 

ranks countries honestly. Last year, many of us in civil society expressed serious concerns that with some of the State Department’s 

tier placement decisions, especially the upgrading of Malaysia and 

Uzbekistan, I would say the 2016 report is a mixed picture with 

some real disappointments, but is certainly better than last year. 

First, the positive. By placing Burma and Uzbekistan in Tier 3, 

we believe that the State Department is starting to remedy some 

of last year’s misguided decisions. The treatment of the Rohingya 

in Burma and the Uzbekistani Government official policy of forced 

labor fully justifies these decisions, as I note in my written testimony. 

My testimony also describes how the State Department’s decision 

to keep Qatar on the Tier 2 Watch List is another effective way to 

use the TIP Report to push for real change that will actually impact workers on the ground. 

Unfortunately, this year’s report has troubling flaws. Let me 

start with Malaysia. The State Department’s upgrade of that country to the Tier 2 Watch List in 2015 was completely unjustified and 

remains so today. 

More than a year after Malaysian police unearthed the remains 

of more than 130 human trafficking victims buried in mass graves, 

not a single Malaysian has been held accountable. 

This is particularly of concern, given that the mass graves incident occurred fully within this year’s reporting period. Moreover, 

recent news reports suggest that top government officials have 

been involved in the human trafficking scheme involving the country’s immigration system. Similarly, no criminal charges have been 

brought. 

As you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, earlier convictions may have 

gone up slightly from four last year to seven this year, but that 

number is still below the number of convictions in 2014 when Malaysia was downgraded to Tier 3 and the report itself acknowledges 

that there were fewer trafficking investigations and prosecutions 

last year with its pilot program for victims seeming to be sputtering to a halt. 

While the State Department may have believed that an upgrade 

to the Tier 2 Watch List would encourage Malaysia to increase its 

concrete actions, that simply didn’t happen. 

Upgrading Thailand to Tier 2 Watch List was also unwarranted 

and points to the perils that the Malaysia upgrade created. I know, 

Mr. Chairman, that you thought that it was appropriate to upgrade 

Thailand but I think that we still have significant concerns. 

Though the Thai Government has taken steps to improve some 

of its laws to address international concerns around human trafficking and forced labor, those reforms have not resulted in any 

meaningful improvement on the ground. 

Implementation and enforcement of these laws remains a major 

weakness. As I indicated in my testimony, quoting from a Humanity United and Freedom Fund report, implementation of the new 

29

statutes has been inconsistent both in courts and at sea. Inspection 

systems are underfunded, plagued by corruption and constrained 

by inadequate vessel monitoring capabilities. 

More importantly, inspectors have failed to identify victims of 

forced labor as they lack the resources and incentives to check 

crews and interview workers. 

I’d ask, Mr. Chairman, that the full text of that report be included in the record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, so ordered. 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. What’s more, we’ve seen very troubling developments in the investigation of the discovery of mass graves on the 

Thai side of the border, which is concomitant with the Malaysian 

case. 

The head of this investigation had to flee for his life and seek 

asylum in Australia after receiving threats from Thai police and 

military officials complicit in forced labor in the country. 

This suggests that high-level Thai Government officials are involved. 

Mr. Chairman, as you mentioned previously, I think we need to 

consider that the upgrade of Malaysia last year led directly to the 

upgrade of Thailand this year. 

It may be that it was simply impossible to upgrade Malaysia and 

keep it on the Tier 2 Watch List this year and at the same time 

not upgrade Thailand. 

Thailand’s efforts were plainly insufficient, in our view, but they 

were greater than Malaysia’s. Having decided to upgrade Malaysia 

and keep it on Tier 2 Watch List may have made it more difficult 

to keep Thailand on Tier 3 and maybe we can discuss this more 

during questions. 

Unfortunately, the decision to upgrade Thailand and maintain 

Malaysia on the Watch List may deepen the perception that the 

Department applies the TIP Report standards unevenly. 

I believe that the State Department, particularly the U.S. Embassies in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpor and the Department’s East 

Asia and Pacific bureau must significantly increase their efforts to 

see real implementation of Thailand and Malaysia’s legal frameworks and press for real impact. 

I want to accentuate this point, Mr. Chairman. The Department’s 

lack of focus on actual impact on the ground in sensitive countries 

has reached a point where Congress should step in. 

One way Congress can address this is to require that any country that receives an upgrade shows concrete actions toward the implementation of their laws and demonstrate impact of these actions 

on the ground. 

Developing a program to help survivors that doesn’t work or establishing labor inspections that do not identify trafficking victims 

is simply not the impact the United States should expect. 

Similarly, commitments to take action should not be a basis for 

having a country remain on a Tier 2 Watch List. 

As you pointed out, Mr. Chairman, earlier, we have taken vague 

commitments and the promises to implement laws—new laws—in 

good faith too often and it is the victims of trafficking who pay the 

price for such misplaced trust. 

30

Now is the time for Congress also to step in to ensure that in 

the future all governments that direct trafficking in persons or support forced labor through government policy should automatically 

be placed on Tier 3. 

And before I close, Mr. Chairman, just addressing some of the 

issues that were raised on the United States, I think there can be 

no question that there is significant efforts that the U.S. is taking. 

But there are a number of areas, as Congresswoman Bass pointed out, where we really need to look carefully. For example, on 

prosecutions, almost all the prosecutions were on sex trafficking. 

Obviously, those crimes come up and they’re easier to investigate. But we have small number of prosecutions and convictions 

on foreign labor trafficking. 

As is mentioned in the report, some of the exchange programs 

are of concern. This is a potential controversial issue. But there 

have been ways in which the summer work program and some of 

the exchange programs have had serious problems. 

There are also the issues with the unaccompanied alien children 

and the U.S. need to do more to make sure that the children are 

protected and also that perhaps we take steps to ensure that the 

root causes of some of that is addressed. 

And finally, I think this issue of decriminalization is one that we 

need to continue thinking about. The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act did authorize a diversion program so that children 

would not be put into jails. 

But I think there are ways that we can think about doing better 

and making sure that they are actually not arrested in the first 

place. Obviously, that raises certain challenges. But I think we 

need to look at that carefully. 

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the invitation to testify and 

for both yours and for Ranking Member Bass’ critical leadership in 

this issue and I look forward to working with you in the future and 

to your questions. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Abramowitz follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Mr. Abramowitz, thank you very much for your testimony. 

As you I’m sure observed during my questioning of the Ambassador-at-Large I used some of your comments, particularly the idea 

of the equivalence of Thailand goes up because Malaysia has gone 

up in terms of tier ranking, and I think that was a very valid point. 

I didn’t really get an answer to that and some of the other questions and I think hopefully on some of the written questions we’ll 

get an elaboration on some of the why’s of this because there are 

a lot of left unanswered and important questions. I mean, whether 

or not the TPP had any influence whatsoever on Malaysia’s tier 

ranking. I think you can’t even look somebody in the face and have 

a straight face and say it didn’t because I think it’s obvious it did 

because it’s not based on Malaysia’s trafficking record. 

So I thank you for those points. You know, the yellow card that 

the European Commission had put on Thailand, where is that in 

terms of its consideration? 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. I think that’s a very important point, Mr. 

Chairman. In late May, early June the European Commission extended the yellow card. 

I believe it was for an additional 6 months to determine whether 

Thailand was making progress on both the illegal unregulated and 

unreported fishing aspects which goes to sustainability as well as 

the forced labor issues, even though that is technically not part of 

the Commission’s approach. 

My concern is that I think that part of what spurred the Commission to take this action with respect to Thailand, which is driving some significant change in terms of at least the new frameworks, was the yellow card that they put on the importation of fish 

from Thailand and with the upgrade from Tier 3 to the Tier 2 

Watch List I think the question is how will they look at it. 

That is, the Tier 3 rating of Thailand, I think, gave the European 

Commission additional incentives to try to take action and now 

that it’s been upgraded to the Tier 2 Watch List what will the commission do. I’m very concerned that they will also take the pressure 

off Thailand, which could lead to a very unsatisfying response from 

the Government of Thailand. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Abramowitz, with regards to Cambodia, corruption of or prosecution of corrupt officials is key to changing the climate of impunity for human trafficking. We know there is a lot of 

cross border trafficking and what a destination point as well as 

origination Cambodia actually is. 

Your thoughts on what needs to happen for Cambodia to take 

this more seriously and to really crack down on the government officials? 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. Well Mr. Chairman, I think that there are 

those of our partner organizations that work in Cambodia and they 

believe that there has been some significant progress with respect 

to Cambodia and have been supportive of the Cambodia being 

raised to Tier 2. 

That’s primarily based, I think, on some of the success they have 

at least in terms of the monitoring they’ve done on some of the 

child sexual exploitation in Cambodia. 

36

Nonetheless, I think that there are some significant issues. One 

is the one you just pointed out—corruption. I think that the—there 

continue to be challenges there. 

A second issue is the question of trying to ensure that recruitment of Cambodians who work abroad in sort of a semi-official 

labor export program is done in a way that it doesn’t create exploitation. 

A lot of these problems originate in the sending county where the 

recruiters actually require additional fees for individuals. So there 

needs to be additional work there. 

And I think overall Cambodia has to sustain the efforts that it’s 

been doing and some of the progress that’s been made. 

Mr. SMITH. Let me ask you with regards to China, you heard my 

exchange with the Ambassador-at-Large about the view toward a 

written plan that goes unimplemented but the promise of implementation is dangled like a low-hanging fruit. They continue to retain their category of Watch List. 

Your thoughts on that? Because it seems to me they can stretch 

that for years and when do we finally say we’re not convinced? 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. I have to say, Mr. Chairman, that I was a bit 

concerned by the Ambassador’s response and also I think the overall framing. 

So on one hand, the report—and the Ambassador also indicated 

this—suggests that there are problems with respect to the forced 

labor and these issues are being raised but it’s not exactly clear 

what the scale of it, or that’s what I heard was that it’s obviously 

a problem but the scale, et cetera. 

But then the number-one recommendation they have in the TIP 

Report this year is to end forced labor and government facilities 

outside of the penal sector. 

So it seems to me that the Department is really recognizing that 

this challenge of forced labor, the in-government facilities pursuant 

to the government industries is a real serious problem. It’s the 

number-one thing that should be fixed. 

So I think that’s one of the reasons among others that we have 

this proposal that’s in the testimony to say that if there is government-sponsored forced labor a country should automatically be on 

Tier 3. 

How is it that you can have a government that would have a policy of trying to have forced labor in its facilities, industries, et 

cetera, or in private, forcing individuals to go into private sector 

areas like in Uzbekistan and that they can be anything but Tier 

3? 

So I think that is one issue that I think we need to look at carefully. 

The second is I think that there are difficult sensitivities with 

China, as you pointed out, Mr. Chairman, and I think that we need 

to start thinking about additional tools in addition to the TIP Report that is outside this framework to try to work on trying to improve their performance. So——

Mr. SMITH. Can you list some examples? 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. So for example, as was discussed very briefly 

in response to Mr. Cicilline’s questions we now have an improved 

37

tool with respect to prohibiting the importation of goods made with 

forced labor. 

The Tariff Act of 1930 which previously was not available to really do anything because of this consumptive demand exception, 

which I believe you and your staff are familiar with, now that 

that’s been eliminated you actually have a real authority to start 

enforcing the notion that goods that come into the United States 

should not be made with forced labor and our markets should not 

be open and have access to goods with forced labor. 

Now, this has just been used for the first time in 16 years. 

Where was it used? Against China. And why? Because it was prison labor. 

So I think that’s a good signal to send but I think that we can 

expand the use of that authority to other areas where we know 

that forced labor is being used. 

This would be a way of trying to target our efforts so it’s not trying to undermine the entire relationship or et cetera but you can 

target specific wrongdoing by specific companies and I think that 

can send a strong message to the Government of China as well as 

other governments that they just can’t keep on going with business 

as usual. 

So I think that we have to kind of put the TIP Report in context 

and try to figure out where there are other ways that we can address some of the wrongdoing if some of the issues here become too 

difficult. 

Mr. SMITH. Well, on that import ban it’s worth noting Frank 

Wolf and I, when we visited Beijing Prison Number One soon after 

Tiananmen Square, we actually took socks and jelly shoes, which, 

for young girls, was very popular at the time. They were coming 

to this country. 

Since we knew that there were 40 Tiananmen Square and other 

convicts laboring in that place we got an import ban on it. We 

asked the customs commissioner to do it. He did it and it held and 

we think it may have even closed down that particular laogai. Of 

course, they just moved it somewhere else. So it was not a Pyrrhic 

victory but at least a step in the right direction. 

Now, you recall that both Bush and Clinton always talked about 

the MOU on gulag-made goods and referencing Smoot-Hawley, you 

know, the 1930 act. But it always had a gaping flaw to it in that 

if we suspected something as far as I know it has not changed. We 

tell them, they being the Chinese Government. They inspect it and 

60 days later they come back and tell us whether or not it was true 

or not. 

I mean, that’s like telling a lawbreaker you go investigate your 

nefarious enterprise and tell us what you find. It was absurd at its 

face then but that was touted for years. 

I remember meeting two customs officials in Beijing on one of my 

trips to Beijing in the early 1990s and I said, ‘‘What do you guys 

do? When do you ever investigate any of this?’’ The bottom line is—

you might recall this—they were like the Maytag repairman. They 

had nothing to do relative to this issue and they said, we really 

don’t get any requests. 

So we should really be looking, I think, to get an MOU or something like that that has real teeth to it so that we’re looking for 

38

these gulag-made goods and then we take action to truly, you 

know, put an import ban on it. So——

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. I would say, first of all, Mr. Chairman, that as 

far as I understand it, the situation remains very problematic with 

the MOU with China, that if it’s not identical to what it was it’s 

very similar. 

We were having a conversation with the customs and border protection staff about this and there was some indication that there 

really needs to be an effort with State to go back and renegotiate 

that MOU or try to find some other alternative channel for obtaining some of this information. And there was some conversations 

that we’ve been having with some of our Senate friends who are 

interested in trying to see how the Tariff Act can be implemented 

and I would say that Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio has a very 

strong interest in this issue and could be a good person to talk to 

you about how to try to see what we could do. 

They have been following up on the task force on prison labor. 

This was established I think under an Executive order that may 

have come out about that time and my understanding is that the 

task force that’s supposed to look at these issues with China in 

particular has not been very active and that there is, I think, an 

effort to try to spur additional examination of these issues. So that 

might also be a good way of trying to see what kind of activity it 

will generate. 

Mr. SMITH. Let’s work together on that one. Sherrod Brown and 

I used to co-chair the Congressional-Executive Commission on 

China together so we sat next to each other for years, and I will 

follow up with him. I think it’s a great idea. 

Let me just ask you, with regards to China—one last thing on 

China. We know that the North Koreans who are trafficked who 

make it across the border and because we ran out of time I didn’t 

get to ask Ambassador Coppedge that—but it is a question we’ll 

submit for the record. 

That is a clear violation of the Refugee Convention. The UNHCR 

has yet to really step up and raise the issue in a meaningful way 

with Beijing. But we should and it seems to me it ought to be a 

real issue in our bilateral with China that they send people back 

to sure prison or they’re trafficked, not 100 percent but in a huge 

percentage of the cases. And your thoughts on that? 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. Well, Mr. Chairman, this of course has been an 

issue that we’ve been working on for decades now and UNHCR’s 

difficult relationship with Beijing has really been an inhibitor to 

really making progress. 

I wonder, Mr. Chairman, whether the existing refugee challenges 

that we’re seeing around the world might create a new entry point 

for these issues. That is, you have these very large populations in 

all corners of the world. Human trafficking issues had become an 

important issue for UNHCR. Even with respect to the European 

space where we know that, there are challenges when it comes to 

vulnerable populations. 

There has been some new attention on that and I wonder if 

there’s a way to try to raise those issues and say look, you’ve been 

expressing these concerns in conflict zones and whether it’s the Islamic State in Iraq and so on and their challenges or whether it’s 

39

been in Europe where there’s these large mass movements that 

have shown vulnerable populations where these trafficking 

issues—let’s look back at China and see how we can try to make 

sure that everyone is accepting the same norms. 

Mr. SMITH. Yeah. No, that’s a great idea. We just got back, a few 

of us. Allison Hollabaugh and others on the Helsinki Commission 

from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s 

Parliamentary Assembly. 

I was the head of delegation. I’m also a Special Representative 

for Trafficking, and at it I offered a resolution that did pass but 

not without people voting against it and speaking out against it, 

particularly the Norweigan delegation on International Megan’s 

Law. That law is 8 years in the making, passed the House three 

times. Finally got through the Senate, and the argument that was 

being made by Norway’s delegation was once somebody serves 

time, that should be the end of it. Everyone forgets why they’re in 

prison and there’s no follow up and our argument back was this is 

about child protection. The proclivity to recommit these crimes is 

so very, very high—well-documented that we’ve got to ensure that 

for the sake of children there’s at least a noticing requirement and 

hopefully becomes reciprocal so we’re noticed when they come here, 

people who are convicted of these crimes against children. 

I am wondering what your thoughts are on that because we 

know that we are trying to get European countries, and it did 

pass—the resolution; we’ll give you a copy. 

Without objective we’ll make it a part of this record as well—and 

we had good buy-in from our friends from Canada, some of the others—the U.K. had some of the members of the delegation there 

were very supportive. But, again, and the eastern and central European countries very supportive—not the Nordic countries and 

some of the others in that region. It was very, very disappointing. 

I think it presents a real challenge to all of us so your thoughts 

on that one. 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. Mr. Chairman, I have been following that debate in the European space the way you and your staff have. Obviously, sex tourism is a serious problem, particularly when it comes 

with respect to children. 

I guess my thoughts on it are limited to the notion that we do 

have a situation here in the United States where after many, many 

years of efforts you and the other champions who have been working on this issue have got this legislation passed and enacted into 

statute here in the United States and I wonder if there’s a way of 

trying to really track that data through the Justice Department 

and the State Department and others so that we can build a narrative around how this is having an impact and the countries’ reactions to it. 

I do think that it may appear different to Nordic countries once 

they’re notified of sexual predators who are coming to their own 

country and that building up a case after some experience with the 

law here, even we have Ambassador Coppedge indicating that even 

the Cubans who, you know, their reservations about their—what 

they have been doing. I’ve been interested in following up on these 

issues and have been looking into it. 

40

So I think that perhaps there’s a way that over time there can 

be a stronger and stronger narrative that can be built and that the 

Nordics can see that this is something that could make a lot of 

sense and maybe there will be more cooperation. 

Mr. SMITH. That’s a good thought. We do require in the law reporting. We want to know when the information is actionable, what 

do they do so we have feedback on a constant basis. So you’re right, 

we build a narrative. It’s more likely they’ll be persuaded over 

time. 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. And I think—Mr. Chairman, I think that 

they’re—you know the statistics are one thing but the stories are 

another. I think that my own experience from the outside, now that 

I’m in the advocacy world, having left the U.S. Government is that 

having the number of times and what happened and so on is very 

important, you need the hard information, the quantitative. But 

there’s a qualitative end to it that, as you know, is so critical in 

terms of changing people’s perspective. So trying to marry those up 

together and trying to devise a narrative where we can see that 

there are some individuals who clearly intended to do these kinds 

of misconduct when they’re crimes, when they’re abroad, and how 

this helps stop that I think could make some different in terms of 

those perspectives. 

Mr. SMITH. One of the most interesting side conversations I had 

in Tbilisi was with a former member of the Royal Mounties who 

when Phuket was hit with the tsunami, and I joined the delegation. We went to Sri Lanka, Phuket, and Banda Aceh. And Phuket, 

obviously, has a tremendous amount of sex trafficking and of children and it was made very clear that many of the bodies that he 

was a part of identifying, sadly, were—their country of origination 

was in the Nordic area. He was kind of shocked by that. And so 

there could be a more systemic problem that needs to be addressed 

there as well. 

But you’re right, we build a narrative and hopefully they’ll be 

persuaded. One last question and then I’ll make a final comment, 

and anything else you’d like to add that you think might be helpful. 

You heard the back and forth on Cuba earlier today. I’ve read 

again the Cuba narrative which I think is very thorough. The point 

that some—what’s the number—84,000 foreign mission workers are 

sent abroad. It’s a great money maker for the Cuban Government, 

and yet—and there’s been ongoing decades-long allegations that 

there is coercion involved and then our TIP Report says they took 

no action to address forced labor which is the co-equal with sex 

trafficking where there is also huge deficiencies, particularly on 

child sex trafficking. 

It makes me wonder and beyond words how they could be on the 

Watch List. Seems to me that if there is a rapprochement going on 

with Cuba it ought to be done with human rights in hand, not in 

the back somewhere or hidden from view. Friends don’t let friends 

commit human rights abuses. If we really area getting closer to the 

Cuban Government which many are doing, I think it ought to be 

done with principles that are not compromised for some political 

reason. 

41

But your thoughts on the absolute lack of labor trafficking and 

then the issue of sex trafficking. 

Finally, in the recommendations to Cuba, it calls for allowing the 

U.N. Special Rapporteur to visit there. I remember the last Special 

Representative that went to Cuba and I was a part of it. 

I didn’t play the role. It was Armando Valladares who led the 

U.S. delegation during the Reagan administration. I went over with 

him, spent a week in the U.N. Human Rights Commission and he 

got an investigation into the Cuban prisons. 

Everybody was retaliated against when they left. I don’t think 

there was a single person not, and but at least we began focusing 

on Cuba. They wouldn’t even let the Rapporteur in to look at 

human trafficking. 

So I think we’re premature at best putting that Watch List as 

an issue on there. But I appreciate your thoughts. 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. So Mr. Chairman, I have to say that Cuba is 

not a country that we focused on in any detail. I have heard from 

those who do follow the Cuban situation a little bit more carefully, 

that based on their analysis of last year’s report where they were 

upgraded from Tier 3 to the Tier 2 Watch List that there was very 

little action by the Cuban Government. It more fell into this category of promises that they were making and commitments they 

were making to engage more with this issue and that was the primary basis, if you just look at the text of the report itself. 

And I think that this goes to this issue of we have to really think 

about—and I’m sure you may remember that there are times where 

I have raised concerns about reopening standards within the TVPA 

for tier placement because, of course, that’s like opening up the 

Constitution of the United States—who knows where it would go. 

But I think that that’s why I really think that Congress should 

consider looking at ways to try to focus more on impact, particularly on that upgrading from Tier 3 to the Tier 2 Watch List. What 

are the actions that they’re taking and what impact is it having on 

the ground, because I don’t really see anything in the 2015 or more 

specifically to the subject of this hearing in the 2016 narrative that 

really shows the kind of actions that are going to create impact on 

the ground. 

I, myself, was a bit taken aback when I read the Cuba narrative 

and leading up to this hearing, knowing that this might be an issue 

with respect to really the very clear statement that for issues 

around forced labor are just not dealt with at all in Cuba. 

As important as sex trafficking may be and issues around the 

tourist industry that may be the case in Cuba, there really needs 

to be a framework for addressing forced labor issues. 

I will say that as I understand it there are some different views 

about the medical missions and even apparently some of the ways 

in which Cuba brings younger individuals into the fields to do some 

agricultural work and as to whether that is really forced labor or 

not and it appears that there has been an inconsistent view that 

the State Department has taken from year to year. I think that 

was a basis in previous years as to why they were on Tier 3. 

I noted Congressman Bass’ concerns that perhaps the Tier 3 status at that time and before the opening that the Obama administration has led was really political too. 

42

But I think there were some serious concerns that have been 

raised in the past regarding those programs as to whether they 

amounted to forced labor. 

So I think that there may be a role in trying to get some additional documentation on those programs and get into them a little 

bit more to try to clarify whether they really fit into that category 

of state-sponsored forced labor because if they are then, as I said, 

I think that’s a really strong basis for saying, you know, that Cuba 

and any country that is involved in a policy of forced labor or exploitation should only be on Tier 3. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Let me just conclude by thanking you, David Abramowitz, for 

your lifelong work on human rights, particularly on human trafficking. 

Thank you that you have amassed a list of recommendations for 

reauthorization. I look forward to working with you on that. My 

concern is that there will be some of those issues that will not be 

acceptable to the Senate, more likely be acceptable to the House. 

Even on the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act, which has 

now sat over there for two Congresses in a row without an action, 

and it deals with this issue of these downgrades and the parking 

lot and which we thought we addressed with the Wilberforce Act 

in 2008, which still remains a problem. 

But I look forward to working with you on that, going forward, 

and I thank you for that leadership. And if I could just conclude. 

Are there any other countries that you think we haven’t touched 

on that bear is some scrutiny and focus? 

Obviously, every country in the book, anything on any country in 

Tier 3, obviously, but this hearing was to look at where mistakes 

may have been made, obviously, congratulate where good things 

have been done and basically, the TIP Report is a good report, but 

it has some egregious flaws that, again, the Reuters organization 

discovered last year, which I have been saying for some years myself. 

So are there any other countries that you think might need a 

focus? 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. Well, Mr. Chairman, I think that, you know, 

the question of India has been a perennial question that we’ve discussed in the past. Clearly, the Indian Government is taking steps. 

But should they really be on Tier 2, given the huge scale of forced 

labor that’s in the country? I’ve been particularly concerned about 

reports with respect to India that they are not allowing individuals 

to travel who have been conferred the T Visas as a derivative of 

those who are victims in the United States. 

So I think India is a country that we should be looking at. I 

think that, you know, Ghana is a country that, while it was kept 

on the Tier 2 Watch List this year I think continues to bear, you 

know, some examination. 

I haven’t had a chance to look through all the ratings but I think 

that as we go forward as we head toward the 2017 Report, looking 

at the things that are happening now, these issues around what 

are—what are the countries that have been on the Tier 2 Watch 

List for 4 years or this is the 4th year, really do an analysis of 

those and start early on collecting information on those countries 

43

to ensure that we’re prepared to give the right information and 

really see whether in this sort of final year on the Watch List for 

the 4th year that they’re going to actually take serious steps that 

really will have impact. 

So I’m going to be doing some analysis with my friends on that 

and would be happy discuss it with you and your staff as to what 

are some of the key countries we should be having a special eye 

on as we go forward. 

Mr. SMITH. I appreciate that, and thanks for raising India. I met 

with the Indian Ambassador to the U.S. a few times now and he 

assures me that the retaliation against T Visa holders has ended. 

He may not have all the information on that and when Mr. Modi 

was in town I raised two issues with him quickly; one was child 

abduction and the other was trafficking, and the hope is that he’ll 

take them very seriously. 

I’ll never forget IJM’s—we actually showed a video that they had 

of young Indian girls who were in a cave-like cellar and they were 

being, obviously, trafficked for sex exploitation—very, very young 

girls. 

When they came up out of this hole they removed the door to it 

and their eyes were adjusting and it was just a heartbreaking 

scene to see and they were down there to evade the police who 

were on the search or the hunt but were tipped off. 

So thank you for raising India and some of these other countries. 

Mr. ABRAMOWITZ. Well, Mr. Chairman, I just want to say thank 

you for your leadership on these issues and raising these issues. 

It’s not always easy to raise an issue like human trafficking with 

the Prime Minister of a major country like India. But, you know, 

we really congratulate you on all your continuing serious work and 

the way the subcommittee and Congresswoman Bass has taken 

this issue very seriously and we look forward to working with all 

of you to try to see what further progress we can make on this 

issue. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Abramowitz, thank you so very much and the 

hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 5:20 p.m., the committee was adjourned.] 

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A P P E N D I X 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY MR. DAVID ABRAMOWITZ, MANAGING

DIRECTOR, HUMANITY UNITED ACTION


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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, 

A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, AND CHAIRMAN, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS


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