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99–554PDF 2016

GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME: A VICTIMS–CENTERED

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

MARCH 22, 2016

Serial No. 114–185

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 Mark P. Lagon, president, Freedom House ................................. 6

Mr. Matthew Smith, executive director, Fortify Rights ....................................... 20

Ms. Jinhye Jo, president, NKinUSA ...................................................................... 37

Ms. Maria Werlau, president, Free Society Project .............................................. 43

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable Mark P. Lagon: Prepared statement ............................................ 10

Mr. Matthew Smith: Prepared statement ............................................................. 23

Ms. Jinhye Jo: Prepared statement ....................................................................... 40

Ms. Maria Werlau: Prepared statement ................................................................ 47

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 84

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 85

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: Preliminary list of political prisoners in Cuba ............................................................... 86

(1)

GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME: A VICTIMSCENTERED TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 

REPORT 

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 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 2167 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. 

Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Subcommittee will come to order, 

and good afternoon to everyone and thank you for being here. 

Just I’d like to begin this hearing first noting that in President 

Obama’s press conference with Raul Castro yesterday, Raul Castro 

said that there were no political prisoners, daring people to come 

up with a list of political prisoners in Cuba. 

I have in my hand a list of 50 political prisoners, compiled by my 

good friend, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, from information provided by a 

number of democracy and human rights organizations. 

And without objection, I would like to make that list part of the 

record. One of those people is Alexander Reyes, sentenced to 5 

years in prison on March 2, 2016, just a few days ago. 

His crime? Tossing fliers with anti-government messages on the 

street. In fact, to punish him further he went from one prison to 

the notorious Kilo 8 Prison. 

Then there’s the example of Yasiel Espino Aceval, who went on 

a hunger strike last year in protest of the abuses and torture 

meted out to political prisoners by the Castro brothers’ goons. 

And just this past Sunday, hours before President Obama was to 

arrive in Cuba, Baptist pastor and religious freedom activist, the 

Reverend Mario Felix Lleonart Barroso, was arrested by the Castro 

regime, as well as his wife, Yoaxis, who was placed under house 

arrest. 

I want to welcome you to today’s hearing, ‘‘Get It Right This 

Time: A Victims-Centered Trafficking in Persons Report,’’ at which 

we will look closely at the records of several countries, including 

Cuba, China, Malaysia, Oman, and Burma and others, whose trafficking tier rankings were manipulated and falsified for political 

reasons in last year’s report. 

2

As the sponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, 

America’s landmark law to combat human trafficking, which 

among its many policy provisions created the Trafficking in Persons Report and the tier rankings, I am extremely disappointed 

and concerned that last year’s TIP Report gave a pass to several 

countries meriting a Tier 3 ranking, countries whose trafficking 

victims desperately needed protection and America’s powerful 

voice. 

The 2015 TIP Report failed many of the victims, and the victims 

deserve better. The politically contrived passing grade for failing 

governments was exposed by a series of investigative reports by 

Reuters, and I and many others and anyone involved in human 

rights are grateful to Reuters for those articles. 

And they found that the professionals at the State Department 

at the TIP office made one set of recommendations, only to be overruled at a higher level for political reasons. 

For example, the TIP office recommended the Tier 3 ranking for 

Cuba, China, Malaysia, and Oman—14 countries in all—and this 

was rejected by the Obama administration at a higher level in last 

year’s report. 

Each of the 14 countries were then given passing grades. Alexandria Harney, Jason Szep, and Matt Spetalnick of Reuters authored 

several incisive reports, including an expose, on China’s politicized 

ranking, finding, ‘‘Two years after China announced it was ending 

the reeducation through labor system, extrajudicial networks of detention facilities featuring torture and forced labor thrive in its 

place.’’

China had deceived the United States in 2014 and when that became apparent last year, we let them keep on with their ill-gotten 

upgrade on the tier ranking. 

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

lose the foundational tool created by the TVPA to help the more 

than 20 million victims of trafficking enslaved around the world. 

In the end, the Trafficking in Persons Report is all about victims. 

The threshold question must be, as Ambassador Mark P. Lagon included in his 2008 TIP Report, ‘‘a country’s performance is based 

strictly on this trafficking-specific criteria stipulated by the TVPA.’’

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

We have seen many countries take a Tier 3 ranking seriously 

and make real, systemic, and sustainable changes that improve 

their tier rankings but, more importantly, protected trafficking victims, and countries such as South Korea and Israel come to mind. 

When the Bush administration branded South Korea and Israel, 

two of our closest allies, but based on their records branded them 

as Tier 3, both countries reacted, enacted and implemented robust 

policies to combat human trafficking, and were given earned upgrades for their verifiable actions. 

But today we’ve seen other countries attempt to end-run around 

the accountability system with endless empty promises of action or 

mostly meaningless gestures of compliance. 

3

Congress, in 2003, created the Tier 2 Watch List for those countries, which many have undertaken significant anti-trafficking 

steps late in the evaluation year. 

Unfortunately, this ranking is being misused to reward insignificant actions and to enable irresponsibility. How would the 16-yearold girl being pimped, legally, in Cuba’s sex tourism industry rank 

Cuba on human trafficking? I can assure you, not with a politically 

motivated passing grade. 

How would a Rohingya migrant trapped in Malaysian forced 

labor rank Malaysia when his trafficker laughs at the mention of 

penalties? 

How would the sex trafficking victim forced to do labor in a Chinese detention center year after year, or be sent back to torture 

and death in North Korea rank China? 

How would a young boy rank Burma, when he has been forced 

to labor for the military while his sister is turned into a modernday ‘‘comfort woman’’? 

Tier rankings are about real prosecutions, real prevention and 

real protection for real people who are suffering as slaves. 

Cuba is an egregious example of a nation being given an unwarranted passing grade because of other non-human trafficking considerations. 

Just read the report. The report leads you to the inevitable conclusion—stamp it Tier 3 egregious violator. 

Yet, President Obama is there today hobnobbing with the very 

people who are kept in power by the profits of slave labor. The very 

people who do not have a law against labor trafficking. The very 

people whose hotels are filled with sex tourists who come to Cuba 

specifically to sexually exploit minors. 

My latest anti-trafficking law, it’s the fourth so far, the International Megan’s Law fights sex tourism but assumes a willing, not 

profiting, partner country. Some tourists go to Cuba because Cuba 

facilitates sex trafficking. Cuba also harbors criminals—just ask 

the family of Werner Foerster, a New Jersey State Trooper who 

was gunned down at a traffic stop by Joanne Chesimard. Cuba protects Chesimard to this day. 

Maria Werlau will testify this afternoon that, ‘‘What makes the 

Cuban case unique, as well as astounding is, that trafficking is a 

huge operation run by the government through numerous state enterprises with . . . accomplices, participants, sponsors, and promoters all over the world,’’ and that the Cuban dictatorship is involved in ‘‘four main sources of human trafficking—export services 

for temporary workers, forced labor and sex trafficking, state-sponsored or forced migration, and export sales of human body parts. 

Our State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, however, ‘‘addresses only two of these aspects and, in my view, quite poorly,’’ 

she says in her testimony. 

The trafficking rankings should not be used as cheap chits and 

sweeteners than can be compromised in the hope of bringing about 

better governmental relations with Cuba, or any other nation. 

Rather, better relations with Cuba or any other nation should be 

preconditioned on real protection for Cuba’s prostituted children 

and women and recognition of labor trafficking. 

4

The President, seems to me, is lending his stature, particularly 

as a Nobel Peace Prize winner, to the very people who are imprisoning human rights advocates at a higher rate than ever. 

Cuba’s actions prove once again that lifting accountability only 

emboldens evil. The TIP Report was meant to hold countries accountable for their failures to fight human trafficking. 

It was meant to speak truth to power. It was meant to speak for 

the trafficking victims waiting, hoping, and praying for relief. In 

2016, the TIP Report must rank the governments on a country’s 

performance that is ‘‘based strictly on the trafficking-specific criteria,’’ as Ambassador Lagon has said is ‘‘stipulated by the TVPA.’’

Every ranking must be assigned without—I repeat, without any 

political manipulation and without any dishonesty. Get the tiers 

right in 2016. The lives of many of the weakest and the most vulnerable and U.S. credibility hang in the balance. 

I’d like to yield to Mark Meadows for any comments he might 

have. 

Mr. MEADOWS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Ambassador, good to see you again. Thank you for your 

work. Mr. Smith, welcome back, and certainly nice to meet you. 

And Mr. Chairman, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact 

that you had been not only tenacious on this particular topic but 

unrelenting and unyielding in your resolve and I appreciate that, 

but more importantly, express my appreciation perhaps for the 

hundreds of thousands of children that are being trafficked across 

the country, across the world, that the political nature of manipulating the TIP Report directly harms. 

And I think that that’s the underscoring message that should be 

brought forth here today is when we play politics with the TIP Report, those nations who see the need to become more aggressive in 

combating human trafficking and go from Tier 3 to Tier 2 put actions with their words. 

And if, indeed, they believe that for political reasons that they 

can bypass the TIP Report, either through economic manipulation, 

through bilateral trade agreements or the like, then they never addressed the underlying problem. 

They start to address it in other ways to make sure that they get 

off of that list, knowing that it has very little to do with human 

trafficking and everything to do with either their diplomacy or how 

they get involved in other aspects that are important to the United 

States. 

So I look forward to your testimony today. I’ve been one of, I believe, six of my colleagues who have signed on to a letter asking 

for the split memos as it relates to the TIP office’s decisions that 

have been made because there is a recommendation was made and 

obviously those split memos would give us real insight from the 

State Department on the why of those decisions and who made 

those decisions. 

And with that, I look forward to the expert testimony. It’s good 

to have you back and I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Meadows. 

I’d like to now introduce our distinguished witnesses, beginning 

first with Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, who is currently the president of Freedom House, the first independent American organizaVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:16 Aug 17, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\032216\99554 SHIRL
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tion to advocate the advancement of freedom and democracy 

around the world. 

Ambassador Lagon’s long and distinguished career also includes 

the distinction of being our third Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor 

and Combat Trafficking in Persons who leads the Office to Monitor 

and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of 

State. 

His record of involvement in human rights is long and diverse, 

spanning from Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, with responsibility for human rights, 

humanitarian issues, and the United Nations reform through academia where he was the chair for global politics and security at 

Georgetown University’s master of science in foreign service program and adjunct senior fellow for human rights at the Council on 

Foreign Relations. 

Notably, Ambassador Lagon has also served as the executive director and chief executive officer of the anti-human trafficking nonprofit the Polaris Project. 

We’ll then hear from Mr. Matthew Smith, who is founder and executive director of Fortify Rights and a 2014 Echoing Green global 

fellow. He has previously worked with Human Rights Watch and 

Earth Rights International. 

Mr. Smith’s groundbreaking research has exposed wartime 

abuses and forced displacement and crimes against humanity and 

ethnic cleansing, multibillion-dollar corporation development induced abuses and other human rights violations. 

He has also written for a variety of major media outlets. Before 

moving to Southeast Asia in 2005, Mr. Smith worked with Kerry 

Kennedy of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human 

Rights on Speak Truth to Power. He also worked as a community 

organizer and an emergency services case worker. 

Mr. Smith flew halfway around the world to be with us today so 

we’re very grateful for that sacrifice that he has made to be with 

us today. 

We’ll then hear from Ms. Jinhye Jo, who was born in North 

Korea, and she lived there from 1987 to 1998. During this time, 

she lost her father, grandmother, and younger brothers because of 

hunger. 

Her older sister disappeared and is believed to have been trafficked into China. In 1998, she escaped from North Korea to China 

with her mother and younger sister, Grace. 

They suffered tremendously in China for about 10 years, surviving four repatriations to North Korea because they were considered illegal migrants by China. 

Finally, in 2008 Jinhye Jo and her family were able to come to 

the United States with refugee status. She formed a nonprofit organization called North Korean Refugees in the United States and 

has directly rescued North Korean females who were victims of 

trafficking and other refugees—and assisted other North Korean 

refugees with resettlement in the United States. Thank you again 

for traveling so far to be here with us today. 

And then we’ll hear from Ms. Maria Werlau, who co-founded in 

2002 the Free Society Project and still heads the project, a nonVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:16 Aug 17, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\032216\99554 SHIRL
6

profit organization to advance human rights through research and 

scholarship. 

Its leading initiative, the Cuba Archive: Truth and Memory 

Project, focuses on transitional justice issues and human exploitation. 

Ms. Werlau is a former second vice president of Chase Manhattan Bank and a longtime independent consultant specializing in 

Cuban affairs and other international issues. 

Her extensive publications on Cuba cover a wide range of topics 

including policy, international law, foreign investment, and other 

economic issues. 

She has served on task forces on U.S.-Cuba relations for the 

Council on Foreign Relations and the American Enterprise Institute. Thank you as well. 

I’d like to now yield to Ambassador Lagon such time as he may 

consume. 

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE MARK P. LAGON, 

PRESIDENT, FREEDOM HOUSE 

Ambassador LAGON. Thank you very much, Chairman Smith, Mr. 

Meadows, members of the subcommittee. 

I’m really pleased to again take part in your annual oversight effort. I’m very happy to be back. I appreciate your annual oversight 

effort to anticipate an upcoming Trafficking in Persons Report. 

Many associate trafficking with movement and migration of people, one of the vernacular connotations of trafficking. But while 

trafficking often involves migration, it need not. 

Words also associated with poverty, trafficking is seen as created 

by poverty. But I’d really like to drive home today that trafficking 

is not so much solely about being poor as it is about poor governance, poor rule of law, and poor access to justice. 

The most vulnerable to trafficking are groups denied equal protection under the law: minorities, migrants, women, and those who 

happen to be in multiple ones of those categories. 

When I was the director of the TIP office at State, I asked for 

the following passage to be placed into the introductory analysis in 

the 2008 report and I’ve included the passage in full in my written 

testimony that I’d ask you to admit to the record kindly. 

But let me read a short part:

‘‘Our broad study of the phenomenon of trafficking corroborates 

that healthy vital democratic pluralism is the single most prevalent feature of states conducting effective anti-trafficking efforts. A vibrant democracy is the best guarantor of human dignity and respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons including women, children, prostituted people, and foreign migrants who are among the most vulnerable 

populations susceptible to trafficking.’’

One official at the State Department actually fought with me 

about including this passage, questioning whether it was necessary 

to become democratic to fight TIP. 

My response to him in negotiating the final text of the report 

was no, but it sure helps. Governance, rule of law, access to justice, 

and democracy in full, and not just elections, are at the heart of 

7

Freedom House’s work. My executive vice president lauded me for 

what I included in the 2008 report as if I knew I was going to be 

working for Freedom House later. 

Well, Freedom House started putting out reports that gave 

grades to other countries and to the United States 29 years before 

even the first TIP Report. 

The latest Freedom in the World report that was released in January shows that more countries have gone in the wrong direction—

72 countries—than in the right direction—the largest gap between 

those figures in 6 years. 

In every one of the last 10 years, more countries have declined 

in political rights and civil liberties than those that have improved 

and that is the first time of a decade-long slide in the 44 years of 

the report. 

If you look at the subscores of political rights and civil liberties 

measured consistently by Freedom House since 1972, the biggest 

declines are in three areas, all pertinent to human trafficking: freedom of expression for civil society and the press to call attention 

to the problem, freedom of association for labor unions and civil society groups to stand up for the vulnerable, and the rule of law to 

fight corruption. 

Anticipating the 2016 TIP Report, let’s look at a few countries of 

particular concern in Freedom House’s analysis and some countries 

of hopeful improvement in my organization’s estimation. 

As for countries of particular concern, let’s look at Malaysia in 

East Asia. It’s ranked partly free in the 2016 edition of Freedom 

in the World. If the best score for Freedom House is a one and the 

worst score, least free, is is seven, a one to seven scale, it gets a 

four for both political rights and civil liberties. 

That country represented the single most striking and suspect 

ranking in last year’s report, upgraded rather than getting Tier 3, 

presumably to keep it viable for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. 

Let me say, I and Freedom House are for the Trans-Pacific Partnership to create a context of rule of law, rules of the game, for 

states. But as it stands today, Malaysia doesn’t deserve to be part 

of that amalgam. 

In the Middle East and North Africa, Qatar is ranked not free 

in Freedom of the World, receiving a score of six for political rights 

and five for civil liberties. 

Revelations in the press about construction of facilities for upcoming international competitions and for American universities’ 

campuses make Qatar all the more troubling than the standard 

vulnerability for women and migrants that exist in Gulf countries. 

It’s gotten Tier 2 Watch List for 2 years. A very sceptical eye is 

due, if it were to be given a waiver or a change. 

Saudi Arabia is one of the 12 worst human rights abusers in the 

world, according to Freedom in the World, receiving the lowest possible score of seven for both political rights and civil liberties. 

It doesn’t even have the pretext that exists for other countries in 

the Gulf that say that their foreign workers massively outnumber 

their local population. It’s only a 56-percent total for the foreign 

workers in Saudi Arabia. 

8

It is most important to the region if Saudi Arabia were to make 

reforms. It’s the big player on the block. Smaller players have pretexts for not acting if the big player doesn’t act. 

It shouldn’t be given a carrot to induce change. It needs to be rewarded for real change. The Tier 2 Watch List ranking last year 

deserves scrutiny. 

And Cuba is ranked not free in Freedom of the World, with a 

seven for political rights and a six for civil liberties. It hasn’t made 

much progress whatsoever despite the resumption of diplomatic relations. 

It was raised to Tier 2 Watch List and that raised some eyebrows, properly. Profoundly unfree conditions for workers without 

an independent voice from state power and the raucous sex trade 

that Chairman Smith has already referred to marketed to tourists 

abroad remain reasons for close examination. 

There are some rays of hope. In Asia, Myanmar is ranked not 

free but with signs of improvement with its huge voter turnout for 

an overwhelming victory for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. Yet 

armed military attacks against religious and ethnic minorities in 

the Kachin State and widespread discrimination and attacks 

against the Rohingya remain serious problems. 

Myanmar ought not to be given a pass or an unfounded bonus 

despite some reasons for optimism. 

Sri Lanka is ranked partly free in Freedom of the World. Importantly, in 2015 voters in Sri Lanka ousted the increasingly authoritarian President Mahinda Rajapaksa and replaced him with 

Maithripala Sirisena. 

Sirisena, when taking office, overturned some of the most repressive policies that existed before and, again, repairing relations with 

the country’s Tamil minority and the international community. 

Trafficking in Sri Lanka could involve a number of reasons. The 

South Asia bonded labor syndrome, one might call it—Sri Lankan 

migrant workers given insufficient help by their government 

abroad, male and female sex trafficking, among other reasons. 

Just because there are reasons for optimism isn’t a reason for 

grade inflation. 

In the Middle East, Tunisia is the one country that has truly 

flowered since the Arab Spring with a score of one for political 

rights and three for civil liberties. 

But with its new Constitution and free elections it’s crucial for 

the United States and our democratic allies to provide robust support. If Tunisia doesn’t implement the written plan that it supplied 

to the U.S. to avert a downgrade in 2015 or if it doesn’t pass a comprehensive law on all forms of trafficking, the United States will 

do it no favor at all with a mercy ranking or a mercy waiver. 

In conclusion, there are a number of governments to watch closely that lie on that cusp between modestly addressing the problem 

of human trafficking, which we call Tier 2 Watch List, and not appreciably trying at all, which we call Tier 3. 

These include Malaysia, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Qatar, 

Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Cuba. It’s worth looking where such nations fall in the larger picture of trends in governance and human 

rights in the last year and in the last decade, which is Freedom 

House’s job to monitor. 

9

Slavery is a special abomination. But it’s inextricably part of a 

larger global scope of meaningful democracy—not just elections but 

meaningful democracy in which all human beings resident in a 

country get justice in practice, or they don’t. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Lagon follows:]

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Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Lagon, thank you very much for 

your testimony. 

As usual, your written statement too is extremely well documented and without objection it, in its entirety, will be made a part 

of the record as well as the full statements of all of our witnesses 

and any extraneous matter you’d like to include in the record. 

Mr. Smith. 

STATEMENT OF MR. MATTHEW SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

FORTIFY RIGHTS 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Meadows, 

distinguished members of the subcommittee. 

Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today. I’d 

like to focus my testimony and share some information about three 

countries where Fortify Rights works—Myanmar, Thailand and 

Malaysia. 

In Myanmar, or Burma, the Army’s Border Guard Force and 

non-state ethnic armies continue to recruit and use child soldiers. 

Forced labor also continues with impunity in public works projects 

and in situations of armed conflict in the country. 

Most recently we documented how the Army forced ethnic 

Rakhine civilians to carry weapons and rations in a conflict zone 

and to dig graves for soldiers who were killed in the conflict, under 

the threat of death. 

We’ve also documented the forced labor of ethnic Rohingya in 

northern Rakhine State including thousands of children. We’ve received no information to suggest perpetrators have been held accountable or victims have been protected in these areas. 

Last year, tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled western 

Myanmar in ships operated by human traffickers. We documented 

how Myanmar state security forces were actually complicit or directly involved in the trade. Perpetrators have not been held accountable. 

Today, boat departures of Rohingya have reduced greatly but, 

unfortunately, that’s not due to any notable change in the behavior 

by Myanmar authorities. Appalling abuses against the Rohingya 

continue. 

Myanmar had elections in November. We’re very hopeful about 

the prospects of the NLD-led government. But it’s essential that 

this year’s ranking for Myanmar be objective. 

Despite the optics of democracy in the country, the Myanmar 

military remains the strongest political institution in the country. 

The State Department, in our view, should downgrade Myanmar 

and encourage the military to work closely with the NLD to end 

all forms of human trafficking. 

With regard to Thailand, in the last year Thailand devoted unprecedented attention to human trafficking. Less than 12 months 

ago criminals and complicit authorities were holding Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals captive in illicit torture camps, 

buying and selling them by the thousands. 

Those who couldn’t buy their freedom were killed in some cases 

or sold into situations of continued exploitation. Today, to our 

knowledge, those camps no longer exist. 

21

Less than a year ago, Thai officials acknowledged mass graves of 

Rohingya and Bangladeshi victims of trafficking and this month 

the human trafficking trial of 92 defendants resumed, including 

members of the Thai Army, Navy, and Police. 

On the fishing sector, which has used slave labor for many years, 

Thailand passed legislation in December to address illegal fishing 

and establish monitoring and traceability mechanisms. 

Despite all of these efforts, however, severe problems remain. Extensive use of slave labor in the seafood sector has continued. Just 

3 months ago, horrific slave labor in the shrimp-peeling sector was 

exposed. 

In terms of prosecutions, just 3 months ago a police Major General who was the chief investigator and key witness in the 

Rohingya trafficking trial feared for his life and fled to Australia 

where he’s seeking asylum. 

It’s important to note that he feared government officials and 

state security forces. Other witnesses in that particular trial have 

also been threatened and we’re concerned that these threats may 

prejudice the trial. 

The investigation of trafficking of Rohingya in Thailand and 

Bangladeshi nationals in Thailand was also prematurely closed in 

2015. 

Our information suggests there are additional mass graves in 

Thai territory and Thai officials recently told us that human trafficking syndicates are still active in southern Thailand. These facts 

alone, in our view, would indicate the need for an ongoing investigation. 

In terms of protection for survivors, we recently visited two government-run shelters in southern Thailand where Rohingya witnesses in a high-profile trafficking trial are being held in detention. 

In the last year, some Rohingya in the shelter have reportedly 

gone missing. Needless to say, this is very concerning and remaining witnesses in the country remain at great risk. 

As of December, only 12 of 500 witnesses in this particular trial 

were receiving formal witness protection through the Ministry of 

Justice. 

Following discussions we had with government officials a cabinet 

resolution passed last week that would provide witnesses in human 

trafficking trials automatic witness protection under the Ministry 

of Justice. 

This is encouraging indeed. However, Thailand still maintains a 

push-back policy with regard to migrants including potential survivors of trafficking arriving by boat. 

Last year, Thailand pushed boats of migrants out to sea, despite 

that alleged traffickers operated the ships. Thailand also callously 

refused disembarkation for thousands of desperate Rohingya who 

were adrift at sea. Their boats were abandoned by human trafficking syndicates and this cost untold lives. 

The push-back policy, in our view, is deadly and has no place in 

a regime intent on combatting human trafficking. In Malaysia last 

year we recommended that Malaysia remain at Tier 3, as the government had done little to combat human trafficking. 

We share the view of you, Mr. Chairman, that Malaysia was upgraded to Tier 2 Watch List for the wrong reasons and to make it 

22

eligible for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This threatened the objectivity and integrity of the TIP Report. 

In the last year, Malaysian authorities uncovered more than 100 

grave sites of Rohingya and Bangladeshi victims of human trafficking. 

Unfortunately, however, there was no apparent effort to investigate those responsible for creating those grave sites. Dozens of 

known traffickers roam free in the country with little fear of arrest 

and this is just from the information that we’ve managed to collect. 

When thousands of Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals 

were stranded at sea in May 2015, Malaysia stepped up and allowed disembarkation. But this was not before authorities towed 

hundreds in these boats out to see, cut the tow line and sent them 

adrift. 

Today, those same survivors who were allowed to disembark in 

Malaysia remain detained in an ill-equipped immigration detention 

facility in Malaysia. This is hardly protection for survivors of 

human trafficking. 

Refugees and survivors of trafficking in Malaysia live in hiding. 

They’re commonly fearful of police, who routinely extort money 

from them. They feel they can’t report crimes, including the crime 

of trafficking. 

I’ve personally witnessed a community of Rohingya refugees intervene to rescue a 15-year-old Rohingya girl from a trafficking 

syndicate that was preparing to sell her into sex work. 

The community told me that they could not report the crime to 

the police for fear that they would end up in detention. 

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we believe Myanmar, Thailand, 

and Malaysia fail to meet the minimum standards in the last year 

and deserve Tier 3 status. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Smith follows:]

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Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Smith, thank you very much for 

your testimony and for your insights and I do hope the State Department is listening to your wise counsel. 

I’d like to now invite Jinhye Jo to provide her testimony. 

STATEMENT OF MS. JINHYE JO, PRESIDENT, NKINUSA 

Ms. JO. Good afternoon. My name is Jinhye Jo and I am the 

president of North Koreans in USA, a nonprofit organization representing to North Korean refugees in the United States. 

I would like to thank you, Members of Congress, and Ms. Suzanne Scholte for giving me the opportunity to testify about the situation in North Korea, my home country. 

I have already testified about my family’s story in a similar hearing on several occasions. Of the nine members of my family, only 

three survived and escaped North Korea to gain our freedom. 

However, today I stand here not to testify about my own experience 18 years ago, but to speak about North Korea and China, two 

countries that have not changed their ways. 

As is well-known to the international community, 3 million North 

Koreans have starved to death, powerless in the face of brutal dictatorship. Furthermore, those who were caught trying to escape the 

country were deprived of their rights. Suffocating under the yoke 

of oppression, they died unjust deaths in mobile labor brigades and 

political prison camps. 

Kim Jong Il, a dictator who atrociously murdered his own people, 

died before he could be brought to justice. Kim Jong Un, the third 

leader of their dynastic regime, continued to murder countries, ordered North Koreans tortured and starvation. During Kim Jong Il’s 

rule, the North Korean regime was brought of shame before the 

international community as videos of North Korean children dying 

on the street spread on the Internet. 

In response the regime mobilized groups of discharged the soldiers into arresting kotchebi, or orphaned street children, who were 

imprisoned in cold dark detention centers and put into forced labor. 

Many children die slow painful deaths from malnutrition, barely 

surviving on lumps of corn and potatoes, the children whose parents went to search for food and did not return, the countless souls 

of those who perished behind bars. They all cry out in pain to this 

day, asking to be granted the freedom of peace, free from the pain 

of hunger. 

I know this first hand from what my mother, my sister, and I 

experienced when we were forcibly repatriated from China in June 

2006. The fathers who escape in search of food to save their family 

are forcibly repatriated by Chinese Government. 

Once repatriated into the custody of North Korea’s State Security 

Department, its agents forcibly kick in the refugees’ teeth and 

break their ribs. They are forced to endure the pain and humiliation of being beaten all over by metal rods. 

Their noses are smashed in and their arms and legs are broken. 

The mothers and daughters who escaped North Korea are broken 

apart by Chinese brokers who traffic North Korean women. The 

parents who have left their children behind, leaving great pain 

knowing that their children most live on the street as orphans. 

38

They shed tears of great sorrow and resentment with no country 

to call their own. Some younger North Korean women are dragged 

away by Chinese police and locked into dark windowless rooms 

where they are forced into sexual slavery in front of webcams. 

It is said that Chinese men use cigarettes and hot spoons to burn 

the skin off North Korean women who do not obey their sexual demands. Women who try to resist, hiding beneath their blankets, 

are stomped on so severely that they almost die from internal 

bleeding. 

These women are then thrown in front of police stations, left to 

die on the street. The organization I lead, NKinUSA, was able to 

rescue such women with the generous supports of ordinary Americans and Korean-American church groups. 

I would like to speak about the 17-year-old North Korean girl 

who has now resettled in the United States. She was arrested in 

China and forcibly repatriated while trying to escape. After bribing 

the security agents with Chinese money she was released successfully and escaped North Korea once again. 

However, because she could not speak Chinese she was dragged 

away by human traffickers. She was raped and forcibly impregnated. The broker then force-fed medication to this 17-year-old girl 

to induce abortion. 

This girl who already survived was rescued and brought to the 

United States. I would also like to speak about the heartbreaking 

story of the North Korean mothers. Her two children, one of them 

2 years old and other 3 years old, starved to death. 

After burying her children next to her husband’s grave, she left 

North Korea to find a way to survive. However, she became ensnared by human traffickers and was raped several times. 

She was forced to give birth to children whose fathers she did not 

know. One of the men she was sold to tried to sell the baby to another family. Furious that she would not give birth to his child, he 

beat her whenever he became drunk. 

I have spoken of only two of the many women that our organization was able to rescue. The People’s Republic of China continues 

to violate the refugee convention, assisting Kim Jung Un by forcibly repatriating North Korean refugees. 

Moreover, the Chinese border security unit in the Tumen County, Yanji, Liaoning Province treats North Korean refugees in the 

same way that the North Korean regime does. 

The guards torture and abuse the refugees after locking them up 

behind bars. My family was also arrested for the supposed crime 

of helping North Koreans escape and imprisoned for 1 year and 3 

months. 

After making all the female prisoners in the cells stand in line, 

they kicked and beat all of us, at one time, even pregnant women, 

the elderly and children are forced to squat for hours on end with 

their arms raised. 

Anyone who leaned on a wall out of exhaustion was beaten with 

rubber club until they were bruised all over. The U.S. Government 

and the international community cannot ignore the suffering and 

misery of North Korean refugees. It must not turn a blind eye of 

such unspeakable human rights violations taking place across 

China. 

39

I bear no ill will toward the Chinese people. I only speak to criticize the wrongdoing of the Chinese Government which knowingly 

returned North Korean refugees to certain death. 

Many of the individuals who brazenly treated North Korean 

women like animals and engaged trafficking are also Chinese Government officers. 

It is not befitting of a country that claims to be a great power 

to murder people and aid and abet the appalling crime of trafficking women. The People’s Republic of China must first recognize 

its past wrongdoing. It must recognize North Korean refugees who 

have been deprived of their freedom as refugees. 

Kim Jong Un and the North Korean regime, which clings to its 

hopeless and absurd policies, cannot be allowed to exist any longer. 

If the Chinese Government continues to cooperate with the North 

Korean regime it will only become the object of scorn to the entire 

world. 

As stated in international law, our fellow North Korean brothers 

and sisters are refugees. I respectfully call upon the Chinese Government to respect and abide by its obligation under international 

law. 

I would like to thank you, God, for granting me the freedom to 

speak my mind. I would like to ask all of you to not ignore our suffering by questioning the truth of our stories. North Korean defectors including myself will continue to speak out until the day Kim 

Jong Un is brought to justice in an international court for his atrocious crimes. 

I would like to ask the United States Congress and the entire 

world to listen to our voice and to help us in every way that you 

can. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Jo follows:]

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Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Ms. Jo, thank you very much for 

your testimony. 

We do have five votes that have been called to the floor of the 

House. It will take about approximately 25 minutes. There’s a 5-

minute vote after this initial 15 so we will stand in recess for about 

25 minutes. 

I apologize for the inconvenience. Then we’ll come back and conclude. Maria, you’ll be next and then we’ll go to questions. So I 

hope your calendars permit you to remain. 

We stand in recess. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. The hearing will resume and, again, 

I apologize for that lengthy delay because of the votes. 

I’d like to now introduce Maria Werlau and the floor is yours. 

STATEMENT OF MS. MARIA WERLAU, PRESIDENT, FREE 

SOCIETY PROJECT 

Ms. WERLAU. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to 

offer this testimony. Please allow me a few words about the grave 

situation of Baptist Pastor Mario Felix Lleonart, husband and father of two children, arrested Sunday at noon a few hours before 

President Obama arrived in Cuba. 

He’s quite ill and suspicious of a needle prick he received in the 

arm from a stranger some days ago after which he developed some 

puzzling symptoms that have worsened. I have photos of his arrest 

as well as of his arm. His wife is under arrest. 

I’ve been in communication with her through her cell phone. The 

pastor has refused to eat or drink since yesterday morning. 

He does not feel safe in Cuba and I believe he’s not safe in Cuba, 

where several activists have died in the state-run facilities in questionable circumstances and surrounded by the secret police. 

I call on President Obama and Secretary Kerry to request his immediate release and that he be brought to the United States with 

his family for immediate medical treatment, hopefully, with our 

huge official delegation or before it leaves Cuba. 

Now, on the topic of this hearing I will speak about Cuba based 

on considerable research over the last 6 years on human trafficking 

and exploitation. Let me briefly address some key issues the committee is considering. 

One: What is Cuba’s track record, particularly in the last year 

in fighting human trafficking? I consider four main sources of 

human trafficking in Cuba. One is the export services of temporary 

workers; two, forced labor and sex trafficking; three, state-sponsored or forced migration; and four, the export sale of human and 

body parts. 

Cuba derives most of its revenues from the export services of 

temporary workers and forced migration. Our State Department’s 

Trafficking in Persons Report address only two of these aspects for 

Cuba and, in my view, disappointingly. They do not pay attention 

to the other two. 

Contrary to fighting human trafficking, the Cuban Government 

is itself likely one of the largest and most profitable traffickers in 

the world. 

44

This business had been growing enormously and exponentially, 

especially in the last 10 years. What makes the Cuban case unique 

as well as astounding is that trafficking is a huge operation run 

through numerous state enterprises with, for the most part, accomplices, participants, sponsors, and promoters all over the world, including from well-known corporations, large foundations, key international agencies, and some of the leading world democracies, including ours as of late. 

Regarding the export labor force, it is quite diversified and consists of generally highly-qualified temporary workers, doctors and 

other health professionals, teachers, sports trainers, engineers, construction workers, entertainers, sailors, scientists, architects, et 

cetera. They can be dispatched overseas at short notice and are oftentimes sent as part of labor brigades. The greater part of their 

wages go to the Cuban Government. Many different services are 

sold through large state entities including two very large health 

conglomerates and 84 smaller state entities. It is a huge and expanding business. The latest official data for the year 2011 indicates that Cuba’s export services net of tourism grew from $1.5 billion in 2003 to $7.8 billion in 2011. 

Last year, reports from Cuban officials put the annual figure at around $8.2 billion. From tourism Cuba derives, to give you a comparative idea, $2.5 billion a year. So it’s over three times that. It’s 

impossible to tell how many Cuban workers are involved from conflicting official reports. But around 65,000, perhaps more, are said 

to serve in 91 countries, 75 percent, or close to 50,000, are in the 

health sector. This is according to different reports from Cuban officials; it’s not official data published. 

Cuba’s business of exporting indentured workers and its unique 

brand of health diplomacy are only possible in a totalitarian state 

in which a pool of guaranteed captive low-paid workers can be exploited as exportable commodities. Violations are too numerous to 

list here but amply documented in my published work and more 

detailed in my written testimony. 

In my mind, there is no doubt the practice constitutes a form of 

slavery and violates many international agreements to which Cuba 

and most countries where these workers serve are parties, including the trafficking protocols. 

Regarding state-sponsored or forced migration, this is not a usual 

form of human trafficking, by a state per se, but it is taking place 

at a very large scale and results from direct and indirect practices 

of the Cuban state that force, push, and/or enable its desperate citizens to migrate in the tens of thousands each year. 

It alleviates political and economic pressure on the government 

and generates billions in revenues from assorted fees and assistance from the ever growing diaspora, which just from the United 

States alone is estimated to be sending over $5 billion a year. 

I have anecdotal evidence of elaborate criminal schemes run covertly by operatives or agents of the regime that merit further investigation by the appropriate authorities. 

I understand that certain U.S. law enforcement agencies have 

looked into this and have specific cases under investigation. 

The mass migration has been fueled in recent years by three factors: One, a huge outflow through Ecuador, a close ally of Cuba, 

45

starting in 2008, whereby thousands have made and are making 

their way north by land into the United States, where they are 

mostly automatically admitted; two, by changes to Cuba’s migration law beginning January 2013 permitting travel without an exit 

permit; and three, beginning in 2009 by the Obama administration’s comprehensive relaxation of travel and remittance regulations under the embargo. 

I estimate that in 2015 alone at least 92,000 Cubans were admitted into the United States—43,159 during Fiscal Year 2015 by all 

points of entry without prior entry visas. 

Since 2008, at least 325,000 Cubans have come, with the trend 

rising exponentially in the last few years. With those numbers we 

can only imagine that revenues will only grow for the regime to solidify itself and continue repressing. 

Regarding forced labor and sex trafficking, the following are also 

taking place in Cuba. The prostitution of girls just 16 years old on 

the streets, but also in schools with the participation of teachers 

and even the complicity of authorities, apparently maintained to increase Cuba’s attraction as a tourism destination. 

The uncompensated labor of prisoners and child labor, particularly in agricultural fields; the government states that this is voluntary labor. Because most Cuban workers, migrants, minors put 

to work, and prostitutes seemingly consent to the practice for different reasons, this doesn’t mean that it’s not trafficking. 

It’s important to clarify that the trafficking in persons protocol 

states that the consent of the victim to the intended exploitation 

is irrelevant once it is demonstrated that deception, coercion, force 

or, other prohibited means have been used. 

In addition, the definition of trafficking in persons includes the 

abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving and 

receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person 

for the purpose of exploitation. 

Finally, number four, Cuba has been exporting, at least since 1995, an average of $30 million a year in blood products in international markets mostly, it seems, to state entities within countries 

that are close allies. 

This is done without consent from volunteer or coerced donors in 

Cuba tricked into believing their donations are for altruistic purposes. In the 1960s, Cuba drained the blood from prisoners awaiting execution, including at least one American, Robert Fuller, in 

October 1960. It reportedly sold it to countries such as Vietnam. 

We, at Cuba Archive, have also published reports of the sale by 

Cuba to Brazil rising to around $80 million in 2013 of human tissue glands and other body parts of unknown origin as well as of 

unreported cases of suspected deaths or the plundering of bodies to 

harvest body parts that are suggestive of state sponsorship. We 

strongly encourage our Government and that of other countries to 

investigate this. 

The committee also seeks to examine: Are there glaring gaps in 

prosecuting traffickers, preventing trafficking or protecting victims? 

Because in this case the main perpetrator of the trafficking is in 

fact the Cuban state directly or indirectly, rather than gaps, I see 

a huge black hole into which the victims fall systematically, and 

mostly hopelessly, with little international awareness or support. 

46

In Cuba, there is no legal protection for victims or individual or 

collective rights outside of those allowed by the Communist Party. 

What’s worse, that these victims serve a dictatorship all around the 

world in blatant violation of international law is an open, accepted, 

and even encouraged fact. 

Few international mechanisms of protection and redress have 

been put in place. Some of the temporary workers find safe haven 

in the countries where they serve and especially health professionals to the U.S. under the Cuban Medical Professional Parole 

Program, that since 2006 has welcomed 7,117 applicants through 

2015. 

The program, which Cuba fiercely denounces, is under review 

now as part of the normalization of our bilateral relations with 

Cuba. 

Meanwhile, we, our own Government, our own country, has 

started to support or cooperate with Cuba’s medical brigades in 

Haiti and last year in the West African countries fighting Ebola. 

As we have seen above, it is hard to understand how any informed analysis of Cuban reality could lead to the conclusion that 

Cuba has improved its record of human trafficking. 

My written testimony is much more extensive and includes substantive data. I respectfully request that it be taken into consideration and entered into the record. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Werlau follows:]

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Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Ms. Werlau, thank you very much 

for your testimony. Without objection, your statement and all of the 

others will be made a part of the record in their entirety, as I indicated earlier. 

Let me ask you, beginning first with Ambassador Lagon—and 

again, thank you for your extraordinary insights on Cuba. I think 

your testimony is the most expansive authoritative that we’ve had 

to date. 

And I have, as Ambassador Lagon knows, chaired dozens of these 

hearings both while we were preparing the Trafficking Victims Protections Act and two of its follow-ons that I authored, and the oversight hearings that we held both before and after the TIP Reports 

were handed down by State that you have provided. 

I’ve read the TIP Report for Cuba as well as the other countries 

in question. There is much that you have suggested by included 

that they need to seriously take under their wings including that 

statement you said about the child sex tourism and the confidential 

report by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in which you said 

that Cuba is one of the primary tourist destinations for sex tourism 

that includes minors of both genders. 

It appears that the child prostitution rings are maintained and 

promoted to increase Cuba’s attraction as a tourism destination. 

Over 1 million Canadians, you point out, visit Cuba each year. 

Ambassador Lagon, you might want to speak on this as well because when Cuba was a Tier 3, obviously we knew much of this, 

but we didn’t have that report which said that this was occurring. 

I remember being at the U.N. Human Rights Council with a 

great leader of Cuban human rights who had actionable information about what was happening with child sex tourism in Cuba. 

As a result of this, some Cuban thugs knocked him out. A van 

pulled up and hit him right in the jaw and knocked him. So this 

is a land of the gulag and a Potemkin village as well and it’s about 

time our State Department and our President takes seriously this 

substantive information. So you have provided that and you might 

want to speak to that, Ambassador Lagon. 

You were the one who made sure that the TIP Report finally at 

long last looked at the gendercide that has occurred in China and 

the missing girls in China, and we are talking about tens of millions of girls, who are the victim of sex-selection abortion and the 

disparity which is again noted in this year’s TIP Report of 117 boys 

to 100 girls. 

It happens nowhere else except perhaps in India. But it’s not the 

normal process. They are exterminated because they are girls. And 

but it has led to the consequence of sex trafficking that has grown 

exponentially as that lack of or that dearth of women in the country have just set up this skewed sex male to female ratio. 

If you would speak to that, Ambassador Lagon, because it’s not 

getting better in China. It appears to be getting worse. I spoke recently at NYU-Shanghai and I spoke extensively to the issue of the 

missing girls and the nexus of that with trafficking. 

If you could also speak to Vietnam. There was a great deal of 

hope by some that when there was a rapprochement with Vietnam 

when the bilateral trade agreement was consummated with Vietnam that human rights might break out. 

69

I was a skeptic at the time. Sadly, my skepticism has been affirmed as they are in a race to bottom with China and places like 

North Korea when it comes to human rights in general, trafficking, 

particularly labor trafficking in Vietnam, if you could speak to that. 

And finally, Ambassador Lagon, China had 35 convictions in a 

land of 1.2 billion people with a huge labor and sex trafficking 

problem. 

As we know, the reform through labor elimination has not happened and I’ve been in one of those camps, Beijing Prison Number 

One, where 40 Tiananmen Square activists were held and forced to 

labor. 

They have just put a different sign out in front and they continue 

to use that exploitation and yet that’s not reflected in China’s tier 

ranking, having gotten a passing grade. 

But China had 35 convictions. Thailand, a Tier 2 country, had 

151, Cuba 13 convictions and, Malaysia a mere 3, dropping from 

nine in the previous year to three. 

So they even trend in the wrong direction. So Thailand has been 

singled out as Tier 3 and, of course, convictions is not the only barometer but it’s certainly a very useful one. 

And yet, Malaysia, China, and Cuba, just to name three, have far 

fewer in terms of convictions and yet they were placed on the Tier 

2 Watch List. 

Could you try to explain that for us? 

Ambassador LAGON. Sure, and a welcome set of homework assignments to address on these. 

Cuba, first of all, I said in my testimony and a bit more elaborately in the written version, that one of the reasons that I think 

the ranking for Cuba in last year’s report was suspect is this 

proactive effort to sell the sex market in Cuba to an international 

buyer base. 

I wrote a piece in the Washington Post on February 1 saying 

that it’s time to address the sex trafficking issue through dealing 

with demand. 

And it’s one thing when there are so-called johns that are let off 

the hook while those who are in prostitution or who are trafficked 

are punished. But when a state is involved in a proactive policy to 

encourage people to travel and treat women as commodities, it is 

a hazard zone for trafficking. 

As for Vietnam, Vietnam is part of a picture of a U.S. policy of 

cultivating relationships with illiberal states that are ostensibly 

moving in the right direction to counterbalance China. 

I’m all in favor of working to dialogue with Malaysia, to dialogue 

with Myanmar, to dialogue with Vietnam in that context. 

U.S. foreign policy should not let such nations off the hook on 

human rights. We need to look very carefully at Vietnam. 

Corruption, limits on free press and civil society, lack of basic 

protections for migrants entering into Vietnam and leaving, these 

make for great dangers for human trafficking and Vietnam has had 

a Tier 2 ranking for 4 years and it’s really worth asking whether 

the implementation is going farther. 

I had the honor of hosting the Deputy Secretary of State, Tony 

Blinken, to speak at a conference we had on democracy promotion 

at Freedom House in October. He noted he loved working with 

70

Freedom House and expected me to be a scold. I was on Vietnam 

because the picture he portrayed is really rosier than is deserved. 

Now, on China, first of all, with respect to the population policy 

and a second important factor, the treatment of North Korean refugees, their drivers that make for a danger for gendered human 

trafficking, namely the longstanding population policy limiting the 

number of children and then both policy and culture favouring 

male babies has created this kind of insidious form of the gender 

gap. 

And even if population policy appears to be moving in the right 

direction, in that there is somewhat more choice for people to 

choose having more than one child, there’s still a big residual problem that’s a driver of sex trafficking and the kind of human trafficking that is bride sales. 

But when it’s combined with the treatment of North Koreans not 

as refugees but as economic migrants who if sent back to North 

Korea, as my colleague on the panel here indicated, would be punished, that together creates a situation of a danger for sex trafficking. 

Finally, on the number of convictions—I have said here and elsewhere that despite the great wisdom that you and others had in 

the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the rather similar Palermo Protocol there’s a heavy emphasis on convictions in those. 

Oftentimes, some of the most illiberal states in the world over interpret that and they have what one might call the cruel law and 

order version of an anti-human trafficking policy. 

Malaysia, China—these are the very states that you would expect to tilt toward a law enforcement approach over a survivor reempowerment policy. But China’s conviction rate is utterly 

anaemic, as you say, and taken with the problems of people when 

they move to opportunities in the city, losing their social services 

and the gender disproportion that you were raising and the fact 

that the so-called elimination of the reform through labor policies 

as a chimera, I think China deserves great scrutiny and ought not 

to be given a pass in the report. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Professor Lagon, thank you very 

much. 

Mr. Smith, what would happen if Burma did receive a downgrade, especially, would it affect the military? As you point out and 

I couldn’t concur more with your statement, that Malaysia and 

Burma need to be downgraded just based on the record. 

The record is overwhelming and hopefully State will look at your 

analysis as well because I think you lay it out in great detail. But 

what would happen especially in Burma because we know the impact that the military has on that country. 

Mr. SMITH. Yes, I think that if Burma or Myanmar is downgraded to Tier 3 this would send a very clear message to the military that it needs to shape up with regard to human trafficking, 

that forced labor is completely unacceptable, and that they have to 

do more. 

I think there may be those voices out there who would suggest 

that a downgrade from Myanmar would somehow disrupt the political transition. We would disagree with that notion. 

71

Myanmar’s people have struggled very long and hard to ensure 

the forces of democracy move forward in the country and but apart 

from that, as I mentioned before, the situation now has the optics 

of democracy but there is a certain authoritarian system still at 

play in the country and the military has ensured that the democracy that does take hold that they have a very active role in that. 

So I guess, in short, a downgrade for Myanmar would send a 

very clear message to the military that it needs to cooperate with 

the new NLD government to combat human trafficking and we feel 

that that would be the wisest course of action. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Last year’s TIP Report noted that 

the demobilization of some 376 child soldiers from the military. But 

does the military’s practice of recruiting child soldiers continue? Is 

it a replacement? Have some of those kids perhaps aged out? 

Mr. SMITH. The use and recruitment of child soldiers throughout 

the country does continue, unfortunately. This is continuing not 

only within the Myanmar Army but also within the Border Guard 

Force and the non-state ethnic armies. 

Conflict is continuing particularly in the north of the country and 

as a result both the ethnic armies and the Myanmar army are 

seeking to increase their troop strength and in this sort of perverse 

recruitment process they believe that enlisting children within the 

military somehow helps them achieve that objective. 

There’s been little to no accountability. In fact, last year the 

Myanmar authorities only prosecuted one civilian for the recruitment of children and the recruitment process is happening 

throughout the country. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Let me ask you, with regard to Malaysia’s plan to deal with the thousands of Rohingya refugees being 

detained in Immigration Detention Centers have the refugees been 

screened for trafficking as far as you know and why are NGOs and 

UNHCR not allowed to visit them? 

Mr. SMITH. No, sir, we do not believe that they have been 

screened for human trafficking, and while Malaysia was getting 

some international praise for finally allowing people who were 

stranded at sea to disembark, they did shuffle them very quickly 

to detention where they remain today. 

As far as we understand, there is no good reason why the 

UNHCR or other service providers would not have access and one 

additional concern is that refugees, asylum seekers in Malaysia, 

many of whom have endured horrific experiences of human trafficking, now have a very difficult time registering with the UNHCR 

and this opens them up to other forms of exploitation. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. And one final question on Malaysia. 

As I noted, three convictions down from nine the year before, now 

I would agree with Ambassador Lagon, the other aspects of the TIP 

initiative, prevention, prosecution, and protection are all extremely 

important, mutually reinforcing provisions of a coordinated strategy. 

If you’re serious about law enforcement, you need to look at convictions and it’s only three for Malaysia. 

But my question, the State Department upgraded Malaysia last 

year in part for a trafficking victim pilot program. Many of us 

think it was all about the TPP, we think that something they 

72

should have emphasized was to allow victims to leave shelter and 

detention and work. 

However, subsequent information has shown that exactly none of 

the four victims who were cleared to participate in that program 

were able to do so, mostly because of the Malaysian Government’s 

failures. 

Are you aware of any victims free to leave detention and participate in a work pilot program? 

Mr. SMITH. We are not aware that that is occurring in Malaysia 

at all. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you. 

I’d like to ask Ms. Jo, if I could. You know, the Chinese Government has signed the refugee convention. I, and others on this subcommittee have repeatedly asked the Chinese to honor the provisions of that refugee convention, that treaty, and not send people 

back to North Korea where they are usually either killed or certainly sent to prison. We’ve had several witnesses previously who 

have actually been trafficked who told their stories before the subcommittee. 

They made it across the line into China and thought they were 

home free only to find that they were then subjected to the cruelty 

of modern-day slavery. And I’m wondering has there been any diminution of the exploitation of trafficking? Because it seems like they 

get hurt either way. 

If they’re sent back to North Korea they are incarcerated or 

killed and if they stay in China they are trafficked. Has it gotten 

any better or is it still as bad as it has been? 

[All of the following witness’s answers were given through an interpreter.] 

Ms. JO. Just 3 days ago I had a phone conversation with some 

North Koreans currently residing in China and compared to the 

time I left North Korea compared to the time I left China in 2008 

they tell me that there has been no change. 

Basically, what we know about North Koreans today is that 

there are some black market activities and people can make money 

out of this black market activities. 

However, in order to be involved in these markets they do need 

money. They do need capital. In order to do that, they have to cross 

the border into China. 

If they are apprehended by the Chinese authorities they’re subjected to very aggressive interrogation and very aggressive treatment. 

They’re actually separated from the regular Chinese prison population and they’re subjected to treatment that is in many ways 

similar to the treatment that they suffer if they’re forcibly returned 

to North Korea. 

Since January of this year, we have been able to rescue 13 North 

Koreans. Two North Korean women as far as we know were forcibly returned to North Korea where they were subjected to interrogation by the state security department. This is North Korea’s 

main internal security agency. 

They were sent to a so-called mobile labor brigade and as far as 

we know they may have well been sent to a political prison camp 

73

because it was disclosed during the interrogation that they came 

across, for example, South Koreans. 

So basically there’s a group of four who need rescue who were 

apprehended. We know that the time that it takes to return apprehended North Korean refugees from China to North Korea is 25 

days. 

It used to be about 17 days. As you can see, there isn’t such a 

big difference compared to the time when I was there. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. In the TIP Report that we have 

under scrutiny today where China falsely was given a Tier 2 Watch 

List designation, they point out that Chinese women and girls are 

subjected to sex trafficking within China. 

They are typically recruited from the rural areas and taken to 

urban centers. Well-organized criminal syndicates and local gangs 

play key roles in the trafficking of Chinese women and girls and 

in China. 

Victims are recruited with fraudulent employment opportunities 

and subsequently forced into prostitution. Girls from the Tibet Autonomous Region are reportedly sent to other parts of China and 

subjected to forced marriage and domestic servitude, and it goes 

on. A tale of indictment, really, about how China is dealing with 

it. 

And we get to the protection part. It says the government did not 

undertake adequate efforts to protect victims and did not directly 

provide data on the number of victims identified or assisted in 

services it provided. 

And yet, they didn’t get Tier 3. It’s almost comical except that 

it’s a tragedy. My question to you is are there any services that you 

know of for either indigenous Chinese women or refugees if they 

are identified as a trafficking victim? 

And you mention in your testimony that Chinese Government officials are involved in the trafficking of women. Are they making 

profits over that cruelty or are they just grossly indifferent? 

Ms. JO. The surveillance in the border areas has been increased. 

There are numerous road blocks. There are numerous searches. 

Frankly, it is impossible for an ordinary individual to get 

through all of these check points and road blocks and that is why 

actually Chinese policemen, Chinese cops take many of these individuals in their patrol cars and thus it is law enforcement agents 

in China who are involved in this process. 

Actually, in our case as well, we paid one of the locals to help 

us out and they told us that they got in touch with the local cops, 

the local law enforcement agents who participated in the process 

and he assured that we got out. 

There are no Chinese groups, institutions, or organizations that 

rescue women or children who are victimized by human traffickers. 

The only ones who do this are American or South Korean missionaries who make phone calls and invest in this operation of rescuing 

victims of human trafficking. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Ambassador Lagon, does that comport with what you knew as Ambassador-at-Large during your time 

and currently now as head of Freedom House? 

Ambassador LAGON. Yes. The problem in China is a tilt away 

from victim services in general. For those who are North Koreans 

74

it’s not only China’s flagrant failure to live up to its obligations 

under the refugee convention but also a lack of existing help. 

In the region, some of the best equipped countries, such as 

Japan, have not stepped up to the plate to provide the fullest of 

victim services such as translation for women who are in shelters, 

who are trafficking victims. But we’re talking about a truly 

anaemic null set in terms of helping the victims, particularly those 

who are Koreans. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you. Let me ask Ms. Werlau, 

and before I go I just want to note that in the past we had a number of hearings. 

Suzanne Scholte actually brought some unbelievable witnesses—

they were believable, because they were—but it was just astonishing to hear them speak of their ordeal coming out of North 

Korea into China, and one of those witnesses talked about a mother and a daughter. 

The daughter left, was trafficked. The mother went looking for 

her and she was trafficked, and only by the grace of God and some 

very humane people were both of them able to find freedom. 

But it was harrowing in terms of the experiences that they relayed to our subcommittee previously. So I want to thank Ms. 

Scholte for arranging that in the past. 

It was extraordinary and, again, it’s unabated, unchanged, as 

Ms. Jo just said. 

Ms. Werlau, if I could address some of the Cuba issues, the Trafficking in Persons Report says the government took no action to address forced labor. 

If you say you’re going to do nothing and take no action, it 

doesn’t exist, which is foolish beyond words. And yet they were upgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2 Watch List. 

So my question—if you could speak to it—you did in your testimony and but it would be worth some reiteration because you did 

speak about the whole issue of doctors and others being compelled 

and the huge profits gleaned for the Cuban Government—what 

happens if a physician or health professional says no, I’m not going 

to be deployed somewhere around the world, and how much money 

does this actually bring in to the government by forcing them to 

do so? 

Ms. WERLAU. Let me preface this by saying that for 2 years in 

a row the State Department Office for Trafficking in Persons has 

called me to inquire specifically about the situation of the doctors 

and I have had long conversations that are partly reflected in the 

report. 

But they have sustained for 2 years in a row that these are ‘‘allegations.’’ Yet, I have interviewed dozens of doctors who don’t know 

each other, who have served in different countries, that repeat the 

same thing over and over. 

We have more than 7,000 testimonies taken in our Embassies all 

over the world and before these visas are issued for the Cuban 

Medical Professional Parole Program these people are interviewed. 

So I told them, go to the Embassies or just get on a plane and 

go to Miami and find these doctors walking around. They will tell 

you that this is not an allegation. This is happening systematically. 

So I’m dumbfounded by this approach. 

75

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. So they’re hiding in plain sight? 

Ms. WERLAU. There are thousands of these doctors all over the 

world enduring these conditions and this situation. The report says 

that the Cuban Government is the dominant employer. 

What it doesn’t say is that it’s a sole employer of medical professionals. So these people have no choice. But, you were asking about 

what happens if doctors refuse to serve. 

I’ve asked about that and some doctors have told me that they’re 

punished, they’re sent to a little clinic in the mountains, et cetera. 

But most doctors want to serve and there’s a corruption going on 

within the state mechanisms employed to recruit these doctors because certain destinations are more palatable than others. 

It’s certainly better to go to Portugal or Uruguay or even some 

areas of Brazil than to go to the jungle in Central America or remote areas of Africa. 

So actually, this goes back to these people wanting to serve because they want to improve their lot in life and whereas a doctor 

in Cuba earns around $60 a month, they then get a little bonus in 

hard currency, they’re able to see the world, they’re able to save 

some money to repair the roof in their house. When they gp back 

home, they get certain rewards, et cetera. 

So it’s a unique situation. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Just ask you with regards to the 

child sex tourism. The newest law that just has been signed is 

called the International Megan’s Law and it does a number of 

things, but the first thing it takes our database of Megan’s Law 

and every state has it and anyone who seeks to travel if he or 

she—and they’re almost all men—is a convicted sex offender. We 

notice the country of destination within about 3 weeks of that departure and the penalty for not giving us—us being the U.S. Government—that information is very significant, up to 10 years in 

prison, and if they travel they—at least the country—can either 

deny the visa or be very much more vigilant about their presence 

because the propensity to recommit these crimes is very high. 

It also establishes the hope within this administration and the 

next one to set up a reciprocity so we know when these folks are 

travelling to the United States. 

That’s not a bill, it’s a law. And the hope is that now that there’s 

an opening with Cuba that when anyone seeks to travel to Cuba 

we know it’s been a destination for child sex tourism. 

The man I mentioned earlier, Frank Calzon, the one that was 

knocked out by a sucker punch, he had serious documentation of 

this and my hope is that our new Embassy will be robust, aggressive in trying to track down the parameters of this horrific entanglement of pimps and the government, often one and the same, and 

does not whitewash it, which I’m very worried that they may do. 

So if you would speak to the issue of child sex tourism and sex 

tourism in general to Cuba. 

Ms. WERLAU. That’s not my area of expertise. However, I have 

read about it, talked to people about it, and I reference in my written testimony an amazing documentary that was filmed in Cuba 

and that has great evidence, one everybody should see. 

76

The person who filmed it was then put in prison by Cuba and 

it took several years before the Spanish Government was able to 

get him out. 

So this is happening and he has the evidence and I think it’s a 

horrific thing that is only going to probably increment with the increase in tourism we’re seeing in Cuba. And now, you know, probably people from the United States will be participants just as the 

Italians, Canadians, and others that are going to Cuba for this. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. I’d like to yield to our distinguished 

colleague, Congressman Clawson, from Florida. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Sorry for being late. I had some other meetings; 

you know how it is with a double, triple booking. Got another one 

waiting. 

Thank you for coming. I wanted to express, and I’m sorry I 

missed it. So what I’m going to say and you reaction is probably 

going to be redundant from what’s already been said today. 

Of course, I support the chairman in his efforts to reduce, eliminate trafficking globally. Like a lot of things in this world I feel 

like the economic power of the United States could have a bigger 

influence than it actually does. 

Whether it’s in these matters, whether it’s dealing intellectual 

property, which of course is not anywhere near as serious as what 

we’re talking about today or anything else. If we’re almost onethird of the global GDP and everybody wants to have access to our 

markets, if we really wanted those folks that wanted access to our 

markets to eliminate trafficking I believe that they could do so. 

And my view has always been, as I’ve studied up on this for 

Chris’ subcommittee, that to the extent that we allow folks that 

aren’t serious about ending trafficking to participate in our marketplace we send a message that’s not even a mixed message but rather if you’re an important spot economically for us as in one of these 

trade deals or if you’re an important spot in terms of global diplomacy, meaning in the Middle East or in Cuba, then none of these 

things about trafficking really matter to us. 

And therefore what is the message that we send around the 

world to victims of this and whether we really care. And so I want 

to make sure that I showed up today and maybe that summary is 

off in some way. 

But I’d like to hear what you all’s response is and, you know, in 

the context of what’s going on in Cuba today or the trade deal or 

even the Iranian deal. It just seems to me that our interest and our 

commitment to stopping trafficking always takes a back seat when 

something important comes diplomatically either for trade or for 

other things that the administration might think is important. 

Ambassador, you want to start? Am I wrong? Am I overstating 

the problem here or my position on this? 

Ambassador LAGON. No, you’re not. First of all, I agree with the 

premise that one has to look at this as a phenomenon in a market, 

and where something heinous is going on. 

I don’t believe that globalization inevitably needs to lead to slavery but it requires open eyes, and I think we’re in this mode in the 

United States and we feel this very strongly at Freedom House 

that we somehow think we have less influence than, you know, 

than we have. 

77

Mr. CLAWSON. We have more. We have more, right? 

Ambassador LAGON. This is a situation where the driver of 

human trafficking is the fact that for the trafficker, whether it’s 

the recruiter or the person who is locking someone in a brothel or 

someone who is actually supervising forced labor, that person feels 

that they can make huge profits off the backs of enslaved people—

essentially enslaved people—and have very little prospect of being 

punished. That’s a market force. We need to change that, make it 

more likely that they will be punished. 

And while labor trafficking is 75 percent of the incidence of trafficking overall in the world, more money is made on the backs of 

those who are sex trafficked and you see both of these phenomena 

in places like Thailand, Cambodia, and so on. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Can I jump in on you for a minute? 

Ambassador LAGON. Sure. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Now, if I were running a manufacturing business 

exporting from the Midwest, I would say in addition to what you’ve 

said, folks from Midwest factories lose their good-paying jobs and 

we pay an economic price—at least an economic fairness price, if 

you will, in our country, while cheaters who may cheat in trafficking or any other way that they can cheat, get an economic 

transfer of welfare in some other country. 

Is that right? So there is losers here and there and all for a 

cheaper product, by the way. 

Ambassador LAGON. Well, it should be—it should be particularly 

galling to American citizens if they see jobs being exported elsewhere. 

If it’s to a place where there is not only kind of cheap labor or 

even exploitative labor but in fact trafficked labor, I will say and 

said this earlier, that I favor the Trans-Pacific Partnership and 

TTIP. 

But you need to do it with open eyes. So Malaysia, being kept 

viable to be part of the TPP, has a reason or a rationale for its 

ranking in the TIP Report makes no sense to me. 

I’m in favor of appropriately negotiated bilateral trade deals. But 

I noticed when in served as the anti-human trafficking Ambassador 

that there were opportunities the United States was completely 

throwing out the window to place leverage on states we were forming bilateral free trade arrangements with. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Could I ask you a question? Is there any example 

that you can think of where we have used our economic leverage, 

30 percent of global GDP, to force people to behave with respect to 

trafficking, human rights, religious freedom? 

Ambassador LAGON. Sure, and your colleague sitting in the chair 

helped invent it. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act creates a 

situation where there is sanctions or threatened sanctions or 

threatened sanctions for Tier 3 countries. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Well, most of the time in practicality it gets ignored or am I wrong? 

Ambassador LAGON. This is true. That’s why——

Mr. CLAWSON. I mean, my point is we yak about it up here. We 

have all the power as the United States of America. We’re the driver of global trade and people that cheat and therefore hurt kids, 

women, whoever, we don’t do anything about it. 

78

Ambassador LAGON. We have the leverage. I’ve noted before the 

political scientists, Beth Simmons at Harvard and Judith Kelley at 

Duke have shown that in fact the TIP Report gets countries to 

change their laws. 

One case I can think of of moving a country was Cambodia being 

faced with Tier 3 ranking and thinking that it would—having just 

gotten the introduction of forms of American aid it would get off. 

Now, I entirely agree with a longstanding critique offered by 

Chairman Smith that the sanctions on Tier 3 countries are not 

used and it’s appalling. 

But that’s an example of leverage working. Actually, there are 

many examples. I am personally an advocate of the global 

Magnitsky sanctions legislation which would target officials who 

are responsible for corruption and for human rights abuses. That 

really makes it painful for the people who are responsible. So you 

can, as you argue, place overall pressure in using leverage on a 

country. But you also can make life miserable for——

Mr. CLAWSON. But let me interrupt just for a minute, Ambassador. 

You would agree with me that there’s a whole lot of countries 

that run trade surpluses with us that abuse their people, correct? 

Ambassador LAGON. True. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Okay. Then we’re not doing very well. 

Okay. Now, let me go to Cuba. Is—do you all do—does any of the 

witnesses here believe that the opening—that the economic awakening, opening, whatever we want to call it with Cuba right now, 

is that going to help or hurt in efforts for folks to get treated in 

a humane dignified way? 

Ambassador LAGON. If I may begin, but I really want to defer to 

my colleague, Ms. Werlau, I think that the record is clear that 

there have not been changes since the diplomatic opening in 

human rights in general. 

Anything more than the most minor economic reforms haven’t 

changed a whit. At a previous hearing held by Chairman Smith 

looking at those rankings that were considered politicized in the 

2015 Report, we heard witnesses from the State Department say 

now there’s more information available from Cuba because we’re 

having diplomatic dialogue with them. 

So we have better information and we can tell that they’re Tier 

2 Watch List rather than Tier 3. I think that’s rich. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Ms. Jo? Thank you, Ambassador. 

Ms. WERLAU. Respond on Cuba? Yes. 

Congressman, I have long favoured exchanges that make sense 

in policies that advance the interests of the United States and have 

for a long time argued that our policy toward Cuba, which I considered schizophrenic and contradictory in different aspects of it, 

needed a revision. 

However, I strongly feel that lending credibility, legitimacy, and 

impunity to a criminal dictatorship without conditions and making 

unilateral concessions is very troubling and counterproductive to 

our own interests. 

The idea that commercial engagement, including tourism, is 

going to bring about reforms in Cuba has already been tried. First, 

by the rest of the world that has been investing, trading, and sendVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:16 Aug 17, 2016 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00082 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\032216\99554 SHIRL
79

ing tourists to Cuba for over 20 years since the fall of the Soviet 

bloc and of massive subsidies, and Cuba had to restructure its 

economy, et cetera. 

For example, more than 1 million Canadian tourists go to Cuba 

every year and this has been going on for years. I don’t see a whole 

lot of difference between Canadian and U.S. tourists. 

And second, because there have been for years many exceptions 

to the embargo, including from 1988, the Berman amendment, that 

has allowed the free sale and exchange of informational material, 

videos, music, art work, et cetera. Yet, no Cubans can buy directly 

from the United States. 

It’s the same thing with the agricultural products and medical 

products that have been exempt since 2000. 

The Cuban Government controls all those imports from the 

United States. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Let me interrupt. So are you saying there’s going 

to be more or less trafficking of kids and women, et cetera with 

what we’re doing now? More or less? 

Ms. WERLAU. My prediction is more because there will be more 

tourists and will be participating and it’s one state that is behind 

it, as I described the judicial system. 

Mr. CLAWSON. So the Melia Hotel chains from Spain on Varadero 

Beach and other places has not done anything but make the problem—I’m not disrupting, I’m just making sure we’re clear. 

Ms. WERLAU. I have found no instance of any reform from those 

exchanges. 

Mr. CLAWSON. And if the representative of the Obama administration were here today he would say what we’ve done ain’t working so if we try this you’d be wrong and the rest of the folks up 

here would be wrong. Is that right? 

Ms. WERLAU. Well, I think that what we’ve done was not working. As I said, the policy had many contradictions. It was schizophrenic and we were not able or not interested in pushing a multilateral approach that makes sense with our allies and partners, 

other democracies that would like to see and would benefit from 

having a stable and prosperous Cuba. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Anybody else, anything to add anything I’m missing here? 

Ms. JO. I don’t know about the Cuba. That’s why I cannot answer 

your question. But I hope North Koreans can become open. So yes, 

if you’re asking something for North Korea and I’d love to answer. 

Mr. CLAWSON. And go ahead, since we were—tell us about what 

you—if we were to open more trade with North Korea, in your 

opinion would that be more or less? 

Ms. JO. What happens in North Korea nowadays is that if one 

is officially unemployed they have to go to jail. 

I believe that if North Korea were to open itself up to the outside 

world to South Korea in particular, this would create opportunities 

for North Koreans. There would be different standards. 

There would be less exploitation inside North Korea and since 

the situation inside North Korea would improve there would be 

fewer or no reasons for North Koreans to escape from their country 

and become the victims of exploitation elsewhere, in China in particular. 

80

There are many who fear the astounding cost of Korean reunification. They fear that we would need a lot of money to accomplish 

that goal. 

However, I have a different opinion. I think that both Koreas will 

be spending much less on their defense budgets and there would 

be significant amounts of money to be spent on the development of 

North Korea and North Koreans would no longer be victimized. 

They would no longer become the victims of sexual or labor exploitation. 

And I would like to ask the distinguished Congressman here 

today a favor, should I call it. I am a U.S. citizen now. I work hard. 

I go to school here in the United States. I pay my taxes. I try to 

do my best as an American citizen. 

There are, of course, many North Koreans who are still trying to 

escape. When change comes to North Korea, former North Koreans 

such as myself will be instrumental in teaching the people of North 

Korea about the freedom and opportunity that we enjoy here in the 

United States and that South Koreans enjoy in South Korea. 

And that is why I would like to respectfully ask you that you see 

to it that more North Koreans are accepted into the United States 

of America. 

Frankly, when we came here what truly gave us hope was the 

U.S./North Korea Human Rights Act, first passed in 2004. There 

have been two more enactments of that act in 2008 and 2012. But 

to this date we only have 194 North Korean refugees who have resettled here in the United States. 

I’m not going to name that particular country or those particular 

countries but it takes a North Korean refugee between 1 year and 

11⁄2 years in order to be cleared to come here to the United States. 

There are graduates, former North Korean refugees who graduated from Harvard University with law degrees. There are many 

bright South Koreans who could help. 

I would like to ask the distinguished congressmen for their help 

in ensuring that we are able to bring more North Korean refugees 

here to the United States of America. 

Thank you very much. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you, Ms. Jo. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Thank you, Ms. Jo, for the Korean viewpoint, and 

Ms. Werlau, thank you for the Cuban summary as well from you. 

Appreciate it. And Ambassador, for the global view. 

Yield back. Thank you 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Clawson, thank you very much 

for your excellent questions and for being here and for your ongoing concern. It’s just deeply appreciated. 

Let me just conclude. A couple of final questions, if I could. As 

we all know, and I mentioned it before, Raul Castro said there are 

no political prisoners; give me a list of political prisoners and I will 

release them before tonight ends. 

That’s the English translation of the Spanish and Jim Acosta, 

thank God he asked that question because it’s one of the few times 

any of the Castro brothers have ever been asked a serious question 

about human rights. The culture of denial which we see now on the 

trafficking side, no forced labor, they trivialize if they even respond 

81

to any questions about sex trafficking, my hope is that there will 

be a much more robust effort by the TIP office. 

And I think while they may get it right, hopefully as it goes up 

the ranks they will do their work to ensure that that Tier 3 designation, which I think is absolutely warranted based on the 

record, is conveyed again to the Government of Cuba and I do hope 

they listen to you even more carefully, Maria, as you convey these 

important points to them at the TIP office itself. 

I would ask Ambassador Lagon, we know that India has had serious trafficking problems, sex and labor trafficking, and amazingly 

even with regards to the T visa, which we created in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, that there has been inability 

to travel by those individuals who have obtained the T visa, which 

then takes our whole process and says it’s somehow less than authentic. 

Your thoughts on that? Because India certainly has a serious 

trafficking problem that I think is grossly under-appreciated and 

under-recognized. 

Ambassador LAGON. Well, India is often considered a great success story of democracy. But there are important ways, whether if 

you’re a Dalit, other unfavored caste, or women, you don’t have full 

access to justice. 

There have been some troubling things that I’ve seen over time. 

When I was the head of the TIP office at State it was really remarkable to me. 

If you looked at countries that had large numbers of guest workers abroad, the great heroic example was the Philippines, whose 

diplomatic services fought really hard for the rights and the protection of their migrant workers abroad, running shelters in every one 

of their Embassies, they would always meet with me. 

Indian diplomats never ever in any country I travelled in, particularly in the Gulf, would confer about that. They were more concerned about the remittances. Now, that was then. 

When it was discovered that official personnel at a multilateral 

institution for India was complicit in human trafficking, the Government of India was truly intransigent about cooperation with justice. 

If it is indeed the case that those who have a T visa are harassed, that is a failure to look out for your citizens and their access 

to justice. 

And so while India’s a success story in many ways, we should be 

concerned and remains the demographic of the human trafficking 

problem in the world. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Ms. Werlau, in her testimony, said 

that the Cuban Government is likely one of the largest and most 

profitable trafficking promoters in the world. Does that comport, 

again, with your sense of Cuba? 

Ambassador LAGON. Well, there’s kind of a correlate of the main 

theme of my testimony. The main theme of my testimony is that 

democratic governance, rule of law, access to justice—if they are in 

place in a country it’s more likely that country will do a good job 

fighting human trafficking. 

At the other end of the spectrum, if it’s not only an autocracy but 

a command economy with an intrusive state-led role and forms of 

82

forced labor or punitive labor particularly against those who are 

not favoured by the government that are institutionalized, that’s 

quite likely to be a driver of human trafficking. The Trafficking 

Victims Protection Act, as you shaped, emphasizes the complicity 

of government officials in human trafficking. 

Well, if we look at some diplomat who is engaging in the abuse 

of their domestic servant, that’s complicity. But if a government 

has policies which are in fact contributing to running forced labor, 

that’s the most flagrant form of state complicity that you can see. 

Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Is there anything further that any 

of our witnesses would like to say today—any further insights, 

comments? 

If not, I do want to thank you for your extraordinary testimony. 

I hope that the U.S. Department of State and particularly the new 

Ambassador-at-Large, who I think is a very honorable person, 

Susan Coppedge, who I’ve had a meeting with in the office, we did 

invite her to be here today. But they are, as she indicated, working 

on the report and thought it might be best not to be here and I 

certainly understand that. 

We will invite her to testify and I hope she will come right after 

the TIP Report is released and we will again have a body of NGOs 

and expert witnesses to ascertain the pluses and minuses of the 

next TIP Report and I do hope that they get it right this time. 

I do want to thank all of you. Ms. Jo, your point about law enforcement getting to what Ambassador Lagon was just saying in 

terms of complicity of government—when we wrote the original 

minimum standards to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and 

government complicity, we absolutely included the police, and you 

pointed out, because law enforcement is certainly an integral part 

of government and very often that is the Achilles’ heel because 

that’s where the bribes and the interface usually takes place with 

enabling trafficking or being part of the solution. 

So thank you for pointing that out with regards to the North Koreans and others who are ill-served by the police who are part of 

the problem. 

I thank you all again. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:53 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 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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