JORDAN'S SIXTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

UNCLAS AMMAN 001691

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, NEA/RA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM KCRM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB JO
SUBJECT: JORDAN'S SIXTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

REF: STATE 3836


1. (U) Embassy point of contact on trafficking in persons is
political officer Jonathan Peccia (grade 4),phone number
202-536-4173, ext. 6597 or 962-6-590-6597, fax number
962-6-592-0159. Officer spent approximately 40 hours
preparing the report. Pol FSN spent 16 hours preparing the
report.


2. (U) The following responses reference the
questions from the TIP report preparation cable by
paragraph. This information is sensitive and should
be handled accordingly.

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Checklist
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3. (SBU) (21/A) Jordan is a country of destination
for women from South Asia and South East Asia,
primarily Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, for
the purpose of labor exploitation. Eastern European
women enter Jordan for illicit purposes, but there is
no evidence of coercion, force, or fraud. There are
50,000 foreign domestic workers (FDWs) estimated to
be working in Jordan, though only 34,000 are
registered. The Philippine embassy reports 15,000
Filipino workers, and in 2005 it received 1000
complaints of abuse. The source country embassies
refer few of these cases to the Jordanian
authorities. In 2005, Jordanian police closed 16
cases of sexual abuse against FDWs, and only 47 other
FDWs filed complaints with the police for offenses
ranging from slander to theft to battery. No
reliable system is in place to track all reported
abuses, though the Ministry of Labor is launching in
2006 a dedicated, stand-alone office to control and
monitor all FDW issues, including reports of abuse.


4. (SBU) (21/A) Jordan may also be a destination
country for men from South Asia and South East Asia
for the purposes of labor exploitation. These men
work primarily in factories, and may be subject to
abuses such as extended and forced working hours,
unpaid wages, and withholding of passports.


5. (SBU) (21/A) Jordan, to a much lesser degree, may
be a transit destination both for trafficked women
from South and South East Asia, and for men from
South and South East Asia. The women would transit
Jordan en route to other Middle East countries, such
as Syria and Egypt, for the purpose of labor
exploitation. No Jordanians appear to be complicit
in the trafficking of these women. They would
possess valid transit visas, and would only enter
Jordan's airports due to the routing of flights from
the source to the destination countries. The men, on
the other hand, may be brought to Jordan with the
promise of employment within the country, only to be
trucked overland into Iraq. In 2005, the Ministry of
Labor and Ministry of the Interior issued a circular
to all border points prohibiting foreign workers from
transiting unless their sponsor accompanies them.
Reportedly, Jordanian middlemen are operating as
sponsors to bypass this proclamation. Post cannot
estimate the extent of this practice. Please see
paragraph 19 for more information on transit visa
regulations.


6. (SBU) (21/B) Last year, Jordan was placed in the
"Special Case" category because full and accurate
data on the extent and magnitude of its trafficking
problem was not available. This year, that remains
true to a large extent, though the Government of
Jordan has made efforts to examine the problem and to
come up with solutions. Trafficking in Jordan is
almost exclusively for the purpose of labor
exploitation, and is primarily limited to FDWs coming
from South and South East Asia. The exploitation
begins with the recruiting agencies in the source
countries, but continues to the receiving agencies in
Jordan and on to the Jordanian employers. The FDWs
can find themselves in conditions that include:
extended and forced working hours, unpaid wages,
restrictions on freedom of movement including the
withholding of passports and residency permits, and
verbal, physical, and sexual abuse and assault.
These abuses occur with greater frequency when
related to wage and working hour issues, and with
much less frequency when related to physical or
sexual abuse. A common pattern that often renders
FDWs susceptible to abuse begins when a source
country recruiting agency drafts the FDW's resume and
exaggerates her qualifications. When she arrives in
Jordan, the receiving agency is faced with the choice
of repatriating the FDW - at a loss to the company -
or hiring her out to Jordanian employers who expect a
higher caliber worker. When the employer complains
and demands that the agency take the FDW back, the
agency will simply find another unsuspecting
employer. It is not uncommon for a worker to be
shuffled from household to household in this manner.
Even if she does not experience the more serious
abuses listed, she will still likely be unpaid until
an employer agrees to accept her - a process that can
take months.


7. (SBU) (21.B) Before 2003, there were no officially
licensed recruiting agencies in Jordan; the Ministry
of the Interior was responsible for every facet of
monitoring the importation of labor. In 2003, the
Ministry of Labor gained the authority to monitor the
recruitment process. Recruiting agencies must have a
license to operate, and the agencies assumed many of
the responsibilities that used to fall to individual
employers. This enables the GoJ to better monitor
situation.


8. (SBU) (21/C) The GoJ faces severe monetary
constraints on its ability to monitor anti-
trafficking efforts. Additionally, Jordan's
traditional society tends to promote a culture of
silence and discretion with regard to matters of the
home. Furthermore, the most egregious of the abuses
FDWs suffer - physical and sexual assault - are
crimes that victims fail to report more than 50% of
the time worldwide. Factors such as language and
cultural barriers also sometimes deter the reporting
of abuse.


9. (SBU) (21/C) Information-sharing between the
source country embassies and the GoJ is poor.
According to the GoJ, though the embassies allege
large numbers of complaints from their FDW nationals,
the embassies have not requested help from the GoJ or
from the Recruiting Agencies Association, nor have
they submitted any documentary evidence of the
allegations.


10. (SBU) (21/D) The GoJ has a well-developed police
and court system. Prosecutions, when they occur, are
easy to monitor. The steering committee driving
anti-trafficking efforts brings together several
ministries (Labor, Interior, Foreign Affairs,
Justice),source country embassies, and members of
the NGO community and the Recruiting Agencies
Association. Through this committee, the GoJ can
monitor anti-trafficking efforts.

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Prevention
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11. (SBU) (22/A) The GoJ does acknowledge that
trafficking is a problem in Jordan. Jordan is mainly
a destination country, and many within Jordanian
society see the problems FDWs suffer as family
matters rather than as a systemic trafficking issue.
Withheld salaries are hard to prove in this cash
society. FDWs being held against their will
consequently have no means to report their
conditions. All things sexual are taboo in Jordan;
so accurate reporting of both sexual assaults and
prostitution is hard to come by.


12. (SBU) (22/A) The GoJ also contends that source
countries and their embassies share responsibility
for the problem.


13. (SBU) (22/B) The Ministry of Labor, Ministry of
the Interior, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are all
involved in anti-trafficking efforts. The three are
part of the steering committee to combat trafficking,
led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However,
most of the initiatives come from the Ministry of
Labor.


14. (SBU) (22/C) There have not been public
government-run anti-trafficking information or
education campaigns. At this stage, the government
is still learning, but does actively participate and
patronize NGO-organized campaigns. The government
did, with help from UNIFEM, produce a booklet for
distribution to all FDWs explaining their rights.
But as of the time of this report, only a few copies
of the booklet had been distributed.


15. (SBU) (22/D) The GoJ supports other efforts to
combat trafficking, as well as initiatives which,
while not aimed directly at trafficking, tend to
place sympathetic advocates in positions of
influence, such as the quotas that boost women's
participation in both houses of parliament. The GoJ
also is pursuing several initiatives to offer better
support and greater transparency for the FDW
community. It recently signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with Sri Lanka to streamline the
process by which Sri Lankan workers (approximately
35,000 including factory workers and FDWs) gain
employment in Jordan, and to guarantee their rights.
Jordan has also signed MOUs with Indonesia and the
Philippines. Already the GoJ has endorsed a standard
FDW contract that must be signed by the recruiting
agency, the employer, and the employee. The GoJ is
in the final stages of publishing an FDW guidebook
that the recruiting agencies will be required to
distribute to all FDWs upon their arrival in Jordan.
The GoJ printed the booklet in Arabic and English,
and is now attempting to get the source country
embassies to take responsibility to print them in the
source country languages. The booklets enumerate the
worker's rights and offer hotline numbers that abused
workers can call in the event of abuse.
Additionally, the Ministry of Labor plans to launch
in spring 2006 an inter-agency office that will be
solely dedicated to FDW issues, from checking
residency and work permits, to arbitrating salary
disputes, to receiving complaints of abuse.


16. (SBU) (22/E) The relationship between government
officials, NGOs, other relevant organizations and
other elements of civil society on trafficking is
good on the working level, but still sometimes
antagonistic. The NGOs remain skeptical that the GoJ
is capable of solving the problems that exist. They
believe that most GoJ working-level officials remain
indifferent to trafficking and FDW abuse, and
therefore that the ministers are still insulated from
the true magnitude of the problem. Conversely, the
GoJ believes it has a firm grasp on the issue and
that the NGO community is overstating the problem.
However, the GoJ, NGOs, and civil society manage to
come together for conferences to raise awareness and
attempt to build consensus and capacity to work on
the trafficking problem jointly. The steering
committee is a leading example of this cooperation.


17. (SBU) (22/E) The cooperation between these
parties has already paid dividends. It was
responsible for the 2003 amendment of the labor law,
allowing the Ministry of Labor to supervise the
recruitment of FDWs and the licensing of recruiting
agencies. It also resulted in the uniform employment
contract for FDWs.


18. (SBU) (22/F) The GoJ does control and monitor
immigration patterns, but this is done more for
security purposes than to combat trafficking. The
GoJ has identified training of the police and other
security personnel who serve as border inspectors as
an area of assistance they are interested in
pursuing, and the Deputy Chief of Immigration at
Jordan's Queen Alia International Airport will be
attending the April - May 2006 Trafficking in Persons
International Visitor Program sponsored by the USG.
It is clear that more probing interviews at the
airport would identify potential victims of labor
exploitation.


19. (SBU) (22/F) The GOJ requires that nationals of
most migrant worker source countries may enter Jordan
only after approval from the Ministry of the
Interior. Jordanian embassies in those countries
also do not issue visas without MoI approval, and
each case is individually evaluated. Nationals of
these "restricted" countries cannot obtain transit
visas for Jordan unless they possess a visa for the
destination country. Even then, they may not enter
Jordan for the purpose of transiting to neighboring
countries. Tourist visas for groups of nationals of
restricted countries are not issued except through
accredited Jordanian tourist offices. All foreigners
coming to work in Jordan need prior approval from the
Ministry of Labor, and receive that approval only
after the work permit is paid.


20. (SBU) (22/G) There is a multilateral steering
committee. The committee is comprised of
representatives from the Ministries of Labor,
Interior, and Foreign Affairs, source country
embassies, NGOs (UNIFEM),and the recruiting agencies
in Jordan. The government does have a group
dedicated to examining corruption, which falls under
the General Intelligence Directorate (GID).


21. (SBU) (22/H) No national plan of action to
address trafficking exists as a unified,
comprehensive document, though various initiatives on
different fronts are all underway, as explained
above. The steering committee is working on a
comprehensive national plan. It includes: amending
labor legislation relating to domestic workers, their
sponsors, recruiting agencies, and legal measures
against violators; finding a mechanism to train a
larger number of judicial/police officers; developing
a mechanism to streamline the process of receiving
complaints from FDWs; setting up a database to gather
and register all data on FDWs; and raising awareness
on the rights of FDWs.

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Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers
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22. (SBU) (23/A) Jordanian law prohibits trafficking
in children. There are also anti-slavery laws and
other legislation that can be invoked to prosecute
and punish trafficking and related crimes. Any
person who, for purposes of financial gain, bribes,
encourages, or entices another to come to or depart
Jordan can be prosecuted under the 1929 Abolition of
Slavery law. It provides for the following
punishments:

- Kidnapping of domestic workers: minimum three years
imprisonment
- Sexual exploitation of domestic workers: not less
than three months
- Sexual molestation of domestic workers: not less
than three months
- Any attempt to force domestic workers into
prostitution: not less than three months
- Any intentional or unintentional physical abuse of
domestic workers: not less than three months

The law also punishes employers who withhold
passports with the intent of compelling an FDW to
work in violation of the terms of the contract.


23. (SBU) (23/B) There is no law that specifically
addresses traffickers of people for sexual or labor
exploitation. This falls under the slavery law
explained in paragraph 22.


24. (SBU) (23/C) Jordanian law provides for the death
penalty for the rape of a girl less than 15 years of
age. The penalty for rape of a girl or woman 15
years of age and older is 3 to 5 years imprisonment.


25. (SBU) (23/D) Prostitution is illegal. All
involved parties - prostitute, brothel owner, client,
and procurer - are subject to prosecution for
engaging in or supporting prostitution. The
Jordanian national police force - the Public Security
Directorate (PSD) - informed the Embassy that there
are no statistics available on arrests linked to
prostitution during the year.


26. (SBU) (23/E) According to the PSD, the government
did not charge anyone with any crime related to
trafficking during the year. Eight recruiting
agencies were issued warnings for various violations,
and another eight were closed. As of the time of
this report, five of those eight have reopened
following mandatory six-month closures. Three
remained closed. The recruiting agencies organized
as a result of a 2003 amendment to the labor law.
Agencies must front a $70,500 guarantee that they
will conduct their work in accordance with the law.


27. (SBU) (23/E) The Ministry of Labor received 250
complaints against licensed recruiting agencies,
mainly from employers unsatisfied with the condition
of the imported worker. The Ministry worked 200 of
these complaints to conclusion; another 50 were
referred to courts.


28. (SBU) (23/E) In addition to the 16 sexual assault
cases that the Family Protection Department of the
national police closed during the year, another 19
were reported. Authorities were still investigating
three of these, while the court system was
adjudicating 16 others. Eight rape cases were
similarly at various stages of disposition at the
time of the report.


29. (SBU) (23/F) There is no evidence, anecdotal or
otherwise, that there are organized crime syndicates
trafficking people to or from Jordan. Rather, the
'traffickers' are individual recruiting agencies that
do not uphold migrant workers' contracts, and
employers who subject their workers to slave-like
conditions.


30. (SBU) (23/G) The GoJ does actively investigate
cases of labor exploitation that come to its
attention. Unfortunately, many of the exploited FDWs
do not feel comfortable turning to Jordanian
authorities, and instead report the abuses to their
embassies. It is not clear that the embassies
subsequently turn to the GoJ in any of these cases.
The GoJ does not use electronic surveillance,
undercover operations, or plea deals to actively
investigate cases. The GoJ, through the Ministry of
Labor, routinely inspects recruiting agencies to
ensure compliance with the law.


31. (SBU) (23/G) Physical and sexual assault victims
who do turn to the Jordanian authorities are referred
to a special department within the PSD, the Family
Protection Department (FPD). Contacts in the GoJ
tell us that 25% of FDW rape cases are dropped after
the FDW changes her story to say that the sex was
consensual. While adultery is illegal, the law
requires a complainant in order to file charges. The
amounts of shame and attention to which this would
expose a family are considerable. As a result, it is
unusual for a complainant (typically the wife of the
adulterer) to press charges. Additionally, both
partners in the adulterous act must be charged,
according to the law. The implication is that rape
victims might be subject to payoffs or threats in
order to convince them to change their stories and
admit to a consensual, adulterous relationship. The
authorities have no grounds to pursue a rape case
once the victim states that the sex was consensual.


32. (SBU) (23/G) The FPD dealt with 16 cases of
sexual abuse against FDWs during 2005. The victims
were Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Filipino.


33. (SBU) (23/H) The FPD is highly trained and
equipped to handle allegations of criminal physical
and sexual assault. The FPD has specialists in
forensics and counselors on hand, and employs state
of the art interviewing equipment to ensure
transparency in investigations. Eight Jordanian
police officers participated in anti-trafficking
courses and symposiums in Greece, Turkey, and Sweden
during 2005. Domestically, 90 officers trained at
the Royal Police Academy on combating smuggling
persons; 60 officers trained in identifying
physical/sexual abuse; and 20 officers trained
specifically in anti-trafficking efforts.


34. (SBU) (23/I) No cooperation with other
governments in the investigation and prosecution of
trafficking cases was reported. The MOUs with the
source countries should allow the GoJ to coordinate
with those governments.


35. (SBU) (23/J) Jordan does not have an extradition
treaty with the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, or
Nepal.


36. (SBU) (23/K) No evidence exists of government
involvement in, or tolerance of trafficking.


37. (SBU) (23/L) Not applicable.


38. (SBU) (23/M) Not applicable.


39. (SBU) (23/N) ILO 182 - ratification 4/20/2000;
ILO 29 - ratification 6/6/1966; ILO 105 -
ratification 3/31/1958; Optional Protocol to the CRC
- ratification 9/6/2000.


40. (SBU) (23/N) Jordan has authorized its permanent
envoy to the United Nations to submit the documents
necessary to sign the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress,
and Punish Trafficking in Persons.

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Protection and Assistance to Victims
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41. (SBU) (24/A) The GoJ currently does not have a
shelter established to house victims. Some women may
be imprisoned due to charges of theft or adultery.
Others have sought shelter from their embassies.
Employers are required to purchase health and life
insurance for foreign workers.


42. (SBU) (24/B) The GoJ provides operational
expenses for the National Centre for Human Rights,
and has offered non-financial support to NGOs such as
UNIFEM and the International Office for Migration
(IOM),both of which are pursuing programming to
prevent trafficking and to support victims.


43. (SBU) (24/C) No such process exists.


44. (SBU) (24/D) As a matter of law, victims' rights
are respected. The Family Protection Department
operates very professionally. The same may not be
true of local police stations, which are rumored to
treat foreign workers harshly. Often an employer
will accuse an FDW of theft if the FDW approaches
authorities to protest salary withholdings. If
charges are filed against an FDW, she will be
arrested and detained. If an FDW does not have a
residency permit, she will be fined $2.12 for each
day that she is out of status. In many cases this
fine accumulates into an amount that FDWs are
incapable of paying, effectively preventing many from
leaving Jordan.


45. (SBU) (24/E) Potential witnesses in a court case
are not permitted to leave Jordan. Victims can bring
civil suits against employers under civil law, not
the labor law. If the suit is under $4230, the
plaintiff does not need to retain a lawyer. For
suits greater than $4230, the plaintiff must have a
lawyer.


46. (SBU) (24/F) The government may put sexual
assault victims in protective custody in correctional
facilities.


47. (SBU) (24/G) The Family Protection Department is
the only government facility that handles the crimes
associated with Jordan's trafficking problems, and as
mentioned above, they are highly trained. The
Ministry of Labor receives weekly training from IOM
on a breadth of labor issues, including ILO standards
that cover trafficking. The Deputy Chief of
Immigration at Jordan's Queen Alia International
Airport will attend the Trafficking in Persons
International Visitor Program sponsored by the USG.


48. (SBU) (24/H) Not applicable.


49. (SBU) (24/I) UNIFEM works closely with the GoJ
and with local NGOs on women's rights issues,
specifically FDWs. UNIFEM guided the process to
standardize the FDW work contract and to produce the
FDW guidebook. IOM's Jordan office is engaged in
weekly training seminars at the Ministry of Labor.
IOM also is attempting to raise funds to repatriate
FDWs stranded in Jordan due to an inability to pay
their overstay fines. The GoJ has agreed to waive
the fines if IOM can fund the travel.

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TIP Heroes
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50. (SBU) (25) Dr. Manal Mazahreh from the Human
Rights Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
heads Jordan's trafficking in persons steering
committee. This requires Dr. Mazahreh to coordinate
heavily with other ministries, NGOs, source country
embassies, and recruiting agencies. Additionally,
Dr. Mazahreh is leading the committee into uncharted
territory as the GoJ begins to use a different
approach to address the trafficking problem in
Jordan. She returned no name check hits.
RUBINSTEIN