SRI LANKA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

UNCLAS STATE 060355

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND
DEMARCHE

REF: A. STATE 59732

B. STATE 005577


1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10.


2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a
press conference in the Department's press briefing room.
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic
and foreign news outlets. Until the time of the Secretary's
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or
country narratives contained therein is prohibited.


3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter. Also provided
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government
of Sri Lanka of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's
imminent release. The text of the TIP Report country
narrative is provided, both for use in informing the
Government of Sri Lanka and in any local media release by
Post's public affairs section on June 16 or thereafter.
Drawing on information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post
may provide the host government with the text of the TIP
Report narrative no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday
June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local
time Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts. Please note,
however, that any public release of the Report's information
should not/not precede the Secretary's release at 10:00 am
EDT on June 16.


4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16
release. Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts
in all countries appearing on the Report. The Secretary's
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website
shortly after the June 16 event. Ambassador de Baca will
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT.


5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform
the appropriate official in the Government of Sri Lanka of
the June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the
points in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the
text of the country narrative provided in para 8. For
countries where the State Department has lowered the tier
ranking, it is particularly important to advise governments
prior to the Report being released in Washington on June 16.


6. Action Request continued: Please note that, for those
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the
narrative text. This engagement is important to establishing
the framework in which the government's performance will be
judged for the 2010 Report. If posts have questions about
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report,
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau.


7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the
press guidance provided in para 11. If Post wishes, a local
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP
Report's country narrative provided in para 8.


8. Begin Final Text of Sri Lanka,s country narrative in the
2009 TIP Report:

--------------
SRI LANKA (Tier 2 Watch List)
--------------

Sri Lanka is primarily a source and, to a much lesser extent,
a destination for men and women trafficking for the purposes
of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Sri
Lankan men and women migrate willingly to Kuwait, Jordan,
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Oman,
Bahrain, and Singapore to work as construction workers,
domestic servants, or garment factory workers. Some of
these workers find themselves in situations of involuntary
servitude when faced with restrictions on movement,
withholding of passports, threats, physical or sexual abuse,
and debt bondage that is, in some instances, facilitated by
large pre-departure fees imposed by labor recruitment
agencies and their unlicensed sub-agents. Children are
trafficked within the country for commercial sexual
exploitation and, very infrequently, for forced labor. The
designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued to recruit, sometimes
forcibly, children for use as soldiers in areas outside of
the Sri Lankan government,s control. Government security
forces may be complicit in letting a breakaway LTTE faction
that has aligned itself with the government, to unlawfully
recruit child soldiers, sometimes with force. A small number
of women from Thailand, China, and Russia, and other
countries of the former Soviet Union may be trafficked into
Sri Lanka for commercial sexual exploitation.

Sri Lanka does not fully comply with the minimum standards
for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making
significant efforts to do so. Despite these overall efforts,
the government has not shown evidence of progress in
convicting and punishing trafficking offenders; therefore,
Sri Lanka is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. While the Sri
Lankan government did not achieve any convictions of
trafficking offenders, it arrested 29 alleged traffickers and
started prosecutions against ten people for
trafficking-related offenses, an increase from the previous
year when no one was arrested or prosecuted for
trafficking-related crimes. It also drafted a national
policy on migration that promises to prevent the trafficking
of Sri Lankan migrants and it developed a national
anti-trafficking task force that should become operational in
the coming year.

Recommendations for Sri Lanka: Vigorously investigate and
prosecute suspected trafficking offenses and convict and
punish trafficking offenders, particularly those responsible
for recruiting victims with fraudulent offers of employment
and excessive commission fees; follow through with the
creation of the national anti-trafficking task force; develop
and implement through training of law enforcement personnel
formal victim referral procedures; and ensure that victims of
trafficking found within Sri Lanka are not detained or
otherwise penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct
result of their being trafficked.

Prosecution
--------------
Although the Government of Sri Lanka made strides in arrests
and prosecutions of alleged traffickers, it did not
demonstrate adequate law enforcement efforts in addressing
human trafficking cases over the reporting period. Sri Lanka
prohibits all forms of trafficking through an April 2006
amendment to its penal code, which prescribes punishments of
up to 20 years, imprisonment; these penalties are
sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed
for other grave offenses, such as rape. While the government
conducted over 400 raids of fraudulent foreign recruiting
agencies and took legal action against 80 of them ) which
resulted in their licenses being suspended and the initiation
of two prosecutions ) the majority had not yet been
prosecuted criminally for trafficking-related offenses. The
government canceled the licenses of 32 agencies and imposed
fines on them. The police made 29 arrests of suspected
trafficking offenders under the 2006 anti-trafficking
statute. In addition, the Attorney General,s Department has
started prosecutions against 12 people for
trafficking-related offenses. There were no reported
trafficking convictions during the reporting period.

The Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE),which is
responsible for regulating foreign employment agencies and
protecting Sri Lankan workers going abroad, developed a
ranking system that would publicly grade all employment
agencies based inter alia on the number of complaints the
SLBFE receives relating to each agency, the number of legal
cases against each, and the time each takes to resolve
disputes with workers. This ranking system will be available
on a website, but has not yet been finalized. The Attorney
General began drafting a circular that would advise police to
identify possible trafficking victims among women they detain
for prostitution; this too has not yet been finalized. In
collaboration with IOM, the police added a trafficking
training module to the standard police curriculum used to
train all new police recruits, as well as adding the
curricula of two in-service police training institutes; so
far, 520 police officers have received training on the new
trafficking module.

Following the November 2007 repatriation of 118 Sri Lankan
peacekeepers from Haiti because of accusations that some of
them had engaged in sexual misconduct, including possible
exploitation of children, a Sri Lankan military court found
23 officers and soldiers guilty of sexual misconduct and
abuse of children. During the last year, two of the officers
were forced out of the military and one solider was
discharged, while two other soldiers subsequently died in
military action within Sri Lanka. Punishment for the
remaining eight officers and ten soldiers has not yet been
reported.

Protection
--------------
The government made some efforts to provide victims with
necessary protection directly and ensure they received access
to protective services provided by NGOs or international
organizations. The government continued to provide limited
counseling and day care for child victims of trafficking )
through the operation of six resource centers run by the
National Child Protection Authority (NCPA). In addition, the
SLBFE runs an overnight shelter for international trafficking
victims returning from overseas at Sri Lanka,s only
international airport. The Commissioner General for
Rehabilitation, with the assistance of the NCPA, operated two
rehabilitation centers specifically for children involved in
armed conflict.

Although government personnel did not employ formal
procedures for proactively identifying victims and referring
them to service providers, some ad hoc referrals were made
during the year. Police did not attempt to identify
trafficking victims among 16 foreign women who were arrested
on prostitution charges during the year; all were placed in
detention until they could pay for their departure from Sri
Lanka. The government provided no legal alternatives for the
removal of foreign victims to countries where they may face
hardship or retribution. Authorities encouraged victims to
participate in investigations and prosecutions of trafficking
offenders, though sex trafficking victims rarely came forward
to cooperate with police and prosecutors out of fear that
doing so would damage their reputations. The slow pace of
the Sri Lankan judicial system provided a strong disincentive
to come forward. The government generally did not penalize
victims of trafficking for unlawful acts committed as a
direct result of their being trafficked, though some sex
trafficking victims could have been penalized because the
government failed to identify them among persons arrested for
prostitution offenses. Victims who were employed abroad may
seek assistance from the SLBFE. The SLBFE collected fees
from registered workers who went abroad, which were used to
run shelters abroad, as well as domestically at the
international airport.

Prevention
--------------
The Sri Lankan government undertook modest efforts on
trafficking prevention during the last year. The government
conducted several trafficking awareness-raising activities,
including the Women and Children,s Bureau of the Police,s
sponsorship of a series of television docudramas that
highlighted violence and crime against women and children,
including the sex trafficking of Sri Lankan women and girls.
The SLBFE launched an awareness campaign in October 2008 to
inform the public of the dangers of using non-registered
employment agencies. The Ministry of Foreign Employment
Promotion and Welfare developed a National Policy on
Migration and presented it to the parliament for
consideration. Among other things, this policy seeks to
better protect Sri Lankan workers abroad. The government
continued plans started in 2007 to develop an inter-agency
anti-trafficking task force, to be coordinated by the
Secretary of the Ministry of Child Development and Women,s
Empowerment, though the task force has not yet been launched.
The government showed some efforts to reduce demand for
commercial sex acts during the year.

--------------


9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report
country narrative:

(begin non-paper)

-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA),
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to
Congress. The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and
create partnerships around the world in the fight against
modern-day slavery. The USG approach to combating human
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol"). The TVPA
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud,
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological
manipulation. While much attention has focused on
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a
showing that the victim was moved.

-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin,
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of
three tiers. Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking"
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1. Countries
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards,
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum
standards are classified as Tier 2. Countries assessed as
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3.

-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year.
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of
each year. Countries are included on the "Special Watch
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List.

-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined:
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim
population. As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier

3. Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report). The new law allows for a waiver
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a
determination by the President that the country has developed
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the
minimum standards.

-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for
participation by government officials or employees in
educational and cultural exchange programs. In addition,
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian,
trade-related or certain types of development assistance)
with respect to countries on Tier 3. Countries classified as
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier
classification, would avoid such sanctions. Guidelines for
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared
by Posts with host governments.

-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon: fraudulent
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor. As the
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion. The
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated
"cost of coercion. "

-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on
website www.state.gov/g/tip.

-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State
Department. We are providing you an advance copy of your
country's narrative in that report. Please keep this
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June

16. The State Department will also hold a general briefing
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June
17 at 3:30 pm EDT.

(end non-paper)


10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as
possible after the TIP Report is released. Funding for
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human
Rights Report. Posts needing financial assistance for
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX
office.


11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use
with local media.

Q1: Why was Sri Lanka again placed on Tier 2WL?

A: Sri Lanka was placed on Tier 2WL because it did not show
evidence of progress in prosecuting human trafficking
offenses and punishing trafficking offenders over the last
year. While the government conducted over 400 raids of
fraudulent foreign recruiting agencies and took
administrative action against 80 of them none were prosecuted
criminally for trafficking-related offenses.

Q2: What progress has Sri Lanka made in the last year?

A: While the Sri Lankan government did not achieve any
convictions of trafficking offenders, it arrested 29 alleged
traffickers and started prosecutions against ten people for
trafficking-related offences. It also drafted a national
policy on migration that promises to prevent the trafficking
of Sri Lankan migrants and it developed a national
anti-trafficking task force that should become operational in
the coming year. The Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment
(SLBFE),which is responsible for regulating foreign
employment agencies and protecting Sri Lankan workers going
abroad, developed a ranking system that would publicly grade
all employment agencies based inter alia on the number of
complaints the SLBFE receives relating to each agency, the
number of legal cases against each, and the time each takes
to resolve disputes with workers. In addition the SLBFE
currently runs an overnight shelter for international
trafficking victims returning from overseas at Sri Lanka,s
only international airport. The Commissioner General for
Rehabilitation, with the assistance of the NCPA, operated two
rehabilitation centers specifically for children involved in
armed conflict.

Q3: What can Sri Lanka do to improve its fight against
trafficking in persons?

A: The Sri Lanka government could: Vigorously investigate
and prosecute suspected trafficking offenses and convict and
punish trafficking offenders, particularly those responsible
for recruiting victims with fraudulent offers of employment
and excessive commission fees; follow through with the
creation of the national anti-trafficking task force; develop
and implement through training of law enforcement personnel
formal victim referral procedures; punish with criminal
sanctions those peacekeeping soldiers and officers found
guilty of sexually exploiting children in foreign countries;
and ensure that victims of trafficking found within Sri Lanka
are not detained or otherwise penalized for unlawful acts
committed as a direct result of their being trafficked.


12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the
preceding action requests.
CLINTON