VIETNAM -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 STATE 060460

SIPDIS

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

REF: A. (A) STATE 59732

B. (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 Vietnam 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 Vietnam
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 Vietnam 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 Vietnam,s country narrative in the
2009 TIP Report:

--------------
VIETNAM (TIER 2)
--------------
Vietnam is a source and destination country for men, women,
and children trafficked for forced labor and commercial
sexual exploitation. Women and children are trafficked to
the People,s Republic of China (PRC),Cambodia, Thailand,
the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Macau
for sexual exploitation. Vietnam is a source country for men
and women who migrate for work through informal networks and
through state-owned and private labor export companies in the
construction, fishing, or manufacturing sectors in Malaysia,

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Taiwan, South Korea, the PRC, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia,
Western Europe, and the Middle East, but subsequently face
conditions of forced labor or debt bondage. Labor export
companies may charge workers as much as $10,000 for the
opportunity to work abroad, making them highly vulnerable to
debt bondage. There are reports of Vietnamese children
trafficked to the UK by Vietnamese organized crime gangs for
forced labor on cannabis farms, and Vietnamese boys
trafficked to China for forced labor in agriculture and
factory settings. Traffickers are often residents or former
residents of the victims, communities. Some Vietnamese
women going to the PRC, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and
increasingly to the Republic of Korea for arranged marriages
were victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual
exploitation or forced labor. There were reports of women
from Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta forced into
prostitution after marrying overseas, as well as reports of
ethnic Hmong girls and women lured to or abducted and
transported to southern China and subsequently sold into
marriage. Vietnam is a destination country for Cambodian
children trafficked to urban centers for forced labor or
commercial sexual exploitation. Vietnamese and Cambodian
children from rural areas are trafficked to Ho Chi Minh City
and Hanoi for forced begging or the selling of flowers and
lottery tickets, often part of organized crime rings.
Vietnam has a significant internal trafficking problem with
women and children from rural areas trafficked to urban
centers for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.
Vietnam is increasingly a destination for child sex tourism,
with perpetrators from Japan, the Republic of Korea, the PRC,
Taiwan, the UK, Australia, Europe, and the United States.

The Government of Vietnam does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
however, it is making significant efforts to do so. While
the government continued to prosecute sex trafficking
offenders and made some efforts to protect victims of
trafficking, it did not make sufficient efforts to criminally
prosecute offenders of labor trafficking, or to protect
victims of labor trafficking. While recent laws provide some
recourse to victims of labor trafficking, bureaucratic
inertia and a lack of resources for victims make this
recourse difficult for trafficking victims to pursue.
Although it took steps to combat cross-border sex trafficking
by expanding investigations and prosecutions of traffickers,
the Vietnamese government has not yet focused adequately on
internal trafficking and needs to make more progress in the
areas of law enforcement, victim protection, and prevention
of labor trafficking and internal trafficking. The
government,s initiatives to increase labor exports have not
been complemented by adequate efforts to prevent labor
trafficking and protect workers going abroad.

Recommendations for Vietnam: Institute criminal penalties for
recruitment agencies and others involved in labor
trafficking; criminally prosecute those involved in
fraudulent labor recruitment or exploitation of labor; take
steps to protect Vietnamese migrant workers from being
subjected to practices that contribute to forced labor, such
as the withholding of travel documents; ensure that
state-licensed recruitment agencies do not engage in fraud or
charge illegal &commissions8 for overseas employment;
extend proactive procedures to identify victims of internal
trafficking and labor trafficking among vulnerable groups,
such as repatriated Vietnamese migrant laborers; take
measures to ensure that victims of labor trafficking are not
threatened or otherwise punished for protesting or leaving an
exploitative labor situation in Vietnam or abroad; assist
Vietnamese workers returning from abroad in the resolution of
labor contract disputes; and implement and support a visible
anti-trafficking awareness campaign directed as clients of
the sex trade.

Prosecution
--------------
The Vietnamese government demonstrated increased law
enforcement efforts to combat trafficking in persons for
transnational sex trafficking, though it did not take
adequate steps to combat labor trafficking. While statutes
in the Penal Code prohibit trafficking, existing laws do not
adequately cover all forms of trafficking, including labor
trafficking and the recruiting and harboring of trafficking
victims. The majority of traffickers are prosecuted under
Articles 119 and 120 of the Penal Code, which can be used
against some forms of trafficking for sexual and labor
exploitation, but can also be used to prosecute a variety of
related crimes. In October 2008, the government submitted
proposed amendments to Articles 119 and 120 of the Penal Code
to include the trafficking of men over the age of 16. Labor
laws do not provide criminal penalties for labor trafficking.
Contract disputes between workers and the Vietnam-based
export labor recruiting company or the employing company

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overseas are left almost entirely to the export labor
recruiting company. Workers must bring their cases to court
if they feel they have been unjustly treated by the export
labor recruiting company, though in practice, few have the
resources to do so. Despite several reported cases of forced
labor and debt bondage of Vietnamese workers abroad, the
government did not report any investigations, prosecutions,
or convictions of offenders of labor trafficking during the
reporting period. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and
Social Affairs (MOLISA) reported that while some labor
recruitment companies were fined or had activities restricted
due to various violations, none had their licenses revoked
for violations of the law. Vietnam,s National Steering
Committee on trafficking in persons reported that in 2008,
police investigated 330 cases and convicted 424 individuals
for violations of Articles 119 and 120 of the Vietnamese
Penal Code, which includes some forms of trafficking for
sexual and labor exploitation, as well as a variety of
related crimes. Trafficking-related corruption occurred at
the local level, where officials at border crossings and
checkpoints take bribes to look the other way, though the
government did not report any investigations or prosecutions
of officials for trafficking-related complicity.

Protection
--------------
The Vietnamese government demonstrated some efforts at
protecting cross-border sex trafficking victims in 2008.
While the government took action to further protect workers
by implementing the labor export assistance fund and
providing stricter regulations on brokerage fees for labor
export it does not provide adequate legal protection or
assistance to the estimated 500,000 Vietnamese workers abroad
from conditions of forced labor and debt bondage. Agreements
signed with governments of labor-demand countries did not
appear to have adequate provisions to prevent human
trafficking and protect victims of trafficking from
conditions of forced labor and debt bondage. Although the
government says the practice of passport confiscation is
unacceptable, MOLISA authorized recruitment companies to
illegally withhold workers, travel documents during the
reporting period; Vietnamese embassies abroad reportedly do
issue travel documents when employers refuse to return them.
The Vietnam Women,s Union (VWU),with the assistance of
NGOs, continued to run four shelters which provide
psycho-social counseling and vocational training for female
victims of sex trafficking. There are no shelters designated
specifically for victims of labor trafficking; however, these
victims have access to the same &social protection centers8
that many female sex trafficking victims can turn to for
assistance. Sex trafficking victims were encouraged to
assist in the investigation and prosecution process, but
there was no data on the number of victims involved in
prosecutions during the reporting period. Repatriated
Vietnamese trafficking victims were not penalized for
unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being
trafficked. In March 2009, Vietnamese officials repatriated
a Vietnamese minor identified in Laos as a sex trafficking
victim before she could access necessary medical treatment in
Laos. The government established some procedures to identify
cross-border sex trafficking victims and trained 150
officials on the procedures with assistance from an
international organization, but has not yet developed a
comprehensive system to identify victims of internal
trafficking or labor trafficking from among vulnerable
groups. Since May 2008, the government reported that it
officially identified 410 victims, compared to 450 for all of

2007. In May 2008, the government, with NGO assistance,
established procedures for referring victims to appropriate
care, and began to implement the referral system for women
and girls identified as trafficking victims. The government
does not exhibit adequate efforts to identify trafficking
victims among women arrested for prostitution; as a result,
sex trafficking victims may be vulnerable to being penalized
for acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.

In February 2008, a group of 176 Vietnamese women recruited
by Vietnamese state-owned labor agencies for work in Jordan
were allegedly subjected to conditions of fraudulent
recruitment, contract switching, debt bondage, unlawful
confiscation of travel documents, confinement, and
manipulation of employment terms ) all indications of
possible trafficking for forced labor. These conditions led
to a worker strike and subsequently, altercations among
workers and with the Jordanian police. The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs sent an inter-ministerial team to Jordan to
address the situation and attempt to convince the workers to
go back to work. Several workers reported that officials
attempted to intimidate them and refused workers, requests
to intervene to get their back pay and pressure the employer
to honor their contracts. Some reports stated that the
workers faced threats of retaliation by Vietnamese government

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officials and employment agency representatives if they did
not return to work. After labor negotiations failed, the
Vietnamese government repatriated 157 of the workers; the
other 19 workers elected to stay in Jordan. Although the
government fined the three state-owned labor companies
involved and restricted them from sending workers to Jordan
in the future, it did not criminally prosecute labor agency
officials for trafficking-related offenses. The government
does not consider the workers possible victims of trafficking
and has not assisted the repatriated workers in retrieving
their back pay or recruitment fees. In another reported case
of labor trafficking, four Vietnamese women were recruited by
a state-owned recruitment company to work as domestic workers
in Malaysia. The workers report that their passports and
contracts were confiscated upon arrival, and the women were
imprisoned in their employers, home where they were forced
to work 18 hours a day with no pay. The women were able to
escape and return to Vietnam, but the government reportedly
did not assist the victims in obtaining compensation for
their unpaid work in Malaysia and the high recruitment fees
they reportedly paid.

Prevention
--------------
The Vietnamese government continued efforts to prevent
trafficking through public awareness. The VWU and the
Vietnam Youth Union continued to conduct nationwide
anti-trafficking public awareness campaigns. The VWU also
continued to cooperate with its South Korean counterpart in a
program of pre-marriage counseling centers in Vietnam, in an
effort to prevent trafficking through international marriages
of Vietnamese women. In March 2008, the Vietnamese
government signed an anti-trafficking Memorandum of
Understanding with the Government of Thailand, though some
NGOs question the feasibility of the agreement,s
implementation. Despite Vietnam,s efforts to engage in
dialogue and enhance law enforcement cooperation with
Malaysia and other Asian destination countries for Vietnamese
trafficking victims, regional cooperation remains a
challenge. The government recognizes that Vietnam is
becoming an increasingly attractive destination for
international child sex tourism. Vietnam works with foreign
governments where foreign pedophiles are wanted for child sex
tourism, though it declined to share information on cases
handled. There were no measures undertaken by the government
to reduce demand for commercial sex acts. In April 2008, the
Vietnamese government completed an investigation of a series
of export labor-related fraud cases, 80 percent of which
involved Vietnamese laborers recruited by unlicensed brokers
to go to the Republic of Korea. Reports indicate that over
100 perpetrators were convicted for at least 70 cases of
fraud involving 3,000 victims of fraud in the 2006-2007
timeframe. Vietnam has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.


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

STATE 00060460 005 OF 006


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.

STATE 00060460 006 OF 006



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

Q1: Why was Vietnam again given a ranking of Tier 2?

A: The Government of Vietnam does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
however, it is making significant efforts to do so. While
the government continued to prosecute sex trafficking
offenders and made some efforts to protect victims of
trafficking, it did not make sufficient efforts to criminally
prosecute offenders of labor trafficking, or to protect
victims of labor trafficking. While recent laws provide some
recourse to victims of labor trafficking, bureaucratic
inertia and a lack of resources for victims make this
recourse difficult for trafficking victims to pursue.
Although it took steps to combat cross-border sex trafficking
by expanding investigations and prosecutions of traffickers,
the Vietnamese government has not yet focused adequately on
internal trafficking and needs to make more progress in the
areas of law enforcement, victim protection, and prevention
of labor trafficking and internal trafficking. The
government,s initiatives to increase labor exports have not
been complemented by adequate efforts to prevent labor
trafficking and protect workers going abroad.

Q2: What progress has Vietnam made in the past year?

A: The Vietnam Women,s Union (VWU),with the assistance of
NGOs, continued to run four shelters which provide
psycho-social counseling and vocational training for female
victims of sex trafficking. The government established some
procedures to identify cross-border sex trafficking victims
and trained 150 officials on the procedures with assistance
from an international organization. Since May 2008, the
government reported that it officially identified 410
victims, compared to 450 for all of 2007. The VWU and the
Vietnam Youth Union continued to conduct nationwide
anti-trafficking public awareness campaigns.

Q3: What efforts could Vietnam make to improve its fight
against trafficking in persons?

A: The Vietnamese government could: institute criminal
penalties for recruitment agencies and others involved in
labor trafficking; criminally prosecute those involved in
fraudulent labor recruitment or exploitation of labor; take
steps to protect Vietnamese migrant workers from being
subjected to practices that contribute to forced labor, such
as the withholding of travel documents; ensure that
state-licensed recruitment agencies do not engage in fraud or
charge illegal &commissions8 for overseas employment;
extend proactive procedures to identify victims of internal
trafficking and labor trafficking among vulnerable groups,
such as repatriated Vietnamese migrant laborers; take
measures to ensure that victims of labor trafficking are not
threatened or otherwise punished for protesting or leaving an
exploitative labor situation in Vietnam or abroad; assist
Vietnamese workers returning from abroad in the resolution of
labor contract disputes; and implement and support a visible
anti-trafficking awareness campaign directed as clients of
the sex trade.


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