Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09STATE60534
2009-06-11 22:19:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Secretary of State
Cable title:  

ZAMBIA -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

Tags:  KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG ZA 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0001
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #0534 1622251
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 112219Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY LUSAKA IMMEDIATE 0000
UNCLAS STATE 060534 

SIPDIS

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

REF: (A) STATE 59732 (B) STATE 005577

UNCLAS STATE 060534

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG ZA
SUBJECT: ZAMBIA -- 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 Zambia 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 Zambia
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 Zambia 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 Zambia,s country narrative in the
2009 TIP Report:

--------------
Zambia (TIER 2)
--------------


Zambia is a source, transit, and destination country for
women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced
labor and sexual exploitation. Child victims, primarily
trafficked within the country for labor and sexual
exploitation, tend to be female, adolescent, and orphaned.
In exchange for money or gifts, relatives or acquaintances
often facilitate the trafficking of a child to an urban
center for prostitution. Children are sometimes trafficked
as a consequence of soliciting help from strangers such as
truck drivers. Many Zambian child laborers, particularly
those in the agriculture, domestic service, and fishing
sectors, are also victims of human trafficking. Traffickers
most often operate through ad hoc, flexible networks of
relatives, truck drivers, business people, cross-border
traders, and religious leaders. Organized rings offer
Zambian women false job or marriage offers, then traffic them
to South Africa via Zimbabwe for sexual exploitation, or to
Europe via Malawi. Zambia's geographic location, porous
borders, and lax immigration enforcement make it a nexus for
transnational trafficking from the Great Lakes region and
Congo to South Africa for agricultural labor. Adults and
children from Malawi and Mozambique are occasionally
trafficked to Zambia for forced agricultural labor.


The Government of Zambia does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During
the reporting period, the government made strong efforts to
increase and improve law enforcement efforts against
trafficking offenders, to raise public awareness of
trafficking, and address demand. Services for victims,
however, remained inadequate and the new anti-trafficking law
has yet to be enforced.


Recommendations for Zambia: Continue to train police,
immigration, and court officers on implementation of the new
trafficking law; formalize and implement victim
identification and referral procedures; improve government
services for human trafficking victims as provided for in the
new law; increase anti-human trafficking awareness,
particularly among government labor officials; and monitor
the employment and labor recruiting agencies and hold labor
recruiters accountable for fraudulent recruitment practices
that contribute to forced labor.

Prosecution
--------------
The Government of Zambia,s anti-trafficking law enforcement
efforts produced concrete results over the reporting period.
Zambia,s president signed the comprehensive &Anti-Human
Trafficking Act of 2008" into law on November 19, 2008. In
the months since its entry into force, no investigations or
prosecutions were started under its provisions. The new law
criminalizes all forms of trafficking. The law prescribes
sufficiently stringent penalties for trafficking that are
commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes,
such as rape; penalties range from 25 years, to life
imprisonment, depending on various circumstances. Two
trafficking offenders were prosecuted and convicted in 2008
under anti-trafficking provisions in earlier laws. In April,
the Kasama High Court sentenced two men to 20 and 25 years,
imprisonment, respectively, for child trafficking. The men
were caught in 2006 attempting to sell an eight year-old boy
for forced labor. A lack of financial resources, trained
personnel, and technical capability, coupled by petty
corruption at borders, police stations, and other lower-level
government offices, constrain the government's ability to
combat trafficking. With NGO assistance, the Zambian Police
Victims, Support Unit is revising its data collection
practices on trafficking to improve monitoring and reporting.
The Zambia Law Development Commission published a manual on
the new anti-trafficking law for police and prosecutors, and
began training officials in February 2009. The government
worked with NGOs to train police nationwide on human
trafficking issues, and to develop a cadre of trainers within
the Zambian Police Service (ZPS). One such trainer and an
immigration official conducted four months of follow-on
anti-trafficking training at border posts around Zambia. The
ZPS also instituted a national hotline for police officers,
to connect them directly with ZPS officers trained to
identify and investigate trafficking.

Protection
--------------
The government made minimal efforts to protect victims of
trafficking over the reporting period. Its close cooperation
with IOM, UNICEF, and the YWCA has not resulted in the
provision of adequate services for victims identified within
Zambia or repatriated from destination countries. The
government has not yet allocated funds for projects mandated
by its anti-trafficking law, such as the establishment of
government centers for victims of trafficking. During the
year, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Gender in
Development Division of the Cabinet Office provided limited
financial support to NGOs which run shelters housing victims
of trafficking along with victims of domestic violence or
other crimes. The government did not have a formal mechanism
for referring victims to NGOs for these services. Shelters
offer some limited psychological counseling, medical
treatment, and assistance dealing with the police; some also
offer brief training in income-generating activities such as
sewing or handicrafts. The new law prohibits the summary
deportation of a trafficking victim and provides legal
alternatives to the removal of foreign victims to countries
where they may face hardship or retribution. The government
generally does not penalize victims for unlawful acts
committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The
government encourages victims to assist in the investigation
and prosecution of traffickers. Courts may order a convicted
trafficking offender to pay reparations to victims for damage
to property, physical, psychological or other injury, or loss
of income and support.

Prevention
--------------
The Zambian government demonstrated increasingly strong
efforts to prevent trafficking over the reporting period. In
January 2009, it formed an interagency committee on
trafficking, and approved a national anti-trafficking policy
and an accompanying communications strategy developed in
association with NGOs and other stakeholders. IOM and a
local NGO operate a 24-hour hotline for Zambians to report
possible trafficking cases or ask about the bona fides of
offers to work abroad. The media extensively covered Zambian
police raids of suspected brothels in high-density
neighborhoods; police officials were quoted in the press
stressing that prostitution is illegal and dangerous for both
the clients and the prostitutes. The Zambian government,s
interagency committee on trafficking obtained weekly air time
on ZNBC, the nation's largest television broadcaster, and on
a national radio station to talk about trafficking issues.
The government launched its "Break the Chain of Human
Trafficking" trafficking prevention campaign with assistance
from IOM. The government targeted both potential trafficking
victims and those driving the demand for the services of
human trafficking victims with its information campaign. It
also worked with IOM to monitor movement patterns along the
Zambia-Zimbabwe border for evidence of forced migration and
human trafficking. The military has no specific measures in
place to provide anti-trafficking training to troops
currently participating in peacekeeping missions. New
military personnel, however, will receive trafficking
awareness training as part of a new anti-trafficking
curriculum being developed for training academies.

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



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: What is the nature of the trafficking situation in
Zambia?


A. Zambia is a source, transit, and destination country for
women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced
labor and sexual exploitation. Child victims, primarily
trafficked within the country for labor and sexual
exploitation, tend to be female, adolescent, and orphaned.
In exchange for money or gifts, relatives or acquaintances
often facilitate the trafficking of a child to a city for
prostitution. Children are sometimes trafficked as a
consequence of soliciting help from strangers such as truck
drivers. Many Zambian child laborers, particularly those in
the agriculture, domestic service, and fishing sectors, are
also victims of human trafficking. Traffickers most often
operate through ad hoc, flexible networks of relatives, truck
drivers, business people, cross-border traders, and religious
leaders. Organized rings lure Zambian women with false job
or marriage offers, then traffic them to South Africa for
sexual exploitation, or to Europe via Malawi. Its geographic
location, porous borders, and lax immigration enforcement
make it a nexus for transnational trafficking from the Great
Lakes region and Congo to South Africa for agricultural
labor. Adults and children from Malawi and Mozambique are
occasionally trafficked to Zambia for forced agricultural
labor.

Q2: If the problem is so serious in Zambia, why was it
upgraded to Tier 2 this year?


A. The Government of Zambia does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During
the reporting period, the government made strong efforts to
increase and improve law enforcement efforts against
trafficking offenders, to raise public awareness of
trafficking, and address demand. Services for victims,
however, remained inadequate and the new anti-trafficking law
has yet to be enforced.

Q3: What can Zambia do to further its anti-trafficking
efforts?


A. The government could train more law enforcement and court
officers on provisions of the new law; implement victim
identification and referral procedures; improve government
services for trafficking victims as provided for in the new
law; increase anti-trafficking awareness, particularly among
labor officials; and monitor recruiting agencies and hold
recruiters accountable for fraudulent practices that
contribute to forced labor.


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