TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS

UNCLAS STATE 060555

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG TD
SUBJECT: TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO -- 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 Trinidad and Tobago 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 Trinidad and Tobago 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 Trinidad and
Tobago 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 Trinidad and Tobago,s country
narrative in the 2009 TIP Report:

--------------
Trinidad and Tobago (TIER 2)
--------------

Trinidad and Tobago is a destination and transit country for
women and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial
sexual exploitation. In some instances, women and girls from
Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and the Dominican
Republic have been identified as trafficking victims in
Trinidadian brothels and casinos. Last year the government
identified five Colombian victims in the country; neighboring
governments in Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname identified
additional victims. Foreign victims, including women who
voluntarily enter the country to engage in prostitution, may
subsequently be trafficked after being deceived by
unscrupulous recruiters about the true nature and conditions
of their employment. Additional reporting suggests that men
from China and Guyana may be trafficked to Trinidad and
Tobago for labor exploitation in construction and other
sectors. Trinidad and Tobago also is a transit point to
Caribbean destinations such as Barbados and the Netherlands
Antilles for traffickers and their victims.

The Government of Trinidad and Tobago 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, senior Trinidadian
officials publicly condemned human trafficking, noting that
the country is a destination point for trafficked persons.
The government worked closely with IOM and other Caribbean
governments to draft model anti-trafficking laws for the
region, and to develop standards for victim repatriation and
care. The government also increased anti-trafficking
training for law enforcement, and collaborated with IOM on
additional awareness-raising measures. However, vigorous
government efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking
crimes under existing laws remained lacking, and adequate
victim services were extremely limited.


Recommendations for Trinidad and Tobago: Enact legislation
to prohibit all forms of human trafficking; increase efforts
to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and to
convict and sentence trafficking offenders; increase victim
services and protection efforts, particularly for foreign
victims; develop formal procedures to identify trafficking
victims among vulnerable populations; continue to increase
anti-trafficking training and efforts to raise public
awareness.

Prosecution
--------------
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago demonstrated some
progress in anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts over the
last year. While Trinidad and Tobago has no specific laws
prohibiting human trafficking, trafficking offenders could be
prosecuted under trafficking-related offenses such as
kidnapping, rape, or procuring a person for prostitution.
Penalties for such crimes range from 15 years, to life
imprisonment, which are sufficiently stringent and
commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious
crimes. Last year the government worked closely with IOM and
neighboring countries to draft model anti-trafficking
legislation for the Caribbean, and engaged experts from the
Canadian High Commission to assist with writing an
anti-trafficking law for Trinidad and Tobago. During the
reporting period, the government achieved no prosecutions,
convictions, or sentences of trafficking offenders. In past
years, Trinidadian law enforcement have utilized proactive
strategies such as brothel raids to enforce anti-prostitution
laws and prosecute the owners of such establishments, though
formal procedures to identify trafficking victims during such
operations are not typically utilized. In partnership with
IOM, the government provided anti-trafficking training to
more than 1,500 law enforcement officers last year, and
published reference guides for immigration and police
personnel. No allegations of trafficking-related corruption
were reported.

Protection
--------------
The Trinidadian government made limited efforts to assist
trafficking victims during the reporting period, relying on
international organizations and NGOs to provide care and
services for identified victims. The government encouraged
crime victims, including trafficking victims, to assist with
the investigation and prosecution of offenders, and provided
interpreters for non-English speaking complainants. Foreign
victims were not eligible to receive government-provided
services such as medical assistance, counseling, or legal
assistance with filing a complaint. Moreover, the government
did not employ formal procedures for identifying victims of
sex or labor trafficking among vulnerable populations, such
as prostituted women in brothels or foreign migrant workers.
The government did not provide foreign trafficking victims
with legal alternatives to removal to countries where they
may face hardship or retribution; most foreign victims were
detained and deported without being identified as trafficking
victims. However, the government recently instituted a
protocol where identified foreign trafficking victims are
maintained in NGO safe houses until authorities in the
victim,s home country can be contacted to assist with travel
documents and repatriation. In January 2009, government
immigration officials met with Colombian counterparts to
discuss procedures for identifying and sheltering Colombian
trafficking victims found in Trinidad and Tobago, and as well
as their safe return to Colombia; the workshop occurred due
to a 2007 brothel raid in which more than 70 Colombian
nationals, some of whom were believed to be trafficking
victims, were detained and deported for being in Trinidad and
Tobago illegally.

Prevention
--------------
In collaboration with international and local NGOs, the
government increased its efforts to educate the public about
the dangers of trafficking. Senior government officials
condemned human trafficking publicly, and emphasized the need
to protect victims. During 2008, law enforcement officers
and an IOM expert on investigating and prosecuting sexual
offenses conducted several raids of brothels where foreign
women engage in prostitution, thus addressing demand for
commercial sex acts by arresting and prosecuting &clients.8
The ILO and the government distributed informational
brochures on regional child labor and protection concerns
such as slavery, debt bondage, child drug trafficking,
prostitution, and trafficking children in the Caribbean.
The government also enacted laws to keep children in school,
and raised the working age from 14 to 16 as measures to
prevent child labor. No additional efforts to reduce demand
for adult forced labor were reported.

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



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 is Trinidad and Tobago (Trinidad and Tobago)
included in the Report this year? Why was it given a ranking
of Tier 2 Watch List?


A. Trinidad and Tobago was placed on the TIP Report because
there is evidence that it is a country of origin, transit, or
destination for victims of severe forms of trafficking. The
Government of Trinidad and Tobago 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, senior Trinidadian officials publicly
condemned human trafficking, noting that the country is a
destination point for trafficked persons. The government
worked closely with IOM and other Caribbean governments to
draft model anti-trafficking laws for the region, and to
develop standards for victim repatriation and care. The
government also increased anti-trafficking training for law
enforcement, and collaborated with IOM on additional
awareness-raising measures. However, vigorous government
efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes under
existing laws remained lacking, and adequate victim services
were extremely limited.

Q2. What is the nature of the trafficking problem in
Trinidad and Tobago?


A. Trinidad and Tobago is a destination and transit country
for women and children trafficked for the purpose of
commercial sexual exploitation. In some instances, women and
girls from Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and the
Dominican Republic have been identified as trafficking
victims in Trinidadian brothels and casinos. Last year the
government identified five Colombian victims in the country;
neighboring governments in Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname
identified additional victims. Foreign victims, including
women who voluntarily enter the country to engage in
prostitution, may subsequently be trafficked after being
deceived by unscrupulous recruiters about the true nature and
conditions of their employment. Additional reporting
suggests that men from China and Guyana may be trafficked to
Trinidad and Tobago for labor exploitation in construction
and other sectors. Trinidad and Tobago also is a transit
point to Caribbean destinations such as Barbados and the
Netherlands Antilles for traffickers and their victims.


Q3. How can Trinidad and Tobago show progress in its
anti-trafficking efforts?


A. The government could enact legislation to prohibit all
forms of human trafficking; increase efforts to investigate
and prosecute trafficking offenses, and to convict and
sentence trafficking offenders; increase victim services and
protection efforts, particularly for foreign victims; develop
formal procedures to identify trafficking victims among
potential trafficking populations; continue to increase
anti-trafficking training and efforts to raise public
awareness.


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