TOGO -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

UNCLAS STATE 060574

SIPDIS

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

--------------
Togo (TIER 2)
--------------
Togo is a source, transit and, to a lesser extent, a
destination country for women and children trafficked for the
purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
Trafficking within Togo is more prevalent than transnational
trafficking and the majority of victims are children.
Togolese girls are trafficked primarily within the country
for domestic servitude, for forced work as market vendors and
produce porters, and for commercial sexual exploitation. To
a lesser extent, girls from Togo are also trafficked to other
African countries, primarily Benin, Nigeria, Ghana, and
Niger, for the same purposes listed above. Although some
Togolese boys are trafficked within the country, they are
more commonly trafficked transnationally to work in
agricultural labor, including on cocoa farms, in other
African countries, primarily Nigeria, Cote d,Ivoire, Gabon
and Benin. Over the last year, Togolese boys were also
trafficked to Ghana for forced begging by a religious
instructor. Beninese and Ghanaian children have been
trafficked to Togo. There were reports of Togolese women and
girls trafficked to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, likely for
domestic servitude and forced prostitution. Togolese women
may be trafficked to Europe, primarily to France and Germany,
for the same purposes.

The Government of Togo does not fully comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is
making significant efforts to do so, despite limited
resources. The government continued steady efforts to
protect trafficking victims and to prosecute and convict
trafficking offenders.

Recommendations for Togo: Continue to increase efforts to
prosecute and convict trafficking offenders; criminalize the
trafficking of adults; increase efforts to raise public
awareness about trafficking, particularly about legislation
criminalizing it; and establish the National Committee to
Combat Child Trafficking mandated in Togo,s 2005 law against
child trafficking.

Prosecution
--------------
The Government of Togo demonstrated increased law enforcement
efforts to combat trafficking during the last year. Togo
does not prohibit all forms of trafficking, though in July
2007 the government enacted a Child Code that criminalizes
all forms of child trafficking. This law supplements Togo,s
2005 Law Related to Child Trafficking, which criminalizes the
trafficking of children, but provides a weak definition of
trafficking and fails to prohibit child sexual exploitation.
Togo,s maximum prescribed penalty of 10 years' imprisonment
for child trafficking is sufficiently stringent and
commensurate with prescribed penalties for other grave
offenses. The prescribed penalties of one to five years,
imprisonment for sex trafficking of children 15 years and
older, and 10 years, imprisonment for sex trafficking of
children younger than 15 years, are sufficiently stringent
and commensurate with penalties prescribed for statutory
rape. Article 4 of the 2006 Labor Code criminalizes forced
and obligatory labor, prescribing inadequate penalties for
forced labor of either three to six months, imprisonment, a
fine, or both, and double these penalties for &obligatory8
labor. This Article does not provide definitions of either
of these labor violations. The Government of Togo reported 13
prosecutions of trafficking offenders, 12 of whom were
convicted. Four convicted traffickers each received
sentences of two years, imprisonment, and one of these
perpetrators, who is Beninese, was banned from entering Togo
for five years after serving his sentence. Six traffickers
each received punishments of eight months, imprisonment and
two traffickers received prison sentences of six months

The Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) contributed vehicles
and trainers to UNICEF-supported anti-trafficking training of
magistrates in Atakpame and Kara. In June 2008, the Ministry
of Security conducted a donor-funded trafficking training for
30 police officers and gendarmerie. The government relied
largely on ILO-funded local vigilance committees, usually
composed of local government officials, community leaders,
and youth, to report trafficking cases.

Protection
--------------
The Togolese government continued steady efforts to protect
trafficking victims over the last year. The government did
not operate its own victim shelter. Togolese officials
continued to refer trafficking victims to NGOs for care,
however. After identifying trafficking victims, police
regularly contacted MOSA staff, who arranged for victim
referral to an NGO. The MOSA also helped to identify the
families of child victims and helped with their reintegration
by ensuring that they received schooling. Two MOSA social
workers were on-call 24-hours a day to assist trafficking
victims. The government also provided temporary shelter to
victims at community transit centers located in each of its
four regions if NGO facilities were stretched to capacity.
One anti-trafficking NGO in Lome that cares for child victims
14-years-old and younger reported that approximately
two-thirds of the 180 children it provided with care in the
last year were referred by government officials. Another NGO
that assisted 260 female victims below the age of 18 during
the year estimated that 65 percent of these victims were
referred by the government. During the year, a MOSA
vocational center for destitute children assisted
approximately 20 trafficking victims. In April 2008,
Togolese officials collaborated with authorities in Benin to
repatriate two male child trafficking victims to Benin from
Togo.

Because the government does not follow systematic procedures
to identify trafficking victims among women and girls in
prostitution, sex trafficking victims may have been
inappropriately incarcerated or fined for unlawful acts
committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The
government sometimes encouraged victims to assist in
trafficking investigations or prosecutions on an ad hoc
basis. The government did not provide legal alternatives to
the removal of foreign victims to countries where they face
hardship or retribution; however, the majority of victims
identified in Togo were Togolese.

Prevention
--------------

The Government of Togo made weak efforts to prevent
trafficking during the year. In June 2008, the President
presided over a day-long program to promote the government,s
anti-trafficking strategy during which five child victims
told their stories of being trafficked, an anti-trafficking
film was shown, and both the President and the Minister of
Social Affairs publicly denounced trafficking. At the end of
the day, local anti-trafficking committees presented
recommendations for a strengthened anti-trafficking response.
In January 2009, the government ran a campaign to publicize
its new toll-free hotline staffed by government personnel to
report cases of violence against children, including
trafficking. The number, &ALLO 111,8 is jointly funded by
Togo Telecom, private cell phone companies, UNICEF and an
NGO. Soon after the hotline was announced, a caller phoned
in a tip that prevented two children from being trafficked
across the border to Benin. While some minor action items in
the national action plan, which was developed in 2007, have
been started, the majority of the plan has not yet been
implemented due to lack of financial means. The National
Committee for the Reception and Social Reinsertion of
Trafficked Children reported close collaboration with its
counterparts in Benin and Togo to develop bilateral
anti-trafficking action plans. The government provided
Togolese troops deployed abroad as part of peacekeeping
missions some trafficking awareness training prior to their
deployment. The National Committee to Combat Trafficking
mandated by Togo,s 2005 anti-trafficking law has not yet
been established. Togo did not take measures to reduce
demand for commercial sex acts. Togo 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
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 Togo on Tier 2?

A: The Government of Togo does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking;
however, it is making significant efforts to do so, despite
limited resources. The government continued steady efforts
to protect trafficking victims and to prosecute and convict
trafficking offenders.


Q2: What progress has Togo made in the last year?

A: The Government of Togo reported 13 prosecutions of
trafficking offenders, 12 of whom were convicted. One
anti-trafficking NGO in Lome that cares for child victims
14-years-old and younger reported that approximately
two-thirds of the 180 children it provided with care in the
last year were referred by government officials. Another NGO
that assisted 260 female victims below the age of 18 during
the year estimated that 65 percent of these victims were
referred by the government. A Ministry of Social Affairs
vocational center for destitute children assisted
approximately 20 trafficking victims. In January 2009, the
government ran a campaign to publicize its new toll-free
hotline staffed by government personnel to report cases of
violence against children, including trafficking.

Q3: What can Togo do to further the fight against
trafficking in persons?

A: Continue to increase efforts to prosecute and convict
trafficking offenders; pass a law prohibiting the trafficking
of adults; increase efforts to raise public awareness about
trafficking, particularly about legislation criminalizing it;
and establish the National Committee to Combat Child
Trafficking mandated in Togo,s 2005 law against child
trafficking.



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