URUGUAY -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

UNCLAS STATE 060637 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL UY SUBJECT: URUGUAY -- 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 Uruguay 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 Uruguay 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 OOB local time 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 Uruguay 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 Uruguay,s country narrative in the 2009 TIP Report: -------------- URUGUAY (TIER 2) -------------- Uruguay is primarily a source and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Most victims are women and girls trafficked within the country to border and tourist areas for commercial sexual exploitation; some boys are also trafficked for the same purpose. Occasionally, parents facilitate the exploitation of their children in prostitution, and impoverished parents in rural areas have turned over their children for forced domestic and agricultural labor. Lured by false job offers, some Uruguayan women have been trafficked to Spain and Italy for commercial sexual exploitation. The Government of Uruguay 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 showed strong prevention efforts and sustained victim services, and opened one criminal investigation under its new anti-trafficking law. However, vigorous law enforcement efforts against trafficking offenders remained lacking. Recommendations for Uruguay: Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and punish trafficking offenders; increase efforts to implement the new anti-trafficking law; expand anti-trafficking training for judges and law enforcement personnel; and increase victim services and protection efforts. Prosecution -------------- The Government of Uruguay modestly improved its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the last year. In early 2008, the government enacted an anti-trafficking statute as part of a broader immigration reform package. Article 78 of this new law prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons, prescribing penalties of four to 16 years, imprisonment. Article 78 supplements older Uruguayan laws that prohibit child trafficking, child pornography, and forced labor, which prescribe penalties ranging from six months, to 12 years, imprisonment. All the above penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with punishments prescribed for other serious crimes. During the reporting period, the government opened one case under its new anti-trafficking law; two defendants who allegedly trafficked nearly a dozen women into forced prostitution in Spain were in prison awaiting trial at the time of publication. Under older statutes, two female defendants were arrested and charged with pimping of minors in separate cases. In October 2008, the judiciary established two special courts to focus on organized crime cases, including trafficking in persons. The government increased anti-trafficking training for consular and immigration officials, though NGOs indicate that police and judges remain unfamiliar with Uruguayan anti-trafficking laws, particularly outside Montevideo. Uruguayan law enforcement officials cooperated with counterparts in neighboring Mercosur governments and other countries on international trafficking cases. There was no confirmed evidence of official complicity with human trafficking. Protection -------------- The Uruguayan government sustained basic victim services during the year. Child victims of trafficking are referred to government institutions for care; 14 child trafficking victims were offered assistance during the reporting period. The government operated shelters accessible to adult female victims of abuse, including trafficking victims, and endeavored to provide legal, medical, and psychological care. Adult male trafficking victims, however, were not eligible for services. While the government provided limited assistance to NGOs working in the area of trafficking, the availability of victim services remained uneven across the country, especially outside the capital. The government does not have a formal system for identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as adults in prostitution or undocumented migrants. The government encourages but does not force victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers. There were no reports of victims being jailed, deported, or otherwise penalized for acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Uruguayan law does not force the repatriation of any foreign trafficking victim, and allows trafficking victims to seek citizenship in Uruguay. Prevention -------------- The Uruguayan government increased its efforts to raise public awareness of the dangers of human trafficking and child prostitution during the reporting period, launching a widespread week-long information campaign in October 2008. Government officials spoke publicly about human trafficking, conducted media interviews, and distributed 50,000 anti-trafficking leaflets and 5,000 posters in tourist areas. Government officials also conducted outreach to hotel workers and to others in the broader tourism sector to raise awareness about child sex tourism and the commercial sexual exploitation of minors. The government maintained good cooperation with NGOs, and supported a local organization,s efforts to conduct anti-trafficking outreach among prostituted women. The Ministry of Education continued to include anti-trafficking material in its high school sex education curriculum. Last year the government formed an informal interagency committee to direct its anti-trafficking efforts, in addition to maintaining a special committee focusing on the commercial and non-commercial sexual exploitation of children. The government provided anti-trafficking training to Uruguayan troops being deployed on international peacekeeping missions during the year. In an effort to reduce consumer demand for commercial sex acts, the government prosecuted a small number of &clients8 for commercial sexual exploitation of minors. There were no known efforts to address demand for forced labor. ¶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 Uruguay given a ranking of Tier 2? A: The Government of Uruguay 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 showed strong prevention efforts and sustained victim services, and opened one criminal investigation under its new anti-trafficking law. However, vigorous law enforcement efforts against trafficking offenders remained lacking. Q2: What is the nature of Uruguay,s trafficking problem? A: Uruguay is primarily a source and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Most victims are women and girls trafficked within the country to border and tourist areas for commercial sexual exploitation; some boys are also trafficked for the same purpose. Occasionally, parents facilitate the exploitation of their children in prostitution, and impoverished parents in rural areas have turned over their children for forced domestic and agricultural labor. Lured by false job offers, some Uruguayan women have been trafficked to Spain and Italy for commercial sexual exploitation. Q3: How can Uruguay improve its anti-trafficking efforts? A: To advance its efforts to combat human trafficking, the Government of Uruguay could: increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and to convict and punish trafficking offenders; increase efforts to implement the new anti-trafficking law; expand anti-trafficking training for judges and law enforcement personnel; and increase victim services and protection efforts. ¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the preceding action requests. CLINTON