FOREIGN GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING: A REVIEW OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT’S ‘‘2002 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT’’ HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JUNE 19, 2002 Serial No. 107–105 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 80–288PDF WASHINGTON : 2002 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate May 01 2002 12:14 Sep 17, 2002 Jkt 080288 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\FULL\061902\80288 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York TOM LANTOS, California JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa HOWARD L. BERMAN, California DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DAN BURTON, Indiana Samoa ELTON GALLEGLY, California DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina SHERROD BROWN, Ohio DANA ROHRABACHER, California CYNTHIA A. MCKINNEY, Georgia EDWARD R. ROYCE, California EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama PETER T. KING, New York BRAD SHERMAN, California STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ROBERT WEXLER, Florida AMO HOUGHTON, New York JIM DAVIS, Florida JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York JOHN COOKSEY, Louisiana WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York RON PAUL, Texas BARBARA LEE, California NICK SMITH, Michigan JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania DARRELL E. ISSA, California EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon ERIC CANTOR, Virginia SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada JEFF FLAKE, Arizona GRACE NAPOLITANO, California BRIAN D. KERNS, Indiana ADAM B. SCHIFF, California JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia DIANE E. WATSON, California MARK GREEN, Wisconsin THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director GROVER JOSEPH REES, Professional Staff Member and Counsel LIBERTY DUNN, Staff Associate (II) VerDate May 01 2002 12:14 Sep 17, 2002 Jkt 080288 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\061902\80288 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of State ............................................................................................ 10 Gary Haugen, President, International Justice Mission ...................................... 52 The Honorable Linda Smith, Founder and Executive Director, Shared Hope International ......................................................................................................... 60 Manju Poudel, Founder, The Daywalka Foundation ............................................ 69 Donna M. Hughes, Professor and Carlson Endowed Chair in Women’s Stud- ies, University of Rhode Island ........................................................................... 73 Holly Burkhalter, Advocacy Director, Physicians for Human Rights ................. 82 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Henry J. Hyde, a Representative in Congress from the State of Illinois, and Chairman, Committee on International Relations: Prepared statement .............................................................................................................. 2 The Honorable Nick Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan: Prepared statement ........................................................................ 8 The Honorable Paula Dobriansky: Prepared statement and supplemental re- sponses .................................................................................................................. 12 Dr. Mohamed Mattar, Co-Director, The Protection Project, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University: Prepared statement ......... 15 Mark West, J.D., Director, The Daywalka Foundation: Prepared statement .... 23 Questions for the record submitted to Under Secretary Paula Dobriansky by the Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey and responses ..................................................... 32 The Honorable Diane Watson, a Representative in Congress from the State of California: Prepared statement ...................................................................... 41 Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director, Boat People S.O.S.: Prepared statement .............................................................................................................. 48 Gary Haugen: Prepared statement ........................................................................ 56 The Honorable Linda Smith: Prepared statement ................................................ 62 Manju Poudel: Prepared statement ........................................................................ 70 Donna M. Hughes: Prepared statement ................................................................ 75 Holly Burkhalter: Prepared statement .................................................................. 85 APPENDIX The Honorable Benjamin A. Gilman, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York: Prepared statement ............................................................ 101 (III) VerDate May 01 2002 12:14 Sep 17, 2002 Jkt 080288 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\061902\80288 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL VerDate May 01 2002 12:14 Sep 17, 2002 Jkt 080288 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\061902\80288 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL FOREIGN GOVERNMENT COMPLICITY IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING: A REVIEW OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT’S ‘‘2002 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT’’ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2002 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 1:47 p.m. In Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Henry J. Hyde (Chairman of the Committee) presiding. Chairman HYDE. The Committee will come to order. I am pleased to convene this hearing, which is the second in a series of hearings being held by the House Committee on Inter- national Relations on implementation of the Smith-Gejdenson Traf- ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The Smith-Gejdenson Act provides a comprehensive plan for put- ting an end to modern-day slavery. A key component of this plan is the State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report. This report is intended to inform the President and the Congress about which foreign governments are making serious efforts to combat the most egregious forms of trafficking in persons—the buy- ing and selling of women and children into the international sex in- dustry, and the trafficking of men, women, and children alike into slavery and involuntary servitude—and which governments are failing to make such efforts. At today’s hearing, the Committee will hear testimony on the State Department’s second annual Trafficking in Persons Report. This year’s report is particularly important because it is intended to serve as a final ‘‘wakeup call’’ to governments which are doing little or nothing to combat human trafficking. This is because the Trafficking Victims Protection Act contemplates that the United States will withdraw non-humanitarian aid from governments which remain on the ‘‘Tier Three’’ list after the next year’s report. The ‘‘Tier Three’’ governments are those that not only fail to meet minimum international standards for combating human trafficking, but who are not even making serious efforts to bring themselves into compliance with these standards. In addition to providing an overview of the state of the war against human trafficking and the general assessment of the Traf- ficking in Persons Report, I hope our witnesses will address one question in particular. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act places particular emphasis on the need to take action against gov- (1) VerDate May 01 2002 12:14 Sep 17, 2002 Jkt 080288 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\FULL\061902\80288 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL 2 ernments that not only tolerate human trafficking but are actively complicit in such trafficking through their agencies and officials. Both this year and last year, criticism of the report by human rights advocates and humanitarian organizations have singled out governments that are omitted from the Tier Three list even though they appear to give impunity to their own officials who participate in and profit from sex trafficking and slave trafficking. In some cases, the report acknowledges this problem but finds, neverthe- less, that the government has engaged in ‘‘significant efforts’’ to end trafficking. These efforts typically include co-sponsoring reha- bilitation and training programs with international organizations, or perhaps prosecuting an occasional perpetrator. This raises the question whether governments whose own agen- cies or officials are pervasively involved in human trafficking—and who lack the political will to take the difficult measures that would be necessary to put an end to such involvement—will nevertheless be able to avoid sanctions under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. If so, what must be done to put an end to this impunity? Should the State Department reassess its standard