2009 Trafficking in Persons Report

Pursuant to section 110(b)(3)(B) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Div. A. of Public Law 106-386), as amended, the Department of State is required to submit to the Congress an interim assessment of the progress made in combating trafficking in persons (TIP) by those countries placed on the Special Watch List in September 2009. The evaluation period covers the six months since the drafting of the June 2009 annual report.

This year, 55 countries are on the Special Watch List. These countries either (1) had moved up a tier in the 2009 TIP Report over the last year’s report; or (2) were ranked on Tier 2 in the 2009 TIP Report, but (a) had a very significant or significantly increasing number of trafficking victims, (b) had failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat TIP from the previous year, or (c) were placed on Tier 2 because of commitments to carry out additional future actions over the coming year, placing them on the “Tier 2 Watch List.” Fifty-two of the 55 countries on the Special Watch List are in the second category – ranked as Tier 2 Watch List, including one country initially ranked as Tier 3 in the June 2009 TIP Report but reassessed as Tier 2 Watch List by the State Department in September 2009 (Swaziland). Attached to this Interim Assessment is an overview of the tier process.

In most cases, the interim assessment is intended to serve as a tool by which to gauge the anti‑trafficking progress of countries that may be in danger of slipping a tier in the upcoming June 2010 TIP Report and to give them guidance on how to avoid a Tier 3 ranking. It is a tightly focused progress report, assessing the concrete actions a government has taken to address the key deficiencies highlighted in the June 2009 TIP Report. The Interim Assessment covers actions undertaken between the beginning of May – the cutoff for data covered in the June TIP Report – and November. Readers are requested to refer to the annual TIP Report for an analysis of large-scale efforts and a description of the trafficking problem in each particular country or territory.

Tier Process

The Department placed each of the countries or territories included in the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report into one of the three lists, described here as tiers, mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA). This placement reflects an evaluation of a government’s actions to combat trafficking. The Department first evaluates whether the government fully complies with the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Countries whose governments do so are placed in Tier 1. For other countries, the Department considers whether their governments made significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance. Countries whose governments are making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards are placed in Tier 2. Those countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so are placed in Tier 3. Finally, the Special Watch List criteria are considered and, if applicable, Tier 2 countries are placed on the Tier 2 Watch List.

As required by the TVPA, in making tier determinations between Tiers 2 and 3, the Department considers the overall extent of human trafficking in the country; the extent of government noncompliance with the minimum standards, particularly the extent to which government officials have participated in, facilitated, condoned, or are otherwise complicit in trafficking; and what reasonable measures the government would have to take to come into compliance with the minimum standards within the government’s resources and capabilities.

Lebanon

The Government of Lebanon has made limited progress since the release of the 2009 TIP Report due, in part, to parliamentary inaction before the June 2009 elections and the lack of a government from June until November. The Ministry of Justice completed its review of a draft anti-trafficking law, which is pending approval by the newly formed cabinet. A labor code amendment to extend legal protections to foreign workers was reviewed by the National Steering Committee and transmitted to the Ministry of Labor for submission to the cabinet. A new standard or “unified” contract for domestic workers, provided in the March 2009 amendment to Lebanon’s labor code, has yet to be translated into the native languages of migrant laborers; domestic workers must still sign the contract in Arabic – a language most cannot read – upon arrival in Beirut. The government made no effort during the reporting period to enforce its law prohibiting the confiscation of foreign maids’ passports by the General Security (SG) – the government agency responsible for the entry, residency, and departure of foreign workers – or employers upon entry into the country.

The government has yet to prosecute any cases of forced labor against an employer. In July, the general prosecutor for the Mount Lebanon region began referring victims of trafficking to NGOs for assistance rather than prosecuting the victims for crimes that resulted from their being trafficked. In October, the government established a working committee to draft standard operating procedures to guide the SG in indentifying victims of trafficking among administrative detainees held at the SG’s detention center in Beirut, referring them to NGO-provided protective services, and tracking detainee cases to enable more efficient and timely processing. NGOs report some improvement in the SG’s identifying and handling of trafficking victims due to recent officer training programs.