15856: Blanchet: Fw: US Trafficking Report: Haiti threatened with more penalties (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Max Blanchet <MaxBlanchet@worldnet.att.net>

Trafficking in Persons Report - US Department of State
Released by the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
June 11, 2003

Country Narratives

HAITI (Tier 3)

Haiti is mainly a source country for trafficking of children for forced
labor
and sexual exploitation. Haitian children are trafficked internally by poor
parents who place their children as servants (“restaveks”) in households of
better-off families. Although not all children are victimized in this
process,
significant numbers are sexually exploited and otherwise abused in sometimes
slave-like conditions. The Government of Haiti states that from 90,000 to
120,000 children are restaveks (UNICEF’s estimate is 250,000 to 300,000).
Haitian
children also are trafficked into the Dominican Republic where some are
similarly exploited. Large numbers of Haitian economic migrants illegally
enter the
Dominican Republic where some become trafficking victims. On a smaller
scale,
Haiti is a transit and destination country. Victims are third country
illegal
migrants, often Chinese, transiting through Haiti on the way to North
America,
where they encounter forced labor exploitation to repay traffickers. Women
from
the Dominican Republic are trafficked into Haiti for prostitution. Reports
indicate that many of these women travel voluntarily, but some are victims
of
trafficking.

The Government of Haiti does not fully comply with the minimum standards for
the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do
so.
Although faced with a wide array of national challenges, the Government of
Haiti needs to undertake significant steps even in the context of its
limited
capacity to address trafficking.

Prevention
The government is attempting to educate the public with national television
and radio messages on the mistreatment of children, including restaveks.
Officials, including the First Lady, have spoken out against the use of
restaveks.
However, more needs to be done. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs,
charged with redressing the restaveks abuse, is one of the least-funded in
the
government. In 2003, the government planned a series of seminars to target
parents, educators, and children to discourage them from taking part in the
restaveks
practice.

Prosecution
The Government of Haiti has recently passed a law prohibiting the
trafficking
of children and held an inter-ministerial conference to plan its
implementation; however, the government to date does not arrest or prosecute
traffickers.
There are national statutes regulating child domestic labor, but these laws
are not enforced. Governmental measures to address the problems associated
with
restaveks are in their infancy. The government does not adequately monitor
and
control its border.

Protection
Government efforts to address abuses of restaveks have been frustrated due
to
continuing severe financial limitations. The Haitian Ministry of Labor and
Social Affairs finances four monitors (four others are financed by donors)
to
oversee the welfare of the tens of thousands of restaveks children. The
government sponsors a hotline where abuses can be reported. Monitors
investigate and
respond to calls for assistance, but given the magnitude of the restaveks
problem, these efforts are minimal. The number of children rescued from
trafficking
has declined in the past three years (in 2002 it was about 100). Government
officials work with local NGOs to resettle children or find their natural
families.

 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum
standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  _

Penalties

According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the governments of
countries in Tier 3 in the report for this and subsequent years could be
subject to
certain sanctions, notably withholding of non-humanitarian,
non-trade-related
assistance. (Countries that receive no such assistance would be subject to
withholding of funding for participation in educational and cultural
exchange
programs). Consistent with the Act, such governments also would face U.S.
opposition to assistance (except for humanitarian, trade-related, and
certain
development-related assistance) from international financial institutions,
specifically the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development
banks such as
the World Bank. These potential consequences regarding bilateral and
multilateral assistance sanctions would take effect at the beginning of the
next
fiscal year, or October 1, 2003 for countries in Tier 3 of this report.

All or part of the Act’s sanctions can be waived upon a determination by the
President that the provision of such assistance to the government would
promote the purposes of the Act or is otherwise in the national interest of
the
United States. The Act also provides its sanctions shall be waived when
necessary
to avoid significant adverse effects on vulnerable populations, including
women and children. Possible reasons for which a waiver may be considered
would
include that a country is being placed on Tier 3 for the first time this
year.
These sanctions also would not apply if the Department finds that, after
this
report and before the imposition of sanctions, a government no longer
qualifies
for Tier 3, i.e., it has come into compliance with the minimum standards or
is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

List of Tier 3 Countries
TIER 3

Belize
Bosnia & Herzegovnia
Burma
Cuba
Dominican Rep.
Georgia
Greece
Haiti
Kazakhstan
Liberia
North Korea
Sudan
Suriname
Turkey
Uzbekistan