Zimbabwe was a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children being trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation, the United States said in its 2009 Trafficking in Person report.
It said large scale migration of Zimbabweans to surrounding countries had increased as people fled a progressively more desperate situation at home.
Non-governmental organisations, international organisations, and governments in neighbouring countries reported that some of these Zimbabweans were being trafficked.
Rural Zimbabwean men, women, and children were also trafficked within the country to farms for agricultural labour and to cities for forced domestic labour and commercial sexual exploitation.
The report said Zimbabwean women and children were trafficked for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation, including in brothels, along both sides of the country’s borders with Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia.
Young men and boys were trafficked to South Africa for farm work, often being forced to labour for months in South Africa without pay before the “employers” had them arrested and deported as illegal immigrants.
Men, women, and children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia were also trafficked through Zimbabwe en route to South Africa.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 09STATE60617, ZIMBABWE — 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND
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|
Reference ID |
Created |
Classification |
Origin |
VZCZCXYZ0003
OO RUEHWEB
DE RUEHC #0617 1630100
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 120036Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY HARARE IMMEDIATE 0000
UNCLAS STATE 060617
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG ZI
SUBJECT: ZIMBABWE — 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 Zimbabwe 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
Zimbabwe 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 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 Zimbabwe 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 Zimbabwe,s country narrative in the
2009 TIP Report:
—————–
ZIMBABWE (TIER 3)
—————–
Zimbabwe is a source, transit, and destination country for
men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of
forced labor and sexual exploitation. Large scale migration
of Zimbabweans to surrounding countries has increased ) as
they flee a progressively more desperate situation at home )
and NGOs, international organizations, and governments in
neighboring countries report that some of these Zimbabweans
face human trafficking. Rural Zimbabwean men, women, and
children are trafficked within the country to farms for
agricultural labor and to cities for forced domestic labor
and commercial sexual exploitation. NGOs believe internal
trafficking increased during the year, largely due to the
closure of schools, worsening political violence, and a
faltering economy. In 2008, Zimbabwean security forces
consolidated their control of mining in the Marange region,
forcing members of the local population to mine for diamonds.
Between the March 2008 presidential election and the June
2008 run-off, youth militias controlled by Robert Mugabe,s
ZANU-PF political party abducted and held an unknown number
of women and girls, particularly opposition supporters, in
sexual and domestic servitude at command bases.
Zimbabwean women and children are trafficked for domestic
servitude and sexual exploitation, including in brothels,
along both sides of the country,s borders with Botswana,
Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. Young men and boys are
trafficked to South Africa for farm work, often being forced
to labor for months in South Africa without pay before
&employers8 have them arrested and deported as illegal
immigrants. Small numbers of Zimbabwean men are trafficked
for work in Mozambique,s construction industry. Young women
and girls are lured to South Africa and potentially other
countries with false employment offers that result in
involuntary domestic servitude or forced prostitution. Men,
women, and children from the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia are trafficked through
Zimbabwe en route to South Africa.
The Government of Zimbabwe does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is
not making significant efforts to do so. The government made
minimal progress in combating trafficking in 2008, and
members of its military and the former ruling party,s youth
militias perpetrated acts of trafficking on local
populations. The government,s anti-trafficking efforts were
further weakened as it failed to address Zimbabwe,s economic
and social problems during the reporting period, thus
increasing the population,s vulnerability to trafficking
within and outside of the country.
Recommendations for Zimbabwe: Cease the use by members of
security forces of local populations for forced diamond
mining; prosecute, convict, and punish trafficking offenders;
advance comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation; formalize
procedures for interviewing victims and transferring them to
the care of NGOs; and launch a broad awareness-raising
campaign that educates all levels of government officials, as
well as the general public, on the nature of trafficking and
the availability of assistance for victims.
Prosecution
———–
The government did not provide any data on its
anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts during the year,
including any data on prosecutions and convictions of
traffickers. Zimbabwe does not prohibit all forms of
trafficking in persons, though existing statutes outlaw
forced labor and numerous forms of sexual exploitation.
Forced labor offenses are punishable by a fine or two years,
imprisonment, or both; these penalties are not sufficiently
stringent or commensurate with those prescribed for other
grave crimes. The government reported in 2007 that it was
drafting comprehensive trafficking legislation; however, the
draft was neither publicly available nor introduced in
Parliament during the last year. Parliament was not sworn in
until August 2008 following March elections; the newly
elected parliamentarians have not yet formed the committees
that review and propose legislation. The government failed
to provide information on anti-trafficking law enforcement
activities conducted during the reporting period. The
Ministry of Justice reported that none of the cases
investigated in 2007 was brought to trial during 2008. The
government did not provide specialized anti-trafficking
training for law enforcement officials.
Protection
———-
The growing number of illegal migrants deported from South
Africa and Botswana, combined with a crippling lack of
resources, severely impeded the government,s ability to
effectively identify victims of trafficking among returnees.
The Department of Immigration required all deportees
returning from South Africa via the Beitbridge border
crossing to attend an IOM-led briefing on safe migration,
which includes a discussion on human trafficking and IOM and
NGO assistance services. The reception center,s social
workers ) who are employed by the Department of Social
Welfare, but funded and trained by IOM ) screened the
deportees and referred them to NGO shelters; one trafficking
victim was identified through this process in 2008. The
District Council of Beitbridge employed one child protection
officer and convened a child protection committee to
coordinate programs and resources on issues relating to
children. In May 2008, IOM opened a second reception center
at the Plumtree border crossing for Zimbabweans deported from
Botswana. Although the government has an established process
for referring victims to international organizations and NGOs
that provide shelter and other services, in 2008 the
government primarily depended on these organizations to
identify trafficking victims and alert the authorities.
However, the Zimbabwe Republic Police,s Victim Friendly Unit
referred three victims to IOM during the reporting period.
The government generally encourages victims to assist in the
prosecution of traffickers, but is not believed to have
prosecuted trafficking offenses during the year. Likewise,
the government did not inappropriately incarcerate or
otherwise penalize victims for unlawful acts committed as a
direct result of being trafficked. It could have offered
foreign victims relief from deportation while they receive
victim services and their cases are investigated, though
there were no cases of victims receiving such relief in 2008.
With the exception of deportees from South Africa and
Botswana, the government,s law enforcement, immigration, and
social services do not have a formal system for proactively
identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable populations.
Prevention
———-
The government did not conduct anti-trafficking information
or education campaigns during the reporting period, and there
remained a general lack of understanding of human trafficking
across government agencies, especially at the local level.
Senior government officials occasionally spoke, however,
about the dangers of trafficking and illegal migration, and
the state-run media printed and aired warnings about false
employment scams and exploitative labor conditions. During
the year, all four government-controlled radio stations aired
an IOM public service announcement eight times each day in
five languages during peak migration periods. The
inter-ministerial anti-trafficking task force took no
concrete action during the year. Anecdotal reports indicated
that the worsening economy reduced the demand for commercial
sex acts, though there were no known government efforts to
reduce the demand for forced labor or the demand for
commercial sex acts. Information was unavailable regarding
measures adopted by the government to ensure its nationals
deployed to peacekeeping missions do not facilitate or engage
in human trafficking. Zimbabwe 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 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 Zimbabwe placed on Tier 3?
A: Zimbabwe is placed on Tier 3 because the government made
minimal progress in combating trafficking in 2008 and its
military and the former ruling party,s youth militias
perpetrated acts of trafficking on local populations. The
government,s anti-trafficking efforts were further weakened
as it failed to address Zimbabwe,s economic and social
problems during the reporting period, thus increasing the
population,s vulnerability to trafficking within and outside
of the country. The government,s anti-trafficking law
enforcement efforts were nonexistent during the year,
particularly with regard to prosecutions and convictions of
traffickers, and it did not conduct anti-trafficking
information or education campaigns.
Q2: What have been Zimbabwe,s efforts in the past year?
A: The Department of Immigration required all deportees
returning from South Africa via the Beitbridge border
crossing to attend an IOM-led briefing on safe migration,
which includes a discussion on human trafficking and IOM and
NGO assistance services. The reception center,s social
workers ) who are employed by the Department of Social
Welfare, but funded and trained by IOM ) screened the
deportees and referred them to NGO shelters. The Zimbabwe
Republic Police,s Victim Friendly Unit referred three
victims to IOM during the reporting period. All four
government-controlled radio stations aired an IOM public
service announcement eight times each day in five languages
during peak migration periods.
Q3: What can Zimbabwe do to further the fight against
trafficking in persons?
A: To advance its anti-trafficking efforts, the Zimbabwe
could: cease the security forces, use of local populations
for forced diamond mining; prosecute, convict, and punish
trafficking offenders; advance comprehensive anti-trafficking
legislation; formalize procedures for interviewing victims
and transferring them to the care of NGOs; and launch a broad
awareness raising campaign that educates all levels of
government officials, as well as the general public, on the
nature of trafficking and the availability of assistance for
victims.
¶12. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the
preceding action requests.
CLINTON
(50 VIEWS)
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