Drafters of the State Department’s Trafficking in Person’s (TIP) report are once again under fire from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused of being too lenient on some of the most abusive nations.
Senators focused on the department’s decision to upgrade Malaysia’s status. This year’s TIP report awarded the country with a tier upgrade, citing increased numbers of investigations into and prosecutions of traffickers.
It marks the second time in three years that Malaysia has been upgraded in the TIP report—with Senators lodging their objection on each occasion.
“We know there’s been increased numbers of prosecutional [sic] activities, but there doesn’t seem to be a fundamental shift,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said in Tuesday’s hearing.
He noted that Senators, in 2015, also believed that Malaysia was undeserving of its improved status. That year, the country was upgraded from the worse offender, Tier 3, to a better Tier 2 Watch List designation.
A Reuters report later charged that Malaysia’s grade in the 2015 TIP report was motivated by political considerations. Malaysia found itself upgraded after legislation was passed prohibiting Tier 3 nations from joining the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a now-defunct trade pact that the nation was a signatory to at the time.
In the 2017 report, Malaysia was upgraded, again, from Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2.
“If this committee’s’ observations were correct that they were upgraded when they shouldn’t be upgraded…why were they rewarded again?” Sen. Cardin asked.
Susan Coppedge, the head of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which compiles the TIP report, attempted to assure the committee that politics didn’t play a role in decision-making.
She referred to prior comments made by former Secretary of State John Kerry that no political considerations that went into the report.
“You’re exactly right, but no one believed him,” Cardin shot back.
Coppedge went on to reference the 2017 TIP report’s findings. She noted that Malaysia had quadrupled its number of trafficking investigations, and that there were 35 trafficking convictions last year—up from 7 the year before.
“That number is still woefully low given the scope of the problem,” Coppedge admitted, “but they were significant efforts given the efforts in the previous year.”
Later in the hearing, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) accused Coppedge of ignoring the sheer number of trafficking victims in Malaysia, and being selective of what criteria is used to grade the country.
“The notion that increased efforts, subjectively defined, are enough to remove countries from the watch list seems to be a newly-created standard” Sen. Menendez said.
He also criticized the latest TIP report for preserving Cuba’s status as a Tier 2 trafficker, which it was given in 2015, instead of lowering the country back to Tier 3.
The report states that Cuba was granted a waiver from downgrade based on a written plan it submitted to the department showing intent to criminalize forced labor. Menendez asked for a copy of the Cuban written plan, but was rebuffed.
“We believe it would be chilling to share that plan,” Coppedge responded.
“That’s ridiculous,” Menendez said. “This is why reform of the existing legislation is much needed,” he added, referring to the underlying law that mandates the annual TIP report.
The 2017 TIP report was released in June, and can be read here.
