By John Jalsevac
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With the recent release of the U.S. Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Person’s (TIP) Report, a number of experts in global human trafficking have decried the gross inadequacy of portions of the report, saying that it soft-pedals on serious problem-areas across the globe.
Donna M. Hughes, a professor in the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Rhode Island, and a leading international researcher on the trafficking of women and children, has drafted a letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice protesting a number of the most glaring weaknesses of this year’s report.
“Year after year,” writes Hughes, “the countries of Western Europe that are destination countries for tens of thousands of victims of trafficking are given the passing high grade of a Tier 1 rating.”
Conerned Women for America agrees with Hughes’ evaluation of the TIP report. Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, CWA’s point person on the trafficking issue, in a statement issued in response to the report, said, “The TIP Report will become an international joke if it continues to ignore those nations that promote sex slavery and lets other nations remain year after year on the ‘special watch’ list even though they are making no measurable progress in combating trafficking in their country.”
Both Crouse and Hughes point out, in particular, what they argue is the mis-ranking of Germany as a Tier 1 country. In her letter Hughes reminds Secretary Rice that “in Germany the city governments are partners with brothel keepers in creating special areas and small buildings to house women during the World Cup games. The German Women’s Council has estimated that an additional 40, 000 women will be brought into Germany to provide commercial sex acts for hundreds of thousands of male soccer fans. Many of these women are likely to be victims of trafficking.”
Hughes also protests the Tier 1 ranking of the Netherlands. “Senior Dutch officials,” explains Hughes, “have acknowledged that a significant percentage of the women in the sex industry are literal slaves, yet there is only perfunctory investigations and prosecutions of traffickers.”
Gregory Carlin, Director of the Irish Anti-Trafficking Coalition, has also denounced the placement of Canada in the list of Tier 1 countries.
For some years now Carlin has focused his attention on Canada, in particular working to bring an end to the Canadian Exotic Dancer Visa Program, which allows for foreign “exotic dancers” to apply for temporary work visas. Last year’s TIP report similarly ranked Canada in the Tier 1 category, despite acknowledging that the exotic dancer program is “a type of program that has been abused and exploited by traffickers in many other countries.”
Despite assurances by Canada’s immigration department that the program has been shut down, such visas have continued to be issued. In the summer of 2005 Carlin outspokenly protested the granting of exotic dancer visas to six American male dancers. The Canadian government, however, went ahead and issued the visas to the six dancers. The bodies of two of those dancers, Mark Kraynak, 23, and Steve Wright, 20, were later discovered at the bottom of a gorge in Laval Quebec Canada, after they went missing for 10 days.
In a letter to LifeSiteNews.com Carlin criticized the gross oversight of the 2006 TIP Report’s remarks on Canada, saying “I am disappointed that the TIP report by the US govt. did not refer to the unexplained deaths of two American victims of the exotic dancer program. The oversight is quite remarkable.”
Professor Hughes concludes her letter to Secretary Rice saying, “Giving countries ratings when they have not taken significant steps to reduce the amount of trafficking sends the message that the U.S. Department of State is not serious about holding countries accountable for tolerating slavery…We call on you to make it clear that politics and friendship with the United States will not cause the United States to protect countries when they are indifferent to or complicit in the trafficking and enslavement of women.”
Read the TIP report:
https://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/index.htm
To sign on to Donna Hughes’ letter to Secretary Rice contact her at:
[email protected]
See previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
German Government Blasted for Facilitating Massive Prostitution at World Cup in Berlin
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06050108.html
Canada an “International Embarrassment” on Sex Trafficking
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030209.html
Canadian Government Ignored Warnings Leading to Deaths of Two Young Americans
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05100402.html
Group Calls for Exotic Dancer Visa Probe as US Secretary of State Tours Canada
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05102404.html
United States Urges Canada to Beef Up Anti-Trafficking Efforts Especially on Exotic Dancer Scandal
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jun/05060302.html