REPORT: Feds Downplayed Cuba’s, Malaysia’s Role In Human Trafficking
By Reuters / Office of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio // August 3, 2015
Rubio Slams State Deptartment
WASHINGTON D.C. – A special report from Reuters suggests that the U.S. State Department downplayed the role of several nations, including Cuba, for their roles in human trafficking.
According to Reuters, Malaysia and Cuba were both removed from the “Tier 3” blacklist, even though the State Department’s own trafficking experts believed neither had made notable improvements, according to the sources.
Below is a statement from U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) regarding the report.
Sen. Rubio, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women’s Issues, issued the following statement regarding reports from Reuters that human trafficking experts were repeatedly overruled and pressured by senior State Department officials into inflating assessments of 14 strategically important countries in this year’s Trafficking in Persons report:
“It’s shameful that President Obama allowed a bunch of political hacks to alter the administration’s human trafficking report to the benefit of perennial violators like Cuba and Malaysia.
The president and his administration have set a dangerous precedent that could lead countries to believe that they can negotiate their way out of being named and shamed for their human trafficking abuses, instead of actually adopting reforms and tackling the problem.
The decision to favor politics over policy has jeopardized the integrity of the TIP report which has played a vital role in combatting human trafficking the past 15 years.
This is a great disservice to the millions of people who have been victimized or are vulnerable to human traffickers.”
