The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to report yearly to Congress on the efforts of foreign governments to stop the trafficking of humans. This year’s survey, released June 13, covers 164 countries and adds seven nations to the list of worst of- fenders. Algeria, Bahrain, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman and Qatar were added to the Tier 3 blacklist, which already included Burma, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Uzbeki- stan and Venezuela. Tier 3 countries are defined as those that do not and are not making a significant effort to comply with the minimum standards according to U.S. law. They may be subject to sanctions from the U.S., the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. China and India were downgraded from the Tier 2 list to the Tier 2 “Watch List,” meaning that their efforts to prevent human trafficking, prosecute criminals, and protect their victims are considered insufficient, but not enough so to warrant sanctions. Not surprisingly, the Chinese government dismissed the findings as “groundless.” Venezuela, too, re- jected the report, saying the U.S. simply wanted to damage President Hugo Chavez’s standing international- ly. And the chief of police in Burma said, “The report is politically moti- vated, unfair and biased.” The Malay- sian press complained that even though the country recently passed a new human trafficking bill, it was nonetheless bumped down to Tier 3. Meanwhile, China and India have remained on the Tier 2 list for three and four years, respectively. The decision to keep India on the Tier 2 list has been especially harshly criticized by U.S.-based advocacy groups, which say there may be as many as 65 million forced laborers in that country. Rep. Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., who sponsored the law requiring the report, issued a state- ment speculating that India’s ranking was probably given out of fear of alienating its government. A spokes- man for the department’s Trafficking in Persons Office stated that “multiple factors” go into deciding the rankings. — Anna Wong Gleysteen, Editorial Intern What Goes Around Comes Around The State Department’s four-year battle with the Greater London Authority over $3 million in unpaid congestion fees and fines American diplomats have accumulated there is now reverberating stateside. New C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... The fact is that if the Department of State had available to it adequate funds to pay the necessary cost of running our embassies abroad, we could fill every ambassadorial post with an able man whether he happened to be a career Foreign Service officer or a non-career appointee. … The question again is whether the United States, the richest country in the world, is willing to pay what it costs to get the best men available in these jobs. — Sen. Mike Mansfield, D-Mont., from a speech on Aug. 26, 1957, excerpted in “Heard on the Hill,” FSJ October 1957. 10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7