On June 20, 2019, the US State Department added Cuba to the lowest tier in its 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report. The Report claims that “Cuba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.”

This ranking has conceivably nothing to do with Cuba’s true performance in actively combating trafficking in persons and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs absolutely rejects it for being a complete slander.

The US government has no moral or political authority to judge sovereign States or issue certificates of conduct. It is well known that this unilateral report, totally void of any international legitimacy or recognition, which is published every year by the US State Department, is simply a political and manipulative instrument used to exert pressure on other States, without any respect or consideration and in full disregard for international efforts to combat trafficking in persons.

It deliberately ignores the exemplary and comprehensive work carried out by Cuba in the prevention and combat of this scourge. It overlooks the zero-tolerance policy implemented by our country against trafficking in persons and fails to refer to the results of the exchanges that, for five consecutive years, were held between both countries to share information and cooperate in these matters.

It rather omits the fact that the low incidence of trafficking in persons in Cuba is associated to its social achievements, public safety, equal opportunities and the policies and programs designed to empower women. The Report also ignores the fact that free access to health care, education, culture and sports contributed to reduce the country’s vulnerability and strengthens its capability to increase international cooperation in this area.

Cuba has achieved a world renowned prestige in the implementation of the National Plan of Action to Prevent and Combat Trafficking in Persons and Protect its Victims (2017-2020), something that the US performance in this field has failed to achieve.

As has been evidenced, the use of slanders and disparagement campaigns against Cuba, which overlap beyond control, is intended to justify the noticeable hostility of the US government against Cuba and the increasing unilateral blockade and economic coercion measures aimed at deteriorating the living standards of the population, restricting the country’s financial inflows, hindering supplies imports, hampering production processes and affecting social services. It is part of the ceaseless economic warfare that has been waged against during the last sixty years.
The United States are one of the countries facing the highest number of cases of trafficking in boys, girls and women in the world. Despite the fact that some US specialized sources, like the National Human Trafficking Resource Center based in Washington DC, estimate that trafficked persons in that country amount to hundreds of thousands, who are faced with a serious situation of associated labor exploitation, the authorities of that country have recognized that they can not even determine the real statistics of this scourge. That is to say, they have neither the means nor the capability or the willingness to evaluate the problem, much less to solve it.

Equally well known is the fact that 85 per cent of legal proceedings filed for that reason in the US are cases of sexual exploitation; and that out of the one million children fleeing their homes, more than 300 000 are subject to some form of exploitation, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center itself.

The US State Department Report is also an onslaught against Cuba’s international medical cooperation. It attempts to defame the legitimate South-South cooperation practiced by developing countries, which Cuba is part and proud of. That effort, that has been joined on a voluntary basis by hundreds of thousands of Cuban professionals for almost six decades, has had the merit of saving or contributing to save the life of millions of persons and alleviate the pain of several millions in more than 160 nations that, hadn’t it been for that contribution, would have been faced with serious difficulties to have access to medical services.

Cuba will uphold its “Zero-Tolerance” policy against any form of human trafficking, as was evidenced by the 21 cases tried in Cuba for such crimes as “corruption of minors”, “sale of and trafficking in children”, and “procurement and trafficking in persons”, with typical features of trafficking in persons, during the period from May, 2017, to May, 2018.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminds the government of the United States that the relocation in third countries of the arrangements to be made by Cuban citizens to apply for a US visa, without any guarantees that the visa would be ultimately granted, increases considerably the cost of the process and the travels, thus placing many citizens in a vulnerable situation, facing up the criminal gangs devoted to trafficking in persons in other parts of the world.

The international scourge of trafficking in persons is, first and foremost, the result, in particular, of capitalism game rules, which conceive human beings as interchangeable goods, as if they were property, money or capital.

Havana, June 21, 2019

Experts define human trafficking as a crime in which victims are exploited through forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. However, one of the most common forms of human trafficking is sexual exploitation, with countless women forced to prostitute themselves for fear of their lives or that of their family members.

Cuba’s 2015 report on combating human trafficking and related crimes outlines the forms of deception and manipulation used to entrap victims.

“In the process of capturing victims, mainly young people, traffickers from the country of origin but based abroad or foreigners, directly or through their contacts in the country, advertise false offers of well-paid employment, such as manicurist, waitress or dancer, and arrange all migration documents including letters of invitation.

“In order to recover expenses for the victim’s travel, lodging and food, traffickers force them to prostitute themselves by threatening to kill them or their family members in Cuba if they refuse, lock them up and take away all their identity documents. Once the victim’s debt has been repaid traffickers raise fees, causing some victims to continue working as prostitutes or promote trafficking in Cuba from abroad to avoid abuse.

OVER 20 MILLION VICTIMS WORLDWIDE

According to estimates, human trafficking is the third most lucrative crime in the world, after drug and arms trafficking.

During a Security Council debate on trafficking in persons in conflict situations, held in March 2017, Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, highlighted that the issue continues to be a problem in the 21st century.

In his opening remarks Guterres noted, “Trafficking networks have gone global. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, victims can be found in 106 countries. The International Labour Organization reports that 21 million people around the world are victims of forced labour and extreme exploitation.”

Figures from the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons reveal that around 70% of human trafficking victims are women and girls, while boys make up 30%.

Human trafficking is both a domestic and international crime which violates an individual’s human rights and integrity, and involves traffickers who frequently use deceit, violence, and coercion to entrap victims, who are then exploited for money. What is more, even if the victim initially agrees, this consent is negated if it is obtained through improper means.
PREVENTION & PROTECTION IN CUBA

According to the country’s 2015 report on combating human trafficking and its related crimes, Cuban law defines trafficking in persons as the promotion, organization or coercion of persons to enter or leave the country for the purpose of prostitution or any other form of sexual trade.

The protection offered by the Cuban state to all citizens as part of their human rights as recognized in the Constitution of the Republic and upheld for almost 60 years of Revolution, means that this crime poses little risk to the population.

None the less Cuba has drawn up a national action plan for preventing and combating human trafficking and protecting victims for the period 2017-2020.

The document notes that “The Cuban government maintains a ‘zero tolerance’ policy toward this crime based on three fundamental pillars: prevention, enforcement, and protection of victims.”

Meanwhile, in line with the government’s policy, the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) is working to educate communities on the issue, increase risk awareness among the population and offer individualized assistance to victims.

“We believe that the best way to prevent human trafficking is to empower women,” according to Dr. Isabel Moya Richard, director of the FMC’s Mujer publishing house and the magazine Mujeres.

“People trafficking isn’t a big problem for us. However, this issue is becoming more important as the country begins to open, which is why we must continue talking about it. For every 10 female victims of sexual exploitation worldwide, there are two male which is why we classify human trafficking as a form of gender violence.”

The Cuban state will continue to work hard, together with civil society organizations, to ensure this phenomenon which continually finds new ways to revive the old chains of slavery, does not find space in a society committed to socialism and the full dignity of human beings.

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime “Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

ZERO TOLERANCE

The Cuban state has signed various legal instruments related to people trafficking including the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children; The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; Convention on the Rights of the Child; and Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others.

Meanwhile, after the triumph of the Revolution programs to protect vulnerable persons – above all women, children and adolescents – were drawn up, with legislation including harsh sentences established for people traffickers and support mechanisms created for victims.

(Granma)