During Wednesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) questioned Uzra Zeya about combating human trafficking and protecting religious freedoms.
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00:00Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for calling this important hearing and welcome to our very distinguished panel.
00:05I am the prime author of the Bipartisan Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, and among some of its provisions,
00:13there are dozens of neutrally reinforcing provisions, we established a tier system, tier 1, tier 2, tier 3.
00:20Tier 3 for the most egregious violators, not doing anything or complicit in human trafficking within their country
00:27in the areas of prevention, prosecution, and protection.
00:31I've been very concerned, and I've held dozens of hearings over the years with both administrations, all administrations,
00:38and we keep getting from the TIP Office, Ambassador-at-Large, and from people in the TIP Office,
00:43how there's almost like a hand-to-hand combat when certain nations are put on tier 3,
00:50and many of our Bureau Chiefs, especially the Assistant Secretaries for the region, argue don't do it.
00:56There are other equities that we need to be concerned about, and my argument has always been, get it right.
01:01What you do on the sanctions piece, which is prescribed in the law as well, prescribed I should say,
01:07is purely up to the administration, but getting it right on the facts should be non-negotiable,
01:13and yet the most egregious example there was during the Obama administration when Reuters broke the story
01:18that there were more than a dozen nations that got artificially inflated grades because of other issues,
01:24so I had two hearings on that, and I said, don't do that. You sell out the victims.
01:29Now, I am concerned that we get the integrity right on the process,
01:34and ditto for the International Religious Freedom Act, so call it the way it is.
01:41What we do on the sanctions piece is something that the Secretary of State and the President can negotiate,
01:47and I'm wondering what your thoughts are now as we're going through this whole revamping,
01:53and Secretary Rubio, I do believe, is very strongly committed to both religious freedom and to trafficking issues.
02:01How do we ensure the integrity of the process, getting it right?
02:05Those bureaus need to be as independent as possible, in my opinion.
02:08The TIP office is made up of wonderful people who work overtime, and each embassy, as you know, Mr. Ambassador,
02:14tender all of the data back as to what's going on in that individual country.
02:19How do we ensure that those, and there are other offices as well,
02:23but religious freedom and trafficking in persons, how do we ensure the integrity of that process?
02:29Yes, please.
02:30Thanks so much, Representative Smith.
02:32I would say from my own experience, I have seen how the TVPA affects change on the ground and the tier ranking system,
02:41and I would say in my role as Undersecretary, I enjoyed very close collaboration with my counterpart,
02:47the Undersecretary for Political Affairs and colleagues from regional bureaus,
02:51in really focusing on the countries that we were seeing a degradation in conditions,
02:56but also recognizing opportunities for progress.
02:59I want to highlight two.
03:01Together, the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons, working with civil society and the private sector,
03:09worked tirelessly to successfully eradicate child-enforced labor from the cotton industry in Uzbekistan.
03:17That might sound like an issue far away in a land that doesn't matter to Americans.
03:21It does matter to the U.S. cotton industry, who cannot compete against forced labor-produced products.
03:29This is why I am so concerned about subsuming this office, which really enjoys unrivaled global leadership
03:38on this mission to end human slavery into the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
03:45The legal definition of human trafficking does not require movement across international borders,
03:51so I am quite worried that that is a downgrade that will really undercut efforts to end exploitation of some of the most vulnerable people
04:01at a moment where we're really making progress.
04:03I've also seen in the case of allies like the Republic of Korea, a downgrade to Tier 2 really produced a tremendous amount of effort
04:14and engagement where we saw improvements where they were able to move back up to Tier 1.
04:20So the ranking system, I think, has had a very positive effect, although many didn't like it when it came out, in effecting change.
04:31If I may briefly add to this, I was ambassador to Albania, and boy, this was one of my top priorities.
04:37I haven't been too kind to soft power in my statement and some of my comments here today,
04:42but this is an example, I think, for the committee to look at where soft power can work.
04:47Because, first of all, it reflects values that, across the board, Americans believe in, because this is terrible stuff.
04:54Secondly, it is something that is concrete that you can get governments to stop
04:59without changing their whole outlook to the universe, their philosophy, their religious background, and everything else.
05:05Much of what we do is broad.
05:07You've got to look like Denmark, or you've got to look like, you know, Washington, D.C.
05:13This is very specific.
05:15We monitor closely.
05:17And you bet I was always trying to get Albania raised one level higher.
05:21And you can bet I was beaten down because we had concrete standards to go by.
05:26That's what the Secretary should continue to enforce, because it represents the will of not only the Congress, but the American people.
05:36Thank you, Representative Smith.
05:37Representative Castro.
05:38Representative Castro.