In its annual report on human trafficking released last week, senior State Department personnel intentionally overinflated the scores of a number of countries, going directly against recommendations of government experts, according to a Reuters report based on interviews with more than a dozen inside sources. The new revelations lend credence to those human rights activists and lawmakers who accused the Obama administration of politicizing its report in order to push forward efforts critical to President Obama's legacy.
Human rights experts in the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons concluded in the weeks leading up to the release of the report that human trafficking conditions in Malaysia and Cuba had not improved. In China, they said, conditions had grown worse. Senior State Department personnel, up to and including John Kerry's chief of staff, Jonathan Finer, disagreed and prevailed, resulting in the boosting of grades for 14 countries.
Other countries that received upgrades against experts' wishes included China, India, Mexico and Uzbekistan. In all, human rights experts contested ratings on 17 countries, but only won three of those disputes.
The Trafficking in Persons report places countries into three tiers based on their efforts to stop human trafficking. Nations in the lowest tier face the threat of diplomatic repercussions, such as sanctions, at the discretion of the U.S. president.
Malaysia's ascendance to Tier 2 was noteworthy in that it removed a potential barrier to President Obama's 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement by allowing the country to remain in the talks. Congress barred Obama from using "fast-track" authority for any trade agreement that included Tier 3 countries, as HNGN reported.
After it was reported that Malaysia would be upgraded, 160 members of the U.S. House and 18 senators wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to keep Malaysia on Tier 3. Human Rights Watch told Reuters that Malaysia's upgrade undermined the credibility of the report.
"Malaysia's record on stopping trafficking in persons is far from sufficient to justify this upgrade," the group said. "This upgrade is more about the TPP and U.S. trade politics than anything Malaysia did to combat human trafficking."
While politics have traditionally played a role in the trafficking report, Reuters said that "the number of rejected recommendations suggests a degree of intervention not previously known by diplomats."
The other country whose upgrade was highly suspicious was Cuba, as it came amid unprecedented efforts to restore diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Communist nation and just one week after the two countries reopened embassies in each other's capitals.
"Upgrades for Malaysia and Cuba are a clear politicization of the report, and a stamp of approval for countries who have failed to take the basic actions to merit this upgrade," Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez said in a statement last week, adding that the administration has "elevated politics over the most basic principles of human rights."
State Department spokesman John Kirby told Reuters that the decisions were not political in nature and were based on thorough analysis. "As is always the case, final decisions are reached only after rigorous analysis and discussion between the TIP office, relevant regional bureaus and senior State Department leaders," Kirby said.
