Rubio To Kerry On Politicized Human Trafficking Report: Show Me The Paper Trail

Press Release

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues, urged Secretary of State John Kerry to reconsider Cuba's ranking in the State Department's 2015 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, and demanded he turn over all prior drafts of the Cuba portion of the report, the names of all State Department and White House officials who signed off on the Cuba section, and a copy of the Cuban government's national action plan to combat trafficking.

"The politically driven manipulation of the State Department's 2015 Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report is an embarrassment for the Obama Administration that threatens to set back U.S. efforts against human trafficking around the world," wrote Rubio. "For over 15 years, the report has helped encourage foreign governments to tackle human trafficking, if for no other reason than to avoid being named and shamed by the U.S. Now, according to whistleblowers within the State Department, the Administration has announced to the world that it will allow political considerations to trump real reform.

"It is important that the TIP report remain a true reflection of the trafficking situation on the ground and that a country's rating never be determined by political considerations but by the country's true record on this issue," Rubio continued. "The decision to upgrade Cuba without substantial evidence of improvement is the worst form of politicization of an important anti-trafficking tool. Cuba is a human slave state."

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