<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><h1 style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 24pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 6pt; line-height: 27pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);" class=""><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/senators-press-kerry-on-slavery-about-face_55a66a8ae4b04740a3de7a17?44h1tt9" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class="">HuffPost: Senators Press Kerry On Slavery About-Face</a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></h1><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-carter" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;" class="">Zach Carter</span></a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span class="author-componentteaser"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Senior Political Economy Reporter</span></span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 12pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span class="entry-componentposted"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Posted: 07/15/2015<o:p class=""></o:p></span></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 12pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;" class=""><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" class=""> </span></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">WASHINGTON -- A group of 19 senators led by Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday, urging him not to remove Malaysia from the U.S. government's formal list of the world's worst human trafficking offenders. <o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">In early July, Reuters<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN0PJ00F20150709?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 145, 120); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;" class="">reported</span></a> that the State Department planned to upgrade Malaysia's "Tier 3" human trafficking status -- the worst category in the U.S. Trafficking in Persons report -- to a "Tier 2." Doing so would allow the Obama administration to evade trade restrictions with Malaysia, after Congress passed legislation blocking trade perks for Tier 3 nations. Malaysia is a key nation involved in the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations that the U.S. is leading with 11 nations.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">In the letter, senators said that upgrading Malaysia would weaken the U.S. government's international credibility on human rights issues.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">"Fighting human trafficking is one of the great moral challenges of our time," the senators wrote. "It is therefore with grave concern that we now hear Malaysia may be upgraded in this year’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report based on developments that occurred after the end of the review period. A premature upgrade of Malaysia would undermine the integrity of the TIP report process and compromise our international efforts to fight human trafficking."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Years of complacency from the Malaysian government have fostered an ugly<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/226847.pdf" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 145, 120); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;" class="">sex slave industry</span></a>, which includes trade in men, women and children, according to 2014 State Department documents.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/obama-trade-malaysia_n_7495750.html" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 145, 120); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;" class="">Forced labor</span></a> is commonplace in the nation's electronics industry, and government officials are widely believed to profit from human trafficking. This year,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/25/malaysia-migrant-mass-graves-police-reveal-139-sites-some-with-multiple-corpsesl" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 145, 120); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;" class="">mass graves</span></a> for trafficking victims were discovered near Malaysia's northern border with Thailand. As recently as April, the U.S. ambassador to Malaysia called for the country to take prosecution of human trafficking violations more seriously.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">Seventeen Democrats signed the letter along with Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">The reporting period for the 2015 TIP list closed in March. Since then, the Malaysian government has passed a law providing additional protections for victims of human trafficking. Human rights advocates view the new legislation as a minor step, noting that human trafficking has long been formally outlawed in Malaysia. Those laws have simply not been enforced.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">"This is not a gray area," said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, on<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/10/malaysia-human-trafficking_n_7771652.html" style="color: rgb(149, 79, 114);" class=""><span style="color: rgb(44, 145, 120); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;" class="">a conference call with reporters last week</span></a>. "Not even close." Sifton said Congress and the State Department Inspector General should investigate if Malaysia is ultimately upgraded.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">"An unwarranted upgrade for Malaysia in the 2015 report, especially if based on actions undertaken after the closing of the 2015 reporting period, would weaken the credibility of our TIP ranking system," Wednesday's letter reads. "Ultimately, it would undermine the value of the TIP review process to obtaining meaningful international progress on human rights."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-right: 0in; margin-left: 0in; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; line-height: 18pt; vertical-align: baseline; outline: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;" class="">The letter was signed by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla).<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></body></html>