Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak are joined by Chad Salitan, who serves in the State Department Trafficking in Persons office.  As a Deputy Coordinator for the Reports & Political Affairs Section, he works on the production of the annual TIP Report. He sheds light on the TIP Report and its value, the Tier statuses, and the 2018 report’s focus.

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 192, What is the Trafficking in Persons Report?

Production Credits: [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave: [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: [00:00:35] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, so, many partnerships and organizations that are part of this effort, and today we have a guest with us that’s going to bring really substantial perspective to us on the Trafficking in Persons Report, right?

Sandie: [00:00:58] That’s right. I’m so, excited to have Chad Salitan.

Dave: [00:01:01] Chad Salitan is in the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons office as deputy coordinator for the Reports and political affairs section. He works with the management team to lead the U.S. government’s diplomatic engagement on sex trafficking and forced labor. Chad’s team researches and analyzes how to best combat trafficking and engages foreign government officials in Washington and abroad to promote the adoption of effective policies. The section is responsible for the production of the secretary of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, the TIP Report as it’s known, is the U.S. government’s principal diplomatic and diagnostic tool to guide relations with foreign governments on human trafficking. Prior to this managing role, Chad served as an analyst on the same team with primary responsibility for countries in Europe and Asia. He joined the State Department in 2011 as a Presidential Management Fellow. Chad was born in Rochester, New York and earned his B.A. in International Relations from the State University of New York at Geneseo and has an M.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Chad, we are so, glad to welcome you to the podcast.

Chad: [00:02:16] Well, thank you very much for having me.

Sandie: [00:02:18] We’re excited to have a conversation that you and I have been trying to put together for a few months. But the annual Trafficking in Persons Report is a significant document that has emerged as a valuable evaluation tool. And also, for my students and a lot of my listeners, we look at it every year and we can see how it has improved, increased our capacity to understand international as well as national issues around this. So, tell us first why the TIP Report is even done. What is the value?

Chad: [00:02:56] Sure, thank you. And maybe I should zoom out first, just for those who don’t know, the Trafficking in Persons Report is an annual Report released by our State Department and at its core, it is a roundup of what each foreign government, each government around the world is doing on human trafficking. So, we cover 187 countries every year and each narrative in there covers each country and what each government is doing in the area of prosecuting the criminals, protecting the victims, and preventing the crime in the first place. We also, cover a kind of a profile of what trafficking looks like in each of these 187 countries. This Report has been going on since the year 2000 when the U.S. Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. That was also, the same year that the United Nations passed the Palermo protocol, as it’s commonly called, which is kind of a global compact to fight trafficking. So, that the two acts are actually quite similar in their approach and those three keys of prosecuting the traffickers, protecting the victims, and preventing the crime in the first place. The TIP Report also, is a collection of special topics where we try to delve into research into new areas, try to be on the cutting edge of various topics that are going on in the human trafficking community, new things that we’re learning, new ideas that we want to make sure to get out there. But it’s also- we try to remind the whole world each year about what trafficking is. There’s, of course, a lot of myths around it, which a few of your episodes have done a great job of trying to clear up, such as about movement and things like that. So, it’s also, a good reminder to try to increase global understanding about what human trafficking really means.

Sandie: [00:04:37] So, who uses the TIP Report?

Chad: [00:04:41] We have seen such a wide array of use. Now, I will say of course that we do make it for ourselves principally, and we do use it as our principal diplomatic tool because we use this as kind of the foundation for all the bilateral engagement we’re going to have government to government. So, if we want to say the U.S. and say the government of Moldova for example, you know where the basis for that conversation is going to be on what was in the last Trafficking in Persons Report because that Report is really pinpointing where the greatest needs are and also, where is any government really making progress that we could share with other governments in like situations. So, we do use it for ourselves quite a bit. Besides those diplomatic engagements, we also, use it in a diagnostic sense for our foreign assistance. So, the State Department and other agencies in the U.S. governments that says the USA does a lot of money every year, millions for specifically human trafficking and we want to make sure that that money is going towards the most needed areas. So, although you know the approach the trafficking is the same in terms of those three P’s, every government has specific areas where they would be most in need of assistance. And having the TIP Report, identifying where the biggest shortfalls are, we can target t...