TIP IN TURKEY: IOM REPORTS ON GOT PROGRESS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 007103

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, INL/CTR, DRL, EUR/PGI, EUR/SE
DEPARTMENT FOR VALERIE KWOK USAID E&E/ECA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2014
TAGS: KCRM PHUM PGOV SMIG PREF KWMN TU TIP IN TURKEY
SUBJECT: TIP IN TURKEY: IOM REPORTS ON GOT PROGRESS


(U) Classified by Polcounselor John Kunstadter; reasons: E.O.
12958 1.4 (b,d).


1. (C) Summary: IOM has passed us a summary of its anti-TIP
actions and plans for cooperating further with GOT
authorities. End Summary.


2. (C) International Office for Migration (IOM) Chief of
Mission Marielle Lindstrom passed Emboff the following
summary of TIP current events:

BEGIN NOTES: Comments to the Tip report - in brief; The
Istanbul Shelter is up and
running at full capacity. At my last visit in early December
the shelter was full. The IOM delegation was accompanied by
one representative from HRDF and we met one live-in social
worker (Russian/Turkish speaking). The shelter is centrally
located in Istanbul. There are security precautions in place
but these measures need to be closely monitored to ensure the
adequate protection for both staff and victims. There is a
local police station nearby, but they have not been tested on
response time in case of emergency. IOM pointed out that
this needed to be done asap so that we are prepared for the
worst case scenario. We were struck by the warm, caring,
friendly atmosphere at the shelter. It is evident that HRDF
is doing its best to ensure that the victims are treated
well. The victims displayed warmth towards the social worker
and HRDF staff, which indicates that there is a level of
trust established already.

IOM, through the USAID funded project will address the need
for a shelter manager, also for Russian speaking hotline
operators and the fact that the hotline must
be operated 24 hours daily, the calls will be transferred to
a mobile number and whoever is on-call will answer. A
meeting with MFA on December 21 confirmed the Turkish MFA's
interest in making sure the hotline is operational. The MFA
has already intervened to make the hotline number possible
and they will intervene further to make sure that the hotline
number can be accessed across Turkey (also they will explore
the possibility of a "call-center" type of set up where calls
will come in to a central number, but can be answered
anywhere in Turkey. Technologically this may be difficult at
this point, but as the services expand, they want to know
what mechanisms need to be in place to handle this).

The role of the police, HRDF and IOM will
be further clarified in separate MOUs between IOM-MOI and
IOM-HRDF. A standard operating procedure will be put in
place that further clarifies the responsibilities of the
different actors involved, from the identification of the
victim, her rescue, assistance at the shelter, collaboration
with law enforcement and her return to her home country.
There are a few hiccups here, but we are working with HRDF to
address them.

Incidentally, a possible new trend is VOTs from Dagestan and the Russian/Kazakh border. As
we monitor this trend, we will also explore the possibility
of IOM implementing reintegration programs there so that all
victims from this region also benefit from coordinated
reintegration assistance.

The MFA will urge the MoJ to participate more actively in
counter-trafficking trainings to make sure
traffickers/recruiters are tried on the new trafficking code
rather than pimping which brings a lower sentence.

Turkey has a MOU with Belarus on security cooperation. This
agreement was used to facilitate investigations surrounding
the death of a Belarussian victim of trafficking in Turkey.
Belarussian MOI representatives were working on this case
together with the Turkish MOI.
As of December 2004, Turkey is reaching final negotiations on
re-admission agreements with the Ukraine. Once this is
signed, a bilateral agreement with Ukraine is also foreseen
on counter-trafficking.

Turkey has been actively pursuing security cooperation
agreements with all source countries for victims of
trafficking. To date only Belarus and Georgia have signed.

In November 2004, Turkey was officially admitted as the 109th
member of IOM

Turkish media will be sensitized to trafficking issues
through program activities funded by the IOM USAID project
next year. Already Turkish media reports on trafficking.
There is evidence of a greater understanding of the issues at
hand and both Milliyet and Hurriyet as of September 2004 are
respectful of the identities of victims when reporting cases
in the press.

The MFA has been restructured and a new head of Migration
issues has been appointed, Mr. Akif Ayhan. He is responsible
for irregular migration, trafficking, integration and refugee
issues. The reason for the restructure was to gather
migration-related aspects under one roof in order to improve
coordination within the MFA. Mr. Iskender Okyay is the head
of the illegal migration control department. Ambassador
Ersavci remains overall responsible for this area and is
IOM's direct counterpart at the MFA.

The MFA also offered assistance to find another shelter
facility - perhaps in Ankara, and also suggested that
additional NGOs other than HRDF be involved in direct
assistance to victims. I mention this to underline the fact
that the MFA understands the important role that civil
society will play in combating trafficking, and their support
will be valuable as our CT activities necessarily expand.

All MFA counterparts stand behind the new USAID funded CT
project scheduled for next year and have urged IOM to contact
them if there are any problems in the implementation. There
is no question that this is a priority for the Turkish MFA.

The number of victims assisted by Turkish authorities this
year is 200 (MOI figures presented at the Adana workshop).
END NOTES.
DEUTSCH