NGOS LOOK FOR MORE COOPERATION ON TIP, GOG ADMITS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ATHENS 001611

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

EUR/SE FOR PARENTE/YOUNTCHI, G/TIP FOR DONNELLY

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL KCRM GR TIP
SUBJECT: NGOS LOOK FOR MORE COOPERATION ON TIP, GOG ADMITS
MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

REF: A. ATHENS 621

B. ATHENS 1577

C. ATHENS 1044


1. THIS MESSAGE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED -- PLEASE
HANDLE ACCORDINGLY.


2. (U) SUMMARY: During May 23-25 meetings with visiting
Foreign Affairs Officer for Southeastern Europe, Suzanne
Yountchi, officials from the Ministries of Health (MOH),
Justice (MOJ),Public Order (MPO),Foreign Affairs (MFA),and
IOM discussed their efforts to protect victims of trafficking
and prevent and prosecute trafficking in persons (TIP).
Though GoG efforts to fight TIP are on-going and even
increasing, the meetings exposed some weaknesses in the GoG
system which stem from not enough training, an ever-changing
TIP problem, and inadequate NGO involvement in the process.
Representatives of eight NGOs pleaded for increased
cooperation with police and an institutionalized role in the
overall TIP framework. See action items for NGOs and GoG in
para 10. Note: These discussions took place before the
release of the 2005 TIP report. END SUMMARY.

NGOs Describe Lack of Coordination


3. (SBU) During NGO meetings, the common theme was that the
role of NGOs had to be institutionalized. Reps from the
Doctors of the World (MdM) shelter stated that they have no
cooperation with police, so potential victims of trafficking
(VOTs) are brought in by street workers. There were 11
adults and 3 children from Africa and the former Soviet Union
being hosted at the MdM shelter when we visited. A rep from
privately-funded Nea Zoi, a team of American Protestant
missionaries that does street work to try to "reform"
prostitutes, admitted she was unaware of what advice to give
prostitutes identified as VOTs and appealed for guidance.
She also remarked that after six years on the streets, she is
witnessing increasing numbers of African prostitutes
unwilling to speak to NGOs, possibly because of "voodoo
curses" that make victims fear for their families if they
betray their traffickers, and increasing numbers of young
Greek men using prostitutes. Aside from general criticism of
the police and justice system and describing allegations of
corruption at Greek consulates, the Greek Helsinki Monitor
spokesman told us that there were convictions under the
anti-trafficking law as early as 2003, and a major trafficker
was imprisoned in December 2004 (facts that had not reached
the Embassy).


4. (U) Members of the European Network of Women described
their shelters, helpline, public awareness campaign, and
legal services. Both their 30 second TIP TV ad, currently
showing on eight stations, and their TIP leaflet use seven
languages (Greek, English, Albanian, Russian, Ukrainian,
Bulgarian, and Romanian). Their paid helpline staff undergo
at least 50 hours of training before answering the phone
lines, and they have speakers of each of the seven languages
via a mobile phone-relay available during the helpline hours,
9 AM - 9 PM. (They are seeking funds to operate the helpline
24 hours.) The Network also has professionals who volunteer
to provide psychological and legal assistance to victims.
The main problems they have experienced are that some police
not yet ready to accept the idea that VOTs can have legal
visas, and that the GoG will not accept a victim unless she
is willing to see the prosecutor the following day. All the
NGOs reported excellent cooperation with the "special
prosecutor", but worry about taking victims to other
prosecutors who may not be trained about TIP but are still
responsible for granting victim status.


5. (SBU) During a DVC with GoG-funded Rehabilitation Center
for Victims of Torture and Other Forms of Abuse (CRTV) and
the Consul General from Thessaloniki, the
psychiatrist-director of CRTV agreed that police and
prosecutors only recognize victims who agree to testify, and
that a formal agreement is necessary to restart police-NGO
cooperation. CRTV operates its own shelter, and complained
that the GoG has created parallel structures through State
TIP shelters where staff have not volunteered to work with
VOTs and are not properly trained in handling post-traumatic
stress. The CRTV head and his legal advisor agreed that
there is no good coordination between the GoG and NGOs and
that NGOs are competing with one another for MFA funding,
creating potential problems in future cooperation. Finally,
CRTV commented on the lack of coordination between local
police precincts, who may be inexperienced in handling TIP
cases, and the specialized anti-TIP police units. He also
pointed out that local police units are not required to refer
TIP cases to the special units, which leads to mishandling of
cases.

Room for Improvement at GoG Helpline and Shelters


6. (SBU) A meeting with the head of the MOH's EKAKV, the
National Center for Urgent Social Aid, which operates the
State shelters and GoG 24-hour "SOS line" showed some
weaknesses in the current system. Though EKAKV uses its
multilingual social workers to staff the helpline (in Greek
and English, with some French and minimal Russian),it
handles and promotes its line for a variety of domestic
problems, such as elder-abuse, domestic violence, and
runaways, as well as TIP. Upcoming radio and television
public awareness campaigns for EKAKV and the helpline are
planned to be in Greek. The EKAKV director reported that the
14 VOTs the State shelter has hosted were all referred by the
police, likely as a result of the 30,000 EKAKV brochures that
have been distributed to local authorities. The director
reported that the helpline is receiving very few TIP-related
calls (ref a). Reflecting general public opinion and the
gray areas of TIP as more VOTs have relative "freedom" and
earn nominal amounts of money, the EKAKV director commented
that he "doesn't believe there are many trafficking victims
in Greece." Rather, he continued, most sex-workers come
voluntarily to Greece to earn money. Social workers at EKAKV
appealed to poloff privately that they are being asked to
handle TIP in addition to their regular social work without
extensive training.

Justice Ministry Acknowledges "More Can Be Done"


7. (U) Athens' Chief Prosecutor and special TIP prosecutor
noted right off that "more can be done" on TIP, but that they
are optimistic about next steps, especially the upcoming
immigration bill (drafts or which are floating around Athens
but nothing has been presented to Parliament) which will
include new TIP provisions. The special prosecutor
reiterated major problems include insufficient preliminary
work done by police in preparing the briefs (ref b),and
inadequate human resources to focus on TIP. She claimed,
however, that the police are eager to help in the TIP fight
and her office has submitted a request to the MPO Secretary
General to provide police more resources to do better
groundwork. She noted that another problem has been building
trust and getting victims to talk to prosecutors, even when
there is embassy and NGO involvement, and hoped the
introduction of a reflection period would ease this
challenge. The Chief Prosecutor explained that more "special
prosecutors" may be identified, but that training for all
prosecutors is ongoing. (A IOM-sponsored training for 300 MPO
and MOJ officials will occur June 11-12 in Corfu.) The
Justice Ministry's Secretary General, who is head of the
inter-ministerial TIP council, reported trying to establish a
system to follow convictions, discussed being open to NGO
involvement in the process of granting victim status, and
agreed to explore having the specialized anti-TIP police at
least advise, if not take over, every identified case of TIP.


Example of Failed NGO-GoG Cooperation


8. (SBU) An activist NGO lawyer from Act Up reported to
emboffs that, with the knowledge of the special prosecutor,
she tried to take two potential African TIP victims to the
State shelter but they were turned away as economic migrants,
in the opinion of the NGO lawyer, "because they were black."
No other information was provided by the NGO. In separate
meetings, the Secretaries General of Justice and Health and
the EKAKV director each relayed the GoG version of the same
instance of failed GoG-NGO cooperation. The NGO called EKAKV
on a Friday asking if over a dozen TIP victims identified on
the street could be sheltered at the state shelter. EKAKV
agreed, called in extra staff, and prepared food and rooms at
their large shelter. On Saturday the NGO called again,
saying due to lack of transportation, it would bring the
victims on Sunday, although now there were only nine. EKAKV
workers offered transportation, which was refused, and
readied for the victims to arrive Sunday. Finally on Monday,
the NGO brought just two women. EKAKV refused to allow the
women to come and go as they pleased, but insisted on
protecting them within the shelter. The women refused the
terms of stay because they had (illegal) jobs packaging
pirated CDs, so they left. The GoG interpreted the event as
a possible effort by NGOs to abuse the TIP law to obtain
victim status (and eventually residence permits) for illegal
migrants.


9. (SBU) Post realizes that these women were two of the
dozens that had been sheltered at the MdM shelter since March
(ref c) who were never taken to the prosecutor for victim
characterization, and instead were offered a "default"
reflection period at the NGO shelter without any GoG
involvement. When the women were ready to speak to
prosecutors and authorities, the authorities were not
informed that the victims had been sheltered for months and
were already reintegrating. Feeding the GoG's mistrust was
the "changing" number of victims, not realizing all the women
were being sheltered with an NGO. While it is still unclear
whether the women were victims of trafficking, the story is
an example of how the antagonistic relationship between some
NGOs and the GoG is resulting in poor care for victims.
Moreover, the NGO wanted to set the GoG up for failure; an
NGO rep told poloff that he would "prove that the State
shelters don't work." At the same time, the GoG has little
experience with anything but "traditional" Eastern European
victims of TIP, which is often referred to as "white-flesh
trafficking" in Greek.


10. (SBU) COMMENT: Post used Yountchi's visit, in advance of
the 2005 TIP Report release, to give the GoG and NGOs a
chance to discuss their plans for the year ahead. Based on
the points raised in the discussions, below are summarized
action items for both the GoG and NGOs.

-- NGOs and GoG should agree on a system of victim
screening and referral.

-- The identification of victims should take into account
all information from police, NGOs, IOM, and the prosecutor,
where available (and therefore, these institutions need to
cooperate closely.) Victim characterization should not be
dependent upon victim's testimony as a witness.

-- NGOs should formally assess their capabilities in order
to illuminate the range of referral options available to
victims and to improve transparency between NGOs.

-- GOG should instigate a reflection period, (as outlined
in EU Council Directive 2004/81/EC) during which "potential
victim" status can be granted and victim is not obligated to
speak to authorities.

-- Police, prosecutors, and judges should continue to offer
and participate in TIP training, to include changing
circumstances of TIP, victims with legal documents, victims
who can not self-identify, men and child victims, victims
from outside Europe, and people who became victims after
their consensual migration.

-- NGO and GoG shelters should regularly share information
on their resources to avoid duplication and ensure the best
protection, treatment and assistance is offered to victims,
and that all staff are appropriately trained.

-- The special anti-TIP police task forces should play at
least an advisory role in all TIP cases.

-- A large-scale prevention campaign, focusing on demand,
should be initiated.

-- Information campaigns for victims, including information
on helplines, should be multilingual in the languages of most
victims. Helpline operators should be fluent in the
languages of most victims.

The MFA remains our primary TIP interlocutor with the GoG and
the GoG's primary intermediary with NGOs. We will continue
to discuss with them how to smooth over the rough spots in
order to see these proposals realized. END COMMENT.
RIES