G/TIP REPORTS OFFICER REVIEWS COLOMBIA'S EFFORTS

UNCLAS BOGOTA 011256

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ELAB CVIS CO
SUBJECT: G/TIP REPORTS OFFICER REVIEWS COLOMBIA'S EFFORTS
TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS


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Summary
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1. On November 6-7 G/TIP Reports Officer Linda Brown and
Poloff conducted meetings with the GOC, international
organizations and NGOs regarding trafficking in persons from
and through Colombia. Colombia continues to prevent
trafficking through programs with heavy involvement of NGOs,
international organizations and foreign donors to raise
awareness, educate vulnerable groups, create regional plans
to combat exploitation and set up early warning systems. A
new law against trafficking passed in August promises to
increase prosecutions; the law provides broader coverage for
trafficking crimes and defines the responsibilities of the
agencies involved in combating the problem. Three cases are
now awaiting trial. Efforts to identify, repatriate,
reintegrate and protect victims are improving. Various
interlocutors said victims who had been trafficked would feel
more comfortable filing charges if they had additional
guarantees about their physical security. End summary.

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Prevention Efforts Are Broad And Deep
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2. (U) The GOC conducts public outreach with a broad range of
organizations at the national and local levels through radio,
television, internet, print media and seminars to prevent
recruitment of victims for trafficking. For example, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) placed flyers within newly
issued passports with information about how to identify if a
person is being trafficked. The non-governmental
organization The Hope Foundation (Fundacion Esperanza) worked
with IOM, the Embassy of the Netherlands, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the Civil Aviation Authority and the
Department of Administrative Security (DAS) to place
computer-automated information kiosks in the Bogota and
Barranquilla airports so travelers may get information on
legal migration and Colombian Government points of contact in
their destination country.


3. (U) Fundacion Esperanza also worked with the Civil
Aviation Authority and airport bookstores to distribute
anti-trafficking bookmarks in literature sold, and put
posters in bathrooms and waiting areas to sensitize
travelers. It also worked with the Ministry of Communication
to broadcast short TV ads explaining trafficking, with a
toll-free number of an IOM call center for inquiries. The UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Bogota worked with
Fundacion Esperanza and the Ministry of the Interior and
Justice (MININT) to underwrite inclusion of a plot line in a
popular daytime soap opera about a girl who was trafficked.
The Ministry of Communication developed a campaign to promote
the "healthy" use of the internet by kids and to detect and
prevent recruitment of children by traffickers over the
internet.


4. (U) The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (OHRO),along
with the Colombian National Police (CNP) and IOM, conducted
sessions in schools to educate children of all ages who might
be vulnerable to trafficking. MININT, OHRO, and the Office
of the Inspector General (Procuraduria) conducted seminars
with GOC officials to raise awareness of the crime and how it
is executed. MININT worked with the Procuraduria, UNICEF and
OHRO to enforce the legal requirement that municipal and
departmental governments include actions to combat
recruitment for trafficking in their annual resource plans.
According to the Procuraduria, at present less than one third
of 32 departments have included action plans to combat sex
exploitation or abuse. UNICEF worked with the National
Office of the Registrar to improve legal registration of
births and identity documents for children so they will
become less vulnerable if they become displaced. Finally,
IOM developed a free call center to accept inquiries and help
identify trafficking cases for police action. Since it
opened in January 2004, the call center has received 8,135
calls related to trafficking, of which 118 led to police
(CNP) investigations.


5. (U) The DAS, MININT and MFA held meetings with border
policing authorities in Brazil and Ecuador in 2005 to improve
prevention of trafficking across international borders. In
2006 the GOC is planning similar meetings with Panama. The
MFA and the Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) have also trained
Colombian Foreign Service Officers and consular staff from
embassies in Bogota to better identify Colombian trafficking
victims.

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Prosecution Gaining Momentum, Awaiting Results

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6. (U) Colombia's laws make trafficking illegal and set out
guidelines to prosecute the crime; however, Colombia's
officials are still acquiring equipment and training to
enforce the law. In August 2005, a new law on trafficking
(Law 985) went into effect. Law 985 defines exploitation as
being principally for forced labor, sexual exploitation,
domestic work, or illegal recruitment. It creates
punishments for each link in the circuit of trafficking --
recruitment, transport, reception and exploitation -- and
provides protections for the victims. It establishes an
interagency committee to fight trafficking in people and
outlines the responsibilities of each of the 14 member
agencies (MININT, MFA, Ministry of Social Protection,
Ministry of Education, DAS, CNP, Office of the Prosecutor
General, Procuraduria, OHRO, Interpol, ICBF, the Presidential
Advisor for Equality of Women, The Department of Defense
organization FONDELIBERTAD, and the Special Administrative
Unit for Information and Financial Analysis). Law 985
designates IOM, UNODC and the President's Program on Human
Rights and International Humanitarian Law as observers to the
interagency committee.


7. (U) The law removes a previous Colombian legal requirement
to show that the crime was committed through violence,
coercion, or trickery, or was committed without the victim's
consent (e.g., agreement to become engaged in prostitution).
Now, "consent" of the victim is not a defense, and
prosecutors are only required to prove that the trafficker
benefited in some way from the exploitation of the victim.
It does not differentiate between trafficking within Colombia
and internationally. The law requires Governors and Mayors
to designate a point of contact to coordinate with the
interagency committee and to include provisions against
trafficking in their annual resource plans.


8. (U) Gloria Guzman Duque, a prosecutor from the Anti
Trafficking Unit in the Office of the Prosecutor General
(Fiscalia),said that judges and prosecutors need training to
be able to identify trafficking crimes and apply the new law.
While prosecutors can quickly spot the crimes of coercion
and exploitation in internal trafficking cases, they don't
always trace the origin of the crime to a recruitment in
another location, and don't always try to prosecute the whole
circuit of traffickers because of the complexity of the case.
Guzman also found international cases were difficult to
prosecute because the victims were discovered in another
country, and the law enforcement authorities there might not
have a designated and accessible anti-trafficking point of
contact or be forthcoming with local requirements for
requesting evidence needed to investigate the circuit of
traffickers. Adriana Ruiz Restrepo from UNODC said that the
GOC worked with the U.K. Embassy and the Fiscalia to set up a
series of mock trials to train judges and prosecutors on how
to prosecute trafficking crimes. By the end of the series,
Ruiz said the judges and prosecutors believed they were well
prepared to prosecute the cases, but that more officials
should receive the training.


9. (U) The Fiscalia's National Anti-Trafficking Unit (ATU)
opened in February 2005 with 5 investigators. According to
Guzman, the Unit is currently investigating 250 cases. Of
the 250 cases, the Unit found that 33 were related to
trafficking. Three 3 cases have resulted in indictments.
Trials are pending. The well-trained but heavily burdened
ATU focuses on international cases as local Fiscalia offices
are not set up to handle them, but prosecutors around the
country that could be prosecuting more domestic cases require
additional sensitization and training on trafficking laws.
According to MININT, there have been 137 arrests thus far in
2005 for alleged trafficking crimes.


10. (U) In 2005, the interagency committee created a database
to monitor trafficking cases that should go on-line in
December. The database will help agencies to collect
statistics and help to focus interagency investigations. The
data will be stored in the Fiscalia and will be maintained by
each of the agencies. Database records will indicate which
agencies have information in a case. While full access will
not be granted to any agency, limited permission can be
granted to members of the Committee to view the file.

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Protection: Underfunded
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11. (U) Colombia has a good system to identify and repatriate
or resettle Colombian victims, but according to the CNP,
MININT, Fundacion Esperanza, The Rebirth Foundation
(Fundacion Renacer, an affiliate of the NGO End Child
Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children

for Sexual Purposes, or ECPAT) and the Fiscalia, resettled
victims do not feel they will be protected from reprisals,
and so do not file charges against their traffickers. In
August 2005, the newly appointed Prosecutor General, Mario
Iguaran Arana, committed to improving the protection program
for victims of trafficking. Under the current program, the
GOC can provide limited anonymity at the beginning stages of
an investigation, but the person filing charges will
eventually have to appear in court. The identity of a
witness giving testimony in court is not protected, and in
the new oral accusatory system the witness must appear in
court and give oral testimony, facing the accused. The GOC
does not provide security for testifying witnesses in such
cases. The Interagency Commission is currently preparing a
policy document on assistance to victims, which will address
the physical security problem as well as social services.


12. (U) Overseas, the IOM, Fundacion Esperanza and the
Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) work with
authorities in foreign countries to identify Colombian
victims of trafficking and repatriate them. The MFA conducts
courses for new consular officers on identifying trafficking
victims, and it emphasizes the legal requirement of officers
to report trafficking as a crime if they suspect it has
occurred. The MFA is working through its embassies and
consulates overseas and with embassies based in Bogota to
analyze whether legislation in those countries defines
trafficking as a crime. When repatriated victims arrive, the
DAS interviews them in a separate room at the airport with
the help of Fundacion Esperanza staff, and encourages them to
consider filing charges against their traffickers.


13. (U) Domestically, Fundacion Renacer and Fundacion
Esperanza have programs to identify and resettle domestic
trafficking victims, and they work with the Fiscalia, DAS,
and the CNP's special anti-trafficking unit, Humanitas.
MININT is currently working on an agreement with the Hotel
Association CotelCo and DAS to allow recently found victims
to receive initial shelter in participating hotels. MININT
is also working with Colombia's Office of Drug Control
Police, the DNE (Direccin Nacional de Estupefacientes) to
set up some secure, anonymous shelters for trafficked
victims. In both domestic and international cases, MININT is
responsible for providing safe passage for victims to return
to their homes, lodging if it is needed, medical and
psychological attention, financial assistance and help
finding employment, and information and legal support for the
entire judicial process. MININT provides most of these
services through its "Casas de Justicia" (Justice Houses)
program. MININT has to work closely with Fundacion Esperanza
and Fundacion Renacer because victims often prefer to
approach a private organization rather than a government
office.

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Room for Improvement
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14. (U) A number of the representatives Brown and poloff met
agreed that Colombia needs to:

-- prosecute and convict more traffickers;

-- increase the amount of resources allocated to combat
trafficking, especially to the Fiscalia's Anti-Trafficking
Unit, the interagency committee, and the Departments and
municipalities that need to include strategies to combat
trafficking in their annual resource plans;

-- train officials in how to detect trafficking crimes,
investigate the individual acts of the entire chain of
traffickers, and prosecute trafficking crimes under Law 985;

-- work on improving information sharing and coordination
between regions and agencies within Colombia to facilitate
work on domestic trafficking; and

-- better protect victims of trafficking so they can feel
more comfortable to file charges against their aggressors.


15. This cable was cleared by G/TIP.
WOOD