FRANCE SUBMISSION FOR 2005 TIP REPORT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 PARIS 001398

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR G/TIP, EUR/WE, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, EUR/PGI,
INL/CTR
USAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB FR RO
SUBJECT: FRANCE SUBMISSION FOR 2005 TIP REPORT

REF: STATE 273089

///OVERVIEW////


1. (U) France is a destination country for trafficked
persons, mainly women trafficked for prostitution from
Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, and to a lesser extent
Albania) and Africa (Nigera, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon).
France's national Central Office for the Repression of
Trafficking in Persons (OCRETH, a division of the National
Police in the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police in
the Interior Ministry) estimates that there are between
15,000 and 18,000 prostitutes in France, of which about
two-thirds are foreigners and thus likely to be trafficking
victims, making the estimated number of trafficking victims
in France anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000.


2. (U) OCRETH estimates the numbers and origin of
prostitutes from statistics of those arrested for
solicitation, which was criminalized in the 2003 law on
internal security. Although complete statistics are not yet
available for 2004, OCRETH shared with post preliminary data
showing figures for January through November 2004. From
January through November 2004, 5,152 people (prostitutes)
were arreted for solicitation. Because some of those were
repeat arrests, the office estimates that there were about
3,000 different persons arrested. Foreigners accounted for
82 percent of those arrested, according to government
statistics (again, government officials believe the number of
foreigners roughly correlates to the number of trafficked
persons). The two largest groups of people arrested for
solicitation were from Eastern Europe and West Africa. East
Europeans accounted for 34 percent of those arrested and for
41 percent of the foreigners. In descending order, their
origins were Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Serbia and
Montenegro, and Moldova. Africans accounted for 31 percent
of those arrested and for 37 percent of the foreigners. Most
of those were from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon,
according to OCRETH.


3. (U) The chief of the OCRETH noted that the number of
Chinese trafficking victims has been on the rise in France.
This year Chinese accounted for around 10 percent of those
arrested for solicitation. He said that the Chinese have a
different profile: they are older women and not in the
network. They may have found that they are unable to earn
enough in the sweatshop jobs for which they were brought to
France to repay their debts and thus turn to prostitution in
order to earn more money to repay their bondage debts.


4. (U) We do not have information yet on whether the GOF has
any surveys underway.


5. (U) Trafficking victims in France are mostly put to work
in prostitution; they must earn money to repay bondage debts.
They are subject to violence, threats, and withholding of
documents.


6. (U) There is political will at the highest levels of the
French government to combat trafficking in persons. The
government is making a good faith effort to seriously address
trafficking.


7. (U) Governmental authorities do not facilitate or condone
trafficking, nor are they otherwise complicit in such
activities. Punishments for any official person whose post
requires him to participate in the fight against human
trafficking who is found guilty of trafficking are more
severe than the penalties for traffickers (French penal code,
Article 225-4-2),and the law provides for a seven-year
imprisonment and fine of up to 750,000 euros if someone
cannot "account for resources corresponding to one's
lifestyle while being in close contact with one or more
(trafficking) victims or perpetrators" (Art. 225-4-8).


8. (U) French government spending is subject in some degree
to constraints imposed by the EU in view of France's
membership in the eurozone, which limits members' deficit
spending to 3 percent of GDP. As such, France is bound to
rein in its debt, requiring budget cuts in many areas of
importance to the state.


9. (U) The government monitors itself for progress in its
battle against trafficking, compiling statistics on the
numbers of arrests for various trafficking-related offenses
and sharing them internally. The law mandates that OCRETH
publish an annual report on its activities.


10. (U) Prostitution is not illegal, but exploiting someone
to prostitute him or herself (e.g. pimping, or "procuring"
someone else) is illegal, as is solicitation. Prostitutes
can even be arrested for 'passive' solicitation (as
determined by the police; the law is vague on what
constitutes 'passive conduct,' and this can include even the
manner of dress). The age of majority in France is 18.
Anyone soliciting, accepting or obtaining a person of less
than 18 years of age for sexual services in exchange for
remuneration or promise of it is subject to three years'
imprisonment and a 45,000-euro fine (French penal code
Article 225-12-1),more for aggravating circumstances (Art.
225-12-2),and even more (seven years' imprisonment and a
fine of 100,000 euros) if the child is less than 15 years of
age (Art. 225-12-3). Solicitation can bring up to two months
in jail and up to 3,750 euros in fines (Art. 225-10-1).
Pimps are punished under laws prohibiting "procuring,"
defined as when a person "in any manner 1) helps, assists, or
protects the prostitution of others; 2) makes a profit out of
the prostitution of others, shares the proceeds of it or
receives income from a person engaging habitually in
prostitution; and/or 3) hires, trains or corrupts a person
with a view to prostitution or exercises on such a person
pressure to practice prostitution or to continue doing so."
(Art. 225-5) Procuring is punished by seven years'
imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros. The law also
criminalizes acting as an intermediary between a prostitute
and a pimp; facilitating the justification of a pimp's
fictitious resources; being unable to account for one's
income when one lives with a prostitute; and obstructing
prevention, control, assistance or reeducation efforts for
prostitute(s). Under aggravating circumstances (including
where the prostitute is a minor),procuring is punishable by
ten years' imprisonment and a fine of 1.5 million euros (Art.
225-7),and if the prostitute is under 15 years old, it is
punishable by 15 years' criminal imprisonment and a 3-million
euro fine (Art. 225-7-1). If an organized gang does the
procuring, the punishment is 20 years' imprisonment and a
3-million euro fine (Art. 225-8),and if the procurer(s)
resort to torture or acts of barbarity, it is punishable by
life imprisonment and a 4.5-million euro fine (Art. 225-9).

///PREVENTION///


11. (U) The government of France acknowledges that
trafficking is a problem, as evidenced by its passage of the
2003 law combatting trafficking and its subsequent doubling
of personnel in the main office fighting trafficking, the
OCRETH, and by its creation of the intergovernmental
commission charged with proposing means to combat sex tourism
involving children.


12. (U) The Interministerial Commission combating trafficking
includes the OCRETH, along with several government
ministries, including Interior, Justice, Tourism, Education,
Health and Family, Foreign Affairs, and Employment, Labor and
Social Cohesion. OCRETH also has strong ties with the
anti-trafficking brigade of the Paris police.


13. (U) The interministerial commission is pressing for the
government to conduct a public relations campaign to help
reduce demand; the commission is also seeking to integrate a
public education campaign into the sex education classes in
high schools in order to get the message to young people
first of all that to engage a prostitute is to commit
violence against him or her, and secondly that any money one
would pay to a prostitution victim could be going to fund
organized crime. In September, a separate interministerial
commission comprised of several government ministries, NGOs,
and firms in the tourism sector published a report entitled
"The Fight Against Sex Tourism Involving Children." The
commission made 12 recommendations for pursuing the fight;
currently an interadministration commission (made up of
representatives from the Ministries of the Family, Tourism,
Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Education) is charged with
delivering on the 12 recommendations; it must report back by
August on their progress.


14. (U) The government continues to fund the campaign of the
NGO ECPAT combatting child sex tourism; all Air France
flights broadcast a video warning French tourists against
engaging in sex with minors and alerting them that their
actions on foreign soil are subject to French law.


15. (U) The French government and NGOs active in France in
the battle against trafficking in persons work well together
and often participate together in commissions. Civil society
plays a robust role in French society and the French
government recognizes its value in the battle.


16. (U) France adequately monitors its borders, but a large
part of Metropolitan French border-monitoring has been
subsumed into the Schengen System, which covers the majority
of France's land borders and some of its air traffic as well
(flights, trains, cars coming into France from other Schengen
member countries such as Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany and
Luxembourg are not subject to border controls because
passengers have either gone through Schengen border control
at the point where they entered Schengen territory, or they
themselves are Schengen residents and thus receive no
examination).


17. (U) In addition to the anti-trafficking interministerial
commission, the government working group fighting sex tourism
involving children produced its report proposing a French
strategy for fighting the problem in September. The working
group included NGOs, tourism-sector firms (French hotel
chains, tour operators, travel agents' associations, travel
workers' unions and Air France),and governmental ministries
(MFA, Tourism, Interior, Youth and Education, Justice, and
Family). (One of the two rapporteurs for this group
participated at the State Department's invitation at the
October 2004 G/TIP-hosted child sex tourism panel at the UN.)


18. (U) France works with the EU, the OSCE, the UN, Europol,
and Interpol to combat trafficking. The French are currently
working within the EU to establish an EU treaty fighting
trafficking, along the lines of the Palermo Protocol. In
early May, the French will host the sixth meeting of the
Interpol focus group on the trafficking of women. The meeting
aims to bring international experts from all of the involved
regions together to discuss ways of combatting the
trafficking in women for the purposes of sexual exploitation.



19. (U) The French national plan of action to combat
trafficking is embodied in the 2003 law on internal security.


20. (U) The OCRETH has the lead on creating anti-trafficking
programs.

///INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF TRAFFICKERS///


21. (U) French law specifically forbids trafficking in humans
-- defined as "the recruitment, transport, transfer,
accommodation, or reception of a person in exchange for
remuneration or any other benefit or for the promise of
remuneration or any other benefit, in order to put him at the
disposal of a third party, whether identified or not, so as
to permit the commission against that person of offenses of
procuring, sexual assault or attack, exploitation for
begging, or the imposition of living or working conditions
inconsistent with human dignity, or to force this person to
commit any crime or misdemeanor" -- for both sexual and
non-sexual purposes (French penal code, Book II, Title II,
Chapter V, Sec 1bis, Article 225-4-1 and following).


22. (U) Trafficking in persons is punishable by up to seven
years in prison and a fine of up to 150,000 euros (Art.
225-4-1); the penalty rises to 10 years' imprisonment and a
1.5-million euro fine if the trafficking is done to a minor,
pregnant woman, other "vulnerable persons;" done to a person
"upon his arrival on (French) territory;" if threats are
used; or if the perpetrator holds a post that requires him to
fight against human trafficking or in any of several other
aggravating circumstances (Art. 225-4-2). If an organized
gang perpetrates the trafficking, it is punishable by 20
years' imprisonment and a 3-million euro fine (Art. 225-4-3),
and if the trafficking is committed "with recourse to torture
or acts of barbarity," the perpetrator incurs life
imprisonment and a 4.5-million euro fine (Art. 225-4-4).


23. (U) Convicted rapists can receive up to 15 years in
prison (Art. 222-23); if the rape was committed against
someone under 15 years of age, the penalty increases to up to
20 years (Art. 222-24). Sexual assault is punishable by up
to five years in prison and a 75,000 euro fine (Art.222-27),
seven years and 100,000 euros if the victim is under 15 years
or age or if there are aggravating circumstances (Arts.
222-28 and 222-29).


24. (U) According to the Justice Ministry, French
authorities detained more than 940 people in 2004 for pimping
-- that number was almost evently split between French
nationals and foreigners. Of those detained, 46 percent were
jailed with the remainder released. Further statistics on
number of judicial proceedings/convictions/sentences will be
available later, but were not ready at the end of February.


25. (U) Trafficking in France is organized by international
criminal gangs, according to the OCRETH.


26. (U) The French government actively investigates
trafficking cases, using surveillance, telephone taps, and a
wide range of investigative techniques. In addition, French
law encourages the testimony of trafficking victims by
providing residency cards for complaints or witnesses that
end in a conviction, but French police can also proceed
without a victim's testimony.


27. (U) The French government cooperates with other
governments in investigating and prosecuting traffickers and
in trying to prevent trafficking from occurring. OCRETH has
sent an officer to the French Embassy in Sofia to serve as a
liaison with Bulgarian officials to combat the trafficking of
Bulgarian nationals to France. The officer is attached to
the French police attache's office in the embassy there. A
Bulgarian officer will come to work with OCRETH sometime in

2005. In Bucharest, the French Embassy works closely with
police to address the trafficking issue, and France and
Romania conduct officer exchanges as well. Last year, France
and Romania held a Commission Rogatoire. A much smaller
percentage of trafficking victims in France comes from South
America, but OCRETH director Colombani and other French
officers participated in a seminar in Ecuador in November
2004 to share best practices with police and judges in
Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela.


28. (U) France can extradite persons suspected of
trafficking to other countries; the process would be
expedited in the case where the seeking country was a fellow
party to the European arrest warrant. In the case of
countries such as Romania or Bulgaria, the extradition would
be subject to the Council of Europe extradition treaty.
France would not extradite one of its own nationals.


29. (U) There is no evidence of government involvement in or
tolerance of trafficking on a local or institutional level.


30. (U) France's child sex tourism laws have extraterritorial
coverage. Sex with minors can be punished under French law
if the act is committed by a French national or by a person
habitually resident on French territory (i.e. the person need
not be a French citizen, but only a French resident, to be
subject to the law). (Art. 225-12-3) The interministerial
commission on child sex tourism will propose placing
representatives in the French embassies in Senegal, Morocco,
Mexico, Brazil, and Thailand in order to follow the legal
cases of French nationals under arrest there for engaging in
prostitution with minor victims, with the goal of
repatriating the French to be tried in the French justice
system. The interministerial commission believes its
proposal will be implemented.


31. (U) France has signed and ratified each of the mentioned
Conventions and Protocols.

ILO CONVENTION 182 - Ratified Sept. 11, 2001

ILO CONVENTION 29 - Ratified June 24, 1937

ILO CONVENTION 105 - Ratified Dec. 18, 1969

Optional Protocol to the CRC - Signed Feb. 6, 2000;
ratified Feb. 5, 2003

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, especially Women and Children,
supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime -
Signed Dec. 12, 2000; ratified Oct. 29, 2002.


///VICTIM PROTECTION/ASSISTANCE///



32. (U) A trafficking victim who files a complaint against
their trafficker(s) or who testifies against them is eligible
for a temporary three-month card providing residency status
and a work permit. If the police can corroborate the
victim's report (with reference to names, locations, etc.),
the temporary card can be renewed for another three months
for a total of six months, and then again for an additional
six months. If the trafficker on whom the victim made the
complaint or testified against is convicted, the victim is
eligible for a permanent residency card (Article 76 of Law on
Internal Security, Official Journal of March 19, 2003). A
private association, the Accompaniment Places of Welcome
(ALC),provides long-term shelter services for trafficking
victims in metropolitan France and Corsica. Thirty-three
shelters across France have voluntarily agreed to provide
space for trafficking victims, and belong to the ALC. The
government funds three-quarters of the ALC's budget, with the
city of Paris funding the last quarter. (The French
government contribution is 157,850 euros a year, and an
official from the Office of Social Action in the Ministry of
Employment, Labor, and Social Cohesion estimates it costs
3,500 euros per year to shelter a victim.) In 2004, the ALC
welcomed 44 trafficking victims who were dispersed among 23
of the shelters. Six of the victims opted to return to their
country of origin. Six of the victims were French, with
another two coming from other EU countries. Almost
one-quarter of victims who approached ALC for help were
Romanian, with 12 percent coming from Nigeria. ALC shelters
provide judicial, administrative, health, and psychiatric
assistance; help in finding a job or getting new training;
assistance to the victim to return to his/her country of
origin if that is what she/he wants; and food and lodging.


33. (U) See response 32 for government funding of shelters
welcoming trafficking victims.


34. (U) Social services, NGOs, or police can call the ALC to
request placement for a victim. There are short-term
emergency centers that host the victim while the long-term
shelter is preparing a place for her/him. The entry
questionnaire for ALC is deliberately limited in order to
protect victims in case they are collaborating with the
police or serving as a witness.


35. (U) Some prostitutes have been fined under the 2003 law
on internal security; while the maximum fine under the law is
3750 euros, OCRETH reports that the average fine is around
300 euros. The government believes that punishing the victim
prostitutes in this way is a means to hamper the work of the
networks running them. The government assesses that the more
income traffickers lose because their prostitute-victims are
unable to work because they are jailed overnight, the more
difficult the traffickers find their work. Government
officials believe that every step that hampers the networks'
success contributes to eliminating trafficking.


36. (U) The government encourages victims to participate in
the investigation and prosecution of trafficking by provicing
temporary and permanent residence cards for victims who file
complaints and/or testify against their traffickers. (see
#32 above).


37. (U) See response to #32 above.


38. (U) Both the government and the ALC provide training for
the persons who will be treating and working with the victims
in the shelters. The fight against sexual tourism involving
children is a mandatory element of the training that students
in French tourism schools undertake to receive their degrees.


39. (U) French nationals are not trafficked abroad, as far as
is known.


40. (U) There are numerous NGOs in France working with both
adult and child victims of trafficking, prostitution, and
child sex tourism abroad. A few of the more prominent are:

Amis du Bus des Femmes - (Friends of the Women's Bus) A Paris
NGO that works with prostitutes, both trafficked and
untrafficked to provide care and to help reinsert them in a
non-prostituted life. The NGO drives its equipped bus to
locations frequented by prostitute-victims; they provide
medical attention but also seek to be a refuge for prostitute
victims in hopes of drawing them out of victimhood. Amis du
Bus criticizes the 2003 law, assessing that its passage
increased the dangers for trafficked prostitution victims
rather than improving their situation.
ECPAT France - French chapter of ECPAT International, founded
to combat sexual tourism in Asia and since enlarged to
protect children against sexual aggression worldwide. ECPAT
France works with AirFrance to distribute promotional
material to French residents touring abroad to make them
aware of the repercussions of child sex tourism.
Mouvement du Nid - Assists prostitutes to find a better life
and works to sensitize the public to the dangers of
prostitution.
ACPE - Association Against Child Prostitution. Work with
shelters in Guatemala and Manila, aiding their support to
prostituted children. Also civil party to a case against a
French national in Cambodia for sex with minors. In
addition, makes presentations to students in tourism colleges
across France, making them aware of their responsibilities as
tourism professionals to protect children, and works through
competitions in the school to design prevention campaigns and
to raise money through the high-profile World Salon of
Tourism, held every year in Paris.


41. (U) Embassy contact for trafficking in persons is poloff
Kimberly Baker. Email: bakerke@state.gov. Office phone (33)
1 43 12 23 93. Fax (33) 1 43 12 26 63. Time spent on
project: FS-04 poloff, 60 hours. FS-01 pol officer, 15
hours' assistance to new officer working on report. FS-02
France desk officer, 15 hours working with G/TIP bureaucracy
to craft benchmarks cable for France and to serve as liaison
between G/TIP and post. FS-01 officer, 2 hours' review.
FEMC, one-half hour's review. DCM, one-half hour's review.


42. (U) NOTE: There was a calculation error in last year's
TIP report for France. Where the text on prosecution said
that the number of of individuals arrested on
trafficking-related charges had increased "66 percent" over
the previous year,it should have been a "10-percent"
increase: 66 was the REAL NUMBER increase in individuals
charged, not/not the percentage change. Post notes this to
avoid inaccurate comparisons from last year to this year
(i.e. the wording in last year's report would make it appear
that the France had improved much more from 2002 to 2003 than
it had from 2003 to 2004, when in reality the improvement
accelerated, with a trafficking-related arrests increasing 33
percent in the first 11 months of 2004 over all of 2003.)

Leach