G-TIP AMBASSADOR MILLER'S VISIT TO ITALY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ROME 003847

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR G-TIP AMB MILLER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM IT HUMAN RIGHTS
SUBJECT: G-TIP AMBASSADOR MILLER'S VISIT TO ITALY


1. Summary. G-TIP Ambassador John Miller visited Rome,
Turin and the Vatican October 24-29 to discuss trafficking in
person issues. His meetings with government officials, NGOs
and victims reaffirmed that Italy has excellent laws to
combat trafficking, but implementation depends on a mixed
record of local cooperation between law enforcement and the
NGO community. While Nigerian prostitutes continue to top
the list of victims here, there are growing numbers of
Romanian and Moldovan and fewer Albanian victims. Italy last
year had the best record in Europe on victims' assistance
programs, but pending budget cuts likely will reduce funds
for social programs. The NGO community is divided over
proposed "clean streets" legislation to move now legal
prostitution from the streets to individual apartments; while
the bill makes street prostitution illegal for both client
and prostitute, it will greatly complicate NGO efforts to
find and assist victims. Miller urged the Minister of
Justice to extend collection of statistics on prosecution;
the Minister of Equal Opportunity said that training police
to recognize and appropriately treat victims was a priority
but that it would take time to change old prejudices. Miller
was the keynote speaker at a well-attended Embassy
Rome-Embassy Vatican conference. End Summary.


2. Ambassador John Miller, Director of the Office to Monitor
and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) visited Italy October
24-29 to meet with Italian government (Minister of Equal
Opportunity Stefania Prestigiacomo, Minister of Justice
Castelli, Ministry of Interior Prefect AnnaMaria D'Ascenzo)
and municipal officials in Rome and Turin, Vatican officials
(septel),victims, NGOs and the Romanian Ambassador to Italy.
DCM hosted a dinner for parliamentary, Ministry of Welfare
and IOM officials. In Turin, Miller met with a roundtable of
NGO organizations and later with law enforcement officials.
Miller was the keynote speaker at a conference organized
jointly by Embassy Rome and Embassy Vatican entitled "Joining
the Fight Against Modern Day Slavery" (septel) and conducted
numerous print and radio interviews. He was accompanied by
his assistant Jennifer Donnelly.


3. There are approximately 20,000-30,000 TIP victims in
Italy with 2,000-3,000 new victims moving in an out every
year. Approximately 8-10% are minors. The majority are
prostitutes, but the Minister of Justice indicated there was
increasing concern about victims of forced labor,
particularly illegal immigrants in agricultural and the
underground economy. While there was a general sense that
the trafficking problem was growing, there were no actual
statistics to support this feeling. There was agreement the
problem was continually shifting; observers noted a decline
in the number of Albanian prostitutes but an increase in
Romanian and Moldovan victims and said that traffickers
(primarily organized crime groups) were becoming more violent
and increasingly sophisticated in their ability to move
victims within and between countries.

Protection
--------------


3. Virtually all interlocutors praised Italy's Article 18
legislation that provides assistance and a residence permit
(similar to the U.S. "T" visa) for victims, although some NGO
representatives complained that benefits were sometimes
conditioned on cooperation for prosecution. Eastern European
prostitutes were more likely to cooperate than Nigerians.
During its first four years (200-2004) under Article 18,
1,359 women participated in social protection projects, 4,287
received a residence permit, 5,865 received vocational or
other educational courses and 3,734 received help in finding
a job. The majority of recipients were Nigerian (52%)
followed by Romanian, Moldovan, Albanian and Ukrainian. From
1999-2005, the Department of Equal Opportunity funded 371
social projects implemented under a 70% national-30% local
funding scheme through regions/municipalities and NGOs, the
most active of which included: Caritas, ECPAT, PARSEC, On the
Road, and ACLI. Municipal efforts, including Rome's Roxanne
Project and Turin's NGO Abele Group projects helped over
50,000 victims between 200-2004.


4. Italy has yet to achieve full implementation of Article
18, as it relies heavily on police identifying victims and
referring them to NGOs. In some cities such as Turin, there
is model cooperation, an extensive network of support for
victims and training for law enforcement officials. Miller
lunched in Turin with a group of victims (primarily Nigerian
and Romanian) in a shelter funded by the city and run by an
NGO. In Rome, there are excellent programs such as the
Roxanne Project, funded with national and city funds and
operated by NGOs, but cooperation between police and NGOs is
less successful. In Milan, NGOs are well connected to the
official community, but a lack of political interest has
stalled progress in cooperation. Minister of Equal
Opportunity Prestigiacomo conceded that the police do not
always properly distinguish between illegal immigrants and
trafficking victims. She told Amb Miller that improving
victim identification and police-NGO cooperation was a
priority for Italy, but the law was only four years old and
it takes time to change old habits and prejudices of police
officers. Officials at the Ministry of Interior said there
were training courses for law enforcement officers and felt
there was adequate understanding of how Article 18 should be
implemented, but again implementation of training was not
consistent throughout Italy.

Prosecution
--------------


5. During a meeting with Minister of Justice Castelli,
Ambassador Miller praised the efforts of MOJ Statistics Chief
DiSantis to collect national statistics on prosecution.
Castelli noted that the slow pace of justice in Italy was
responsible for discrepancies in the statistics between
arrests and prosecutions but thought the latest data would
show an increased number of prosecutions. He said it can
take 3-4 years to move a case from investigation to
sentencing. Castelli also acknowledged that Italy tracks
cases, which can include multiple defendants on multiple
charges, instead of individuals, so it can be difficult to
assess numbers of actual traffickers brought to justice.


6. In Turin, Miller met with anti-mafia and city prosecutors
and the leader of Turin's street police unit, all of whom
cooperated well together and reported a high success rate in
prosecuting traffickers. A visiting Romanian prosecutor,
whose trip was funded by an FBI program, joined the meeting
and described his efforts to work bilaterally to shut down
the cross-border slave trade. Miller also met in Rome with
the Romanian Ambassador, who very carefully praised
Italian-Romanian TIP cooperation. He said there were
approximately 250,000 legal Romanian workers in Italy and a
similar number "in the process of being legalized" but
insisted that the Embassy was rarely called upon to intervene
to protect Romanian victims. It is unclear if he was aware
of his prosecutor's activities in Turin.


7. The NGO community is divided over proposed "clean
streets" legislation to move now legal prostitution from the
streets to individual apartments. While the bill makes street
prostitution illegal for both client and prostitute, it will
greatly complicate NGO efforts to find and assist victims.
They were particularly divided over the issue of punishing
clients.

Prevention
--------------


8. The Ministry of Equal Opportunity funds NGO management
and advertising for a toll-free hot line for victims which
received 476,492 calls from July 2000-March 2005.
Interestingly, the majority of calls were from citizens (not
victims) complaining about prostitution or reporting
information about victims. The Ministries of Equal
Opportunity and Interior, with IOM,NGOs and EU counterparts
conduct training for law enforcement and judicial officers.
At every stop, Ambassador Miller explained the SAGE program
for re-education of clients and noted its growing success in
the U.S. NGOs were particularly interested in the program,
but it would have to be adapted locally to recruit clients as
prostitution is legal in Italy.






SPOGLI