Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05YEREVAN2001
2005-11-15 05:42:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Yerevan
Cable title:  

EUR/TIP: INTERIM ASSESSMENT FOR ARMENIA

Tags:  KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG AM 
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 YEREVAN 002001 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, G/TIP

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG AM
SUBJECT: EUR/TIP: INTERIM ASSESSMENT FOR ARMENIA

REF: STATE 188750

Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect
accordingly.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 YEREVAN 002001

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN, G/TIP

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG AM
SUBJECT: EUR/TIP: INTERIM ASSESSMENT FOR ARMENIA

REF: STATE 188750

Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect
accordingly.


1. (SBU) Since January 2005, the GOAM has made
progress on fighting trafficking in persons,
especially in promoting the National Action Plan and
increasing prosecutions under the anti-trafficking
statute, but still has a significant way to go on
some crucial areas. The following responses are
geared to reftel questions.

-------------- --------------
A) PROMOTING/IMPLEMENTING THE NATIONAL ACTION PLAN
-------------- --------------


2. (SBU) The Government of Armenia has made good
progress in officially distributing, publicly
promoting and implementing its 2004 National Action
Plan.

-- In order to deliver the message on the dangers of
trafficking and to prevent it, staff from the
Prosecutor General's Office frequently appeared on
TV and provided interviews to other mass media
outlets.

-- The Deputy Head of the Department of Migration
and Refugees, Lyalya Aslanyan, provided a number of
interviews throughout the year. In particular,
during a 50-minute program that aired in September
on Public Radio she discussed trafficking, the
National Plan of Action and the difference between
trafficking and prostitution.

-- Government-controlled media have increased both
the frequency and usefulness of programming warning
of the dangers of trafficking.

-------------- --------------
B) ASSISTING VICTIMS, INCREASING POLICE REFERRALS
-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) The Government of Armenia has made some
progress in increasing the number of victims
assisted and referred to shelters.

-- During 2004 a total of 12 victims were referred
to shelters (run by UMCOR and Hope and Help) by
Armenian law enforcement bodies. In contrast,
during 2005 UMCOR worked with 9 victims, 4 of whom
were referred by the National Security Service, 4 by
the Police and 1 was identified by their
subcontractor, Democracy Today NGO. These 9 victims
were hosted in their shelter. The police also
invited UMCOR to interview 4 TIP victims in order to
convince them to go to the shelter, but the victims
chose to not take advantage of the shelter. UMCOR

also worked with one TIP victim without placing him
in the shelter. Hope and Help NGO did not have a
shelter for most of 2005, because their funding was
interrupted. They are currently restarting the
program and they received their first victim on
November 2, 2005, referred to them by the National
Security Service. Overall during 2005, Armenian law
enforcement bodies have already referred 9 victims
to TIP shelters and tried to refer an additional 4
victims, a slight increase over 2004.

-- The MFA repatriated 5 women in 2004 from Dubai.
One of these women was the trafficker of two of the
victims that the MFA returned, and was tried and
convicted in 2004 under charges of pimping.
(Although the MFA did not have information on what
happened to these girls after their return, none of
these women were referred to a shelter.) Already in
2005, the MFA has repatriated 9 victims from Dubai.
UMCOR was involved in two of the cases, and bought
the ticket for one of the girls, who stayed in the
shelter for only two days, then left. The MFA also
noted that over the past six months the GOAM had
paid significant attention to improving conditions
in the border check points. Within the framework of
the "Export Control and Border Security" agreement
signed between Armenia and the USA, a new border
checkpoint in Bagratashen was built that includes a
special room with a small kitchen for refugees,
asylum seekers and trafficking victims, where they
can stay for one or two days until they are
transferred to the appropriate agency or
organization.

--------------
C) CHARGING TRAFFICKERS WITH TRAFFICKING
--------------

4. (SBU) The Government of Armenia has made
significant progress in applying Article 132 of the
criminal code to prosecute traffickers to the full
extent of the law.

-- While in 2004 there was only one case brought on
charges of Article 132, during the first 10 months
of 2005 there have already been 9 criminal cases
brought against 14 defendants on charges of Article
132 (6 of the 9 cases are still working their way
through the courts).
--------------
D) TRAINING PROSECUTORS AND JUDGES
--------------


5. (SBU) The Government of Armenia has made good
progress in educating and training prosecutors and
limited progress in educating and training judges
about the new statute.

-- The International Organization for Migration
(IOM) Yerevan Office trained 15 police and Ministry
of Justice representatives in Yerevan September 25-

26. According to the IOM post-action report,
"Participants discussed and confronted modus
operandi of traffickers and trends observed in
Armenia. The training also focused on anti-
trafficking national legislation conformity with UN
standards, in particular with respect to the Palermo
Protocol, and on operational problem areas.
Participants exchanged information on existing
regulation and on the methodologies applied to
counteract the phenomenon in Armenia. The training
module comprises things to do and things to avoid,
providing a comprehensive range of hints on human
trafficking law enforcement issues, in addition to a
specific and concise set of information and
realistic instructions for the best practice on
interviewing."

-- The Special Unit on Combating TIP and Illegal
Migration of the Prosecutor General's Office has
prepared instructions on how to investigate TIP
cases and sent it to all regional and community
prosecutors for them to examine the instructions and
organize training in the regions based on the
instructions.

-- In the second half of 2005, the Prosecutor
General's Educational and Research Center published
500 copies of a 151-page book on "Methods of
Investigation of Cases on TIP, Prostitution and
other forms of Sexual Exploitation." The book also
includes the international conventions and protocols
specific to TIP, and has been distributed in the
regions. The Center also organized a series of
trainings for the Prosecutor General's investigators
on the specifics of crimes of this nature.

-- In addition, during 2005 the Prosecutor General's
Office worked in close cooperation with UNDP, ABA-
CEELI, OSCE and other international organizations,
participating in numerous seminars, roundtables and
conferences, serving to raise the Prosecutor
General's staff's awareness about international
practices on fighting trafficking.

-- UMCOR organized a number of training seminars
with border guards from Zvartnots airport and the
Bagrateshen (Armenian/Georgian) border crossing on
identifying and assisting trafficking victims.

-------------- ---
E) INVESTIGATING AND PROSECUTING GOAM COMPLICITY
-------------- ---


6. (SBU) The Government of Armenia has unfortunately
made no progress in vigorously investigating
allegations of prosecutors and border guards,
complicity in trafficking and prosecuting and
convicting law enforcement officials who facilitate
trafficking. Although the MFA noted that the
President, in response to the concerns identified in
the annual U.S. TIP report, instructed the Chief
Prosecutor's office to instruct the appropriate law
enforcement agencies to prevent, identify and
strongly prosecute those responsible, the Prosecutor
General's office contended that there were no cases
of assistance or complicity of the workers of the
law-enforcement bodies, including the Prosecutor
system as well as the border guards, in trafficking
in persons, organization of prostitution or
involvement into prostitution and that no such
information was obtained during the investigation
and prosecution of criminal cases. The subject of
one of the most consistent victim and NGO
allegations of complicity remains in his position
within the Prosecutor General's office's anti-
trafficking task force.
EVANS