COORDINATOR OF THE CYPRUS NATIONAL ACTION PLAN ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L NICOSIA 000318

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM CY
SUBJECT: COORDINATOR OF THE CYPRUS NATIONAL ACTION PLAN ON
TRAFFICKING FUMBLES FOR EXPLANATIONS

REF: NICOSIA 1925

Classified By: Ambassador Ronald L. Schlicher; reasons 1.4 (B) and (D)


1. (C) In a February 27 meeting with Interior Ministry
Permanent Secretary Lazaros Savvides, Polchief underscored
our concern that the GOC had failed to take decisive action
in implementing the National Action Plan on Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) that the Council of Ministers approved last
May. Polchief reminded Savvides, who is responsible for
overall GOC coordination on the Action Plan, that he had
promised us in our last conversation on December 2 (reftel)
that the government would both open the planned victims'
shelter and complete the Trafficking handbook for officials
by the end of February. The GOC had fulfilled neither of
these commitments, nor had we seen demonstrable progress in
other important areas. There had been little movement on
legislation or initiating any kind of public awareness
campaign. The level of resources devoted to anti-trafficking
efforts had actually fallen, and no action had been taken
against unlicensed cabarets. Moreover, we had learned from a
number of trafficking victims in a privately run shelter that
they had not received the information leaflet that the GOC
claimed it distributed to all arriving female foreign
workers.


2. (C) Savvides was defensive, but could offer little to
improve our overall picture of GOC performance. He stressed
the government's commitment to taking action on trafficking,
but also the difficulty of overcoming bureaucratic inertia.
The government-sponsored shelter that had been scheduled to
open last August had been delayed over a dispute with the
landlord. New legislation on trafficking was in train, but
would take time. Savvides did not expect the new laws would
be introduced in parliament until after the May elections,
and probably not before next October. On the issue of a
public information campaign, Savvides claimed that beginning
in March the Ministry had plans to distribute posters and
leaflets on trafficking that the Council of Europe had
prepared. The GOC had also agreed to fund an NGO-led
awareness campaign that would begin "soon."


3. (C) Polchief asked for Savvides' personal assessment as
to what constituted the most significant GOC successes on
trafficking in the last year. Savvides fumbled for a
coherent response, citing "various ministries" that had made
"continuous efforts" to achieve their "respective goals.
When pinned down for a specific example, Savvides identified
the GOC's tightening up on "artiste" visa requirements to the
point that cabaret owners and impresarios were issuing formal
complaints. When Polchief asked if this meant the GOC was,
in fact, issuing fewer "artiste" visas, Savvides demurred.
(Note: His office later forwarded us statistics indicating
that the GOC issued 4,000 "artiste" visas in 2005 in
comparison with 4,621 in 2004.)


4. (C) Comment: Although he has overall responsibility for
the issue, Savvides seemed poorly informed as to the
specifics of the government's anti-trafficking efforts. In
part, this is because his agenda is overloaded. Savvides has
been managing a series of complex and high-profile
negotiations with the employees of Cyprus Airways. We have a
clear sense that since the adoption of the National Action
Plan, the air has gone out of the balloon, and it has been
difficult for the GOC to bring much focus to the hard-slog of
actual implementation. Savvides was almost apologetic about
how little progress the government had made. The GOC has not
done well on TIP this year and Savvides knows it.
SCHLICHER