FRANCE CONTRIBUTION FOR 2006 TIP REPORT - PART II

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 001338

SIPDIS

G/TIP FOR DONNELLY, G, INL, DRL, RPM, IWI, EUR/PGI FOR
BUCKNEBERG, EUR/WE FOR LARREA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB FR BU RO AL SL CM NI
SUBJECT: FRANCE CONTRIBUTION FOR 2006 TIP REPORT - PART II
OF II

REF: STATE 3836

VICTIM PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE - Question 24
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A. A trafficking victim who files a complaint against
his/her trafficker(s) or who testifies against him/her 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 against whom the victim made
the complaint or testified is convicted, the victim is
eligible for a permanent residency card (Article 76 of Law on
Internal Security, Official Journal of March 19, 2003). An
association, the Accompaniment Places of Welcome (ALC),
provides long-term shelter services for trafficking victims
in metropolitan France and Corsica. Thirty-three
associations provide 42 places in 36 shelters across France
for trafficking victims, and belong to the ALC. The
government funds three-quarters of the ALC budget, with the
City of Paris funding the last quarter. From January to
September 2005, the ALC received notifications on 45
trafficking victims in need of shelter from French
associations. ALC placed 35 of the victims in shelters, 11
of whom eventually returned to their country of origin.
ALC-member 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 he/she wants; and food and
lodging.

On October 31, the Interior Ministry issued a circular
reminding police, prefecture, and departmental leaders of the
means by which they can authorize temporary residence permits
and encouraging them to consider disseminating them more
broadly. The text includes a specific reference to the
residence permits that can be authorized in conjunction with
the 2003 Law on Internal Security (LSI) for trafficking
victims. It clarifies that the temporary residence permit
that can be offered to trafficking victims is for six months
(rather than three) and encourages authorities to take into
consideration the presentations that NGOs make on the
victim's behalf when considering whether to grant a permit.
The circular further reminds that a principal condition of
the granting of the permit is the victim's total cutting of
ties with the persons exploiting her or him. One NGO calls
the circular's call on French authorities an "interesting
advance" because of the clause calling on authorities to
consider the humanitarian situation of victims even if they
have not/not cooperated in an investigation for fear of
reprisal. The exact language of the circular reads (informal
Embassy translation): "Beyond the hypotheses envisaged by the
law (2003 LSI),other situations of distress can justify a
humanitarian and benevolent examination. In this regard, I
ask you to give particular attention to all the victims of
modern slavery who seek a temporary residence permit, alone
or supported by an association, without having necessarily
cooperated with the police or justice system nor immediately
testified against their exploiters for fear of reprisals. In
this case, I ask you to implement your power of appreciation
to examine humanly sensitive situations, when there appear
serious indicators letting one presume the quality of the
asking victim, resulting from the realistic character of
his/her story, of his/her having been taken in charge by an
association and the proofs that he/she furnishes on behalf of
his/her will to rejoin society." (Ministry of Interior,
Circular NOR/INT/D/05/00097/C, October 31, 2005)


B. See above, the government provides the bulk of the budget
of the NGO in charge of the shelter network.


C. 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 to receive 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.


D. Some prostitutes have been fined under the 2003 LSI.
While the maximum fine under the law is 3,750 euros, OCRETH
estimates that the average fine is about 300 euros. The
government believes that bringing the victims in off the
street accomplishes two goals: 1) it is an opportunity for
the police or an NGO to encourage him/her to file a complaint
against his/her trafficker(s) and 2) taking the victim off
the street for a night or a day deprives the trafficker of
income.


E. See above, authorities encourage victim participation in
trafficking investigations and prosecutions.


F. OCRETH did not have figures for all of France for 2005,
but in Paris, the government issued 306 temporary residence
permits, of which 197 were renewable. The GoF does not/not
have a witness protection program by which it could, for
example, disguise the identity of victims for reinsertion
into society.


G. The fight against child sex tourism is a mandatory
element of the training that students in French tourism
schools undertake to receive their degrees.


H. Post is not aware of any instances of repatriated French
trafficking victims.


I. There are numerous NGOs in France that work with adult
and child victims of trafficking, prostitution, child sex
tourism, and forced labor. A few of the more prominent are
(organizations centered in Paris unless noted otherwise):

Amis du Bus des Femmes - (Friends of the Women's Bus). NGO
that works with prostitutes, both trafficked and
untrafficked, to provide care and to help reinsert them in a
non-prostitute life. The NGO drives its equipped bus to
locations frequented by victims; it provides medical
attention but also seeks to be a refuge for victims in hopes
of helping them extricate themselves from slavery.

Amicale du Nid - Founded in 1946, NGO that works on the
streets to aid prostitutes and provide shelter, training, and
other assistance in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Marseille,
Grenoble, and Montpellier. Has a bus service, Intermede.

Association Against Child Prostitution (ACPE) - Supports
shelters for child prostitution victims in the Philippines
and Guatemala. Provides training for French tourism students
on sexual tourism involving children. Supports legal cases
against French nationals prosecuted for engaging in sexual
acts abroad with minors.

Association of Places of Accompaniment (ALC),Nice - Created
in 1913, ALC provides social services in the Alpes-Maritime
department of France. Its specialized Service for Prevention
and Social Readaptation (SPRS) provides assistance to people
in prostitution and victims of human trafficking. It
coordinates multiple preventative programs. SPRS provides
street work (social workers, public health workers, and
cultural mediators go on the streets from 8 pm to 3 am),
counseling, vocational guidance and follow-up, cultural and
linguistic mediation (SPRS staff speak several of the
languages of trafficked victims),awareness and information
campaigns, professional training, and runs a national network
of protection for victims of trafficking known as Ac.Se.
(Secure Welcome). SPRS Director Patrick Hauvuy works
tirelessly to help trafficking victims and to raise the level
of services available to victims both within France and
within Europe broadly as well. He is extremely active in
visiting source countries and working with NGO personnel and
authorities there.

Committee Against Modern Slavery (CCEM) - Founded in 1994,
the CCEM helps victims of domestic servitude. Since its
inception, the CCEM has helped about 300 victims; CCEM
officials estimate they take on about 30 new cases each year.
In July 2005, the French state was found guilty in a
CCEM-sponsored case at the European Court of Human Rights of
having failed to adequately protect a young Togolese woman.

ECPAT France - NGO that works to combat sex tourism involving
children, affiliated with the international ECPAT network.
ECPAT France was founded in 1992. ECPAT works within an
international network. In France it is very active with Air
France, which sells goods for which the proceeds go to Ecpat,
and shows on its buses to Paris airports a video warning of
the potential judicial consequences of engaging a minor for
sex abroad (making the point that French nationals are bound
by French law on the matter even outside French territory).

Esclavage Tolerance Zero (Marseille) - Works with CCEM in
Paris, but focuses also on sex slaves in addition to domestic
slavery.

Fondation Scelles - Founded in 1993, fights against
prostitution and trafficking in persons. Has a very strong
legal research team, which publishes on pan-European legal
schema for combating trafficking. Also works with NGOs in
source countries.

Mouvement du Nid - Part, along with Amicale du Nid, of Nid
(Nest),which seeks to create a society without prostitution.
It is present in most regions of France, and in some other
countries (Brazil, Portugal, Belgium, and Cote d'Ivoire).

Terre d'Asile - Founded in 1971 to promote the daily use of
the right of asylum, follow the evolution of legal
dispositions and administrative measures relating to asylum,
help welcome refugees and asylum-seekers, and advocate a
policy of social and professional readaption.

La Voix de l'Enfant - "Voice of the Child," Founded in 1981.
Its goal is "To Listen to and Defend Childhood in Distress in
France and in the World." Works in several different fields,
including combatting sex tourism involving children. Has
several affiliate organizations as well.

Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm

Stapleton