DEMARCHE TO FRENCH GOVERNMENT ON 2006 TRAFFICKING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 004295 SIPDIS SIPDIS EUR/WE FOR LARREA G/TIP FOR DONNELLY EUR/PGI FOR BUCKNEBERG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG FR SUBJECT: DEMARCHE TO FRENCH GOVERNMENT ON 2006 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT REF: STATE 85537 PARIS 00004295 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The director of France's Anti-Trafficking Office, Jean-Michel Colombani, discussed with us on June 13 the 2006 TIP report and vigorously defended France's commitment to combat trafficking in persons. It was evident that Colombani found the report's narrative on France quite critical. He characterized France as the European leader in the TIP fight and expressed amazement at the tier rankings of some other countries with which he had direct experience. While Colombani understood the requirement for "appreciable progress," he noted the difficulty of obtaining improving results against ever-more sophisticated criminal networks and argued that U.S. concerns about witness protection did not apply to the French system, where this was less necessary. He hinted that a tier-two rating for France might make officials such as himself less inclined to cooperate with the U.S. Embassy in the future. END SUMMARY ¶2. (U) On June 5, we informed Jean-Michel Colombani, the Director of France's Central Office for the Repression of Human Trafficking (OCRETH),of the 2006 release of the TIP report and on France's tier ranking and provided by fax a copy of the narrative on France. On June 13, Deputy Political Counselor and poloff (TIP reporting officer) visited Colombani at OCRETH headquarters to discuss the report further and deliver reftel demarche. ¶3. (U) France's anti-trafficking office, the Central Office for the Repression of Trafficking in Persons, known by its French acronym OCRETH, is a division of the Interior Ministry's Central Direction of Judiciary Police. The office was created in 1958 in anticipation of France's 1960 accession to the 1949 UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others. (NOTE: Malka Marcovich, in her Guide to the 1949 Convention, notes that France is the only abolitionist state that created an OCRETH-like center in fulfillment of Articles 14 and 15 of the Convention, which encouraged States to establish centers to centralize information and investigations on trafficking in persons in oder to "facilitate the prevention and punishment of the offenses referred to in the Convention" and to be in contact with corresponding services in other states. END NOTE) ¶4. (SBU) Colombani clearly had taken on board the negative language in the narrative on France and welcomed the opportunity to respond. (NOTE: Colombani, who heads the operational police anti-trafficking unit, regularly receives poloff; his commitment to combatting trafficking is clear and genuine. END NOTE) He appeared dismayed at what he perceived as a negative characterization of France's ongoing efforts and expressed frustration with what he perceived as an unrealistic requirement for "appreciable progress." For example, he argued that the fact that France dismantled fewer trafficking networks in 2005 than in 2004 -- after increasing success against trafficking networks in 2003 and 2004 -- only showed that by 2005, the network bosses had adapted their procedures to evade police investigatory techniques, rendering police investigations harder and longer. It was a fact of life that the better the police got, the harder the traffickers worked, and the more difficult it was to obtain results, Colombani said. He added that trafficking chiefs now tended to stay in "softer" neighboring countries, such as Germany, and pull the strings from there. He also pointed to increased use of the internet by criminals to evade arrest and prosecution. ¶5. (SBU) Colombani categorically rejected the notion that the lack of convictions in 2004 on the specific anti-trafficking statute of the French penal code meant that no traffickers were being convicted. He explained that the French government added the anti-trafficking statute itself to the French penal code in 2003 to comply formally with France's obligations stemming from its 2002 ratification of the Palermo convention (the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime). While France inserted the anti-trafficking statute to comply with the Protocol's requirements, in fact French law already provided for stringent punishment of traffickers -- most of whom in France are trafficking for the commercial sex trade -- through its anti-pimping provisions. He emphasized that the anti-pimping statutes on which most traffickers are convicted are well-adapted to the situation in France, because the majority of trafficking victims in PARIS 00004295 002.2 OF 003 France are sexually exploited (as opposed to domestic slaves or forced labor) and because police and prosecutors know the provisions well and have used them for years. Colombani stressed that the penalties for convictions on these counts are severe and damaging to traffickers. ¶6. (SBU) On the question of protection of victims, Colombani reminded us of the October 2005 circular that Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy issued to prefects, ordering them to disseminate residential permits more broadly to trafficking victims -- i.e., a victim does not/not have to testify against his/her trafficker in order to receive a residence card. He noted a new finance law that extends social security allocations to victims. Colombani also pointed to France's May 22 signature of the Council of Europe Convention On Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, which will require all Convention signatories to provide, in appropriate cases, a residence permit that is not/not contingent on the victim's aiding authorities and to establish a 30-day reflection period in which a victim can decide whether s/he wants to cooperate with investigation/trial. ¶7. (SBU) Colombani speculated that differences in the legal systems between France and the U.S. were leading the U.S. to overestimate the importance of victim protection in the context of witness protection. He noted that the U.S. legal system, with its emphasis on testimony, creates a parallel need to protect witnesses. This was not the case in France, he argued, since police and investigating judges worked independently of witnesses and are allowed to keep their testimony secret for much longer. He concluded that, since witnesses were not put in danger, there was less need to protect them. ¶8. (SBU) Holding before him a list of the 2006 Tier rankings during the discussion, Colombani appeared astounded by the relative assessments of some of the countries with which he has direct experience in the fight against trafficking. He compared French activism with the passivity of several other European countries, citing the UK, Germany, and especially the Netherlands. On one hand, he noted amazement that Germany, which has received numerous calls from activists to close down the sex village in Berlin during the World Cup, should be ranked Tier One, along with the Netherlands, which refused to cooperate with France on trafficking. Pointing to Tier-Two Nigeria, he affirmed the importance of working with Nigeria, given because of the large number of Nigerian trafficking victims present in France, but said authorities there are so corrupt that he is unable to find a willing partner to work with France. "You're telling me that France could easily be in Tier Two, with Nigeria?" he asked, incredulous. 9.(U) Colombani was explicit that France views itself as the European leader on TIP. He enumerated the activities that France undertakes to work with officials in other countries and to further pan-European efforts against trafficking. Colombani and his officers do extensive work with countries of origin, both bilaterally and through the AGIS program of the EU (a program in which legal practitioners, law enforcement officials and NGOs in EU member states provide training and share best practices in the realm of judiciary and police cooperation). OCRETH officials have led several training sessions for Western Balkan states struggling to fight their trafficking problems; OCRETH has an officer posted in the French Embassy in Bulgaria to serve as a liaison with Bulgarian officials to combat the trafficking of Bulgarian nationals to France; three Bulgarian police officers came to work with OCRETH in 2005; in Bucharest, the French Embassy has a large cell that works closely with local police to address the trafficking issue; the OCRETH in Paris works with the Romanian police attache here; and the French MFA recently led a mission comprised of officials and NGOs to Romania to share best practices with their counterparts and to set up contact networks. Colombani concluded that he and/or his deputy, Emile Lain, had traveled to numerous countries, including -- in addition to Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania, where they make multiple visits each year -- Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, and Lithuania. ¶10. (SBU) Summing up, Colombani complained that, in many respects, France was being made a victim of its success by the U.S. Legislation was complete, perhaps more complete than elsewhere. The Interior and Justice Ministries, Police PARIS 00004295 003.2 OF 003 and Associations were in regular contact -- he named an upcoming conference in October. (NOTE: The OCRETH will hold, along with the Fondation Scelles, this fall a national day of training, in which police, magistrates, NGO workers, health authorities and others from all around France will gather in order to exchange information, share best practices, and reinforce the message of assistance to victims. END NOTE) Traffickers were indeed prosecuted, if usually under anti-pimping laws. But the job was also becoming harder. ¶11. (SBU) COMMENT: Colombani was more indignant at the characterization of France's efforts than relieved that France maintained its Tier-One ranking, as he clearly felt that French efforts were either misunderstood or unappreciated. Finally he hinted that a drop for France into the second tier could have a negative effect on the willingness of some French officials in the trafficking domain -- whether at the local level, at the Justice Ministry, or elsewhere -- to respond to U.S. requests for information. END COMMENT. Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm STAPLETON