ISRAEL: SIXTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 TEL AVIV 000918

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR G/TIP: GAYATRI PATEL; NEA/IPA: JOSHUA DAVIS;
NEA/RA: JOHN MENARD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB IS ISRAELI SOCIETY GOI INTERNAL
SUBJECT: ISRAEL: SIXTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT
(3 OF 4)

REF: A. SECSTATE 03836

B. TEL AVIV 596

(SBU) This cable forms the third part of a four-part message
in response to reftel A. Embassy point of contact is poloff
James Miller, phone (972)3-519-7437, fax (972)3-519-7484.

For NGO reports about the failure of the IA adequately to
enforce the law against passport confiscation, please see
response, above, to question B in the overview section.

-- F. Is there any information or reports of who is behind
the trafficking? For example, are the traffickers freelance
operators, small crime groups, and/or large international
organized crime syndicates? Are employment, travel, and
tourism agencies or marriage brokers fronting for traffickers
or crime groups to traffic individuals? Are government
officials involved? Are there any reports of where profits
from trafficking in persons are being channeled? (e.g. armed
groups, terrorist organizations, judges, banks, etc.)

For more information about the traffickers, please see
response, above, to question B in the overview section.

-- Sex trafficking: NGO representatives concur that evidence
does not demonstrate extensive involvement in sex trafficking
by Israeli employment, travel and tourism agencies. One NGO
plans to write a report to analyze the identity of sex
traffickers and their networks based on court records. They
have applied for and received government permission to access
these records.

-- Labor trafficking: NGOs charge that some Israeli
employment/manpower agencies profit from activities that
constitute labor trafficking. Foreign recruiters, smugglers,
Israeli manpower agencies, and Israeli employers split the
illegal fees that workers pay to come to Israel, according to
NGOs. Manpower agencies and employers profit from low wages
and inadequate board and lodging.

-- G. Does the government actively investigate cases of
trafficking? (Again, the focus should be on trafficking
cases versus migrant smuggling cases.) Does the government
use active investigative techniques in trafficking in persons
investigations? To the extent possible under domestic law,
are techniques such as electronic surveillance, undercover
operations, and mitigated punishment or immunity for
cooperating suspects used by the government? Does the
criminal procedure code or other laws prohibit the police
from engaging in covert operations?

During 2005, the police used various means to obtain evidence
in trafficking cases. These means include: agents working
under-cover, surveillance, electronic monitoring of phone
communications, filming of trafficking operations and
interception of telephone conversations. In addition, the
INP initiated investigations rather than relying on sporadic
complaints.

A senior police contact reported that during the summer of
2005 police officers did not fight trafficking at all because
the INP ordered all officers to train for and support
disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

In 2003, the government established the Ramon Border Police
unit to combat smuggling of persons, weapons and drugs across
the border with Egypt. In 2005, this special unit requested
and received additional resources to prevent weapons
smuggling and trafficking in persons. It will receive
additional manpower and resources as the GOI redeploys
battalions formerly serving elsewhere to monitor and protect
Israel,s borders with Jordan and Egypt (reftel B).

NGO representatives say that, most often, police officials
follow up complaints from NGOs or victims rather than
actively initiating investigations on their own. According
to NGOs, most often the IA police -) instead of the INP,s
crime investigation unit -- find trafficking victims while
patrolling the streets for illegal immigrants. The INP then
follows up on these cases. NGO workers also claim to know of
-) but have not provided evidence of -- specific cases in
which police from the IA arrested victims in the company of
their traffickers or pimps, and deported the victims while
the traffickers or pimps went free. Moreover, NGOs say,
police do not actively pursue traffickers by following leads
accessible in public places, such as escort agency
advertisements found in newspapers, the Internet, and small
cards commonly placed on car windshields. When they do
follow these open leads, NGOs say, IA police often simply use
escort agencies to arrange meetings with women whom they then
deport if they do not have valid visas, rather than determine
whether they are trafficking victims.

Throughout the year, both the Israel Broadcasting Authority
and the Second Authority for Television and Radio aired TV
and radio programs focused on the social problems and crimes
that lead to sex trafficking, including two full-length
films. Both Broadcasting Authorities also ran TV and radio
programs about labor trafficking, discussing issues such as
the legal status of foreign workers' children. Some of these
programs included open discussions with Members of Knesset,
NGO workers, and officials at the IA. In January and
February, 2006, Israel,s Channel 1 and Channel 2 produced
widely-watched special TV programs on trafficking. In one
program, a camera crew joined a Tel Aviv police unit in a
raid on brothels that was organized after the police gathered
concrete intelligence about hiding places. When the police
found the women locked in secret cupboards and spaces behind
sealed walls, they assailed the victims with a shocking level
of verbal abuse. They found some 15 trafficking victims, all
of whom NGOs claim the police then arrested and deported
within two weeks. NGOs also say that the police did not
offer any of the victims time to reflect upon and evaluate
the possibility of testifying, nor did the police transfer
any of the women to the shelter.

-- H. Does the government provide any specialized training
for government officials in how to recognize, investigate,
and prosecute instances of trafficking?

The GOI continued to expand its efforts to train government
officials, although such efforts generally took place in
periodic seminars and lectures rather than through a
systematic and broad-based approach. The MFA included
information on TIP in training programs for diplomats posted
to source countries. MOJ officials and NGOs trained new INP
recruits at the Police Training Academy, border police
interrogators, judges in immigrant detention centers, and
prosecutors at the Institute for Continuing Education of
Prosecutors and Legal Advisors. As mentioned above, the IDF
agreed to introduce an informational article on trafficking
in women in its monthly circular, and to develop
anti-trafficking seminars and lectures for IDF soldiers.

The Immigration Administration (IA) initiated training and
education for doctors working in the detention facilities to
familiarize them with illnesses common to trafficking
victims. The IA has also joined forces with the Levinsky
Clinic of the Ministry of Health in Tel Aviv, which deals
with sexually transmitted diseases and plans to send
representatives to visit the facilities to test for these
diseases.

In addition, a representative of the MOJ delivered May 24 a
lecture on trafficking before senior officials of the IA.
This lecture emphasized the international context of
trafficking, the treaties that apply and the human rights
perspective. The exchange that followed led the
Administration to issue a document to aid in screening and
identifying victims of trafficking in their detention
facilities.

For more information, please also see response, above, to
question B in the overview section.

--I. Does the government cooperate with other governments in
the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases? If
possible, can post provide the number of cooperative
international investigations on trafficking?

-- Sex trafficking: The government does cooperate with other
governments in the investigation and prosecution of sex
trafficking cases. See question J, below.

-- Labor trafficking: The GOI did not report cooperation with
other governments in the investigation and prosecution of
labor trafficking cases.

-- J. Does the government extradite persons who are charged
with trafficking in other countries? If so, can post provide
the number of traffickers extradited? Does the government
extradite its own nationals charged with such offenses? If
not, is the government prohibited by law form extraditing its
own nationals? If so, what is the government doing to modify
its laws to permit the extradition of its own nationals?

The government may extradite Israeli nationals under the
provisions of the Extradition Law 5714-1954, as amended in
2001, which specifically allows the GOI to extradite any
person charged with a penalty punishable by more than one
year in prison to a country with which it has an extradition
treaty. The GOI may also extradite an individual to any
country that, along with Israel, is party to a multilateral
international convention that contains extradition provisions.

Israel also submits extradition requests to other countries
in connection with trafficking cases in Israel.

As a result of coordinated police efforts during the year,
Russian officials extradited Israeli national Shota
Shamelashvili to Israel, where he is currently on trial for
trafficking in persons; American officials extradited another
Israeli national, Yigal Mizrachi, to Israel, where he is
currently serving a prison term for trafficking-related
offenses; Ukrainian officials extradited Sergey Matatov to
Israel, where he is currently on trial for trafficking in
persons, and the Ukrainians also extradited to Israel Yevgeny
Kanevski, who allegedly helped lead an international criminal
organization for the trafficking of women from the Ukraine to
Israel. During the year, Israel received legal assistance
from Russia and the Ukraine for the trial of several Israeli
defendants indicted for trafficking in persons. Also as a
result of joint investigations, Israeli and Belarussian
officials arrested several suspected members of two criminal
groups that trafficked women from Belarus to Israel.

-- K. Is there evidence of government involvement in or
tolerance of trafficking, on a local or institutional level?
If so, please explain in detail.

No evidence exists to indicate that government officials
traffic in persons.

-- L. If government officials are involved in trafficking,
what steps has the government taken to end such
participation? Have any government officials been prosecuted
for involvement in trafficking or trafficking- related
corruption? Have any been convicted? What actual sentence
was imposed? Please provide specific numbers, if available.

The GOI views its increasingly extensive training about the
reprehensible nature of trafficking as a deterrent to police
officers and other officials who consider violating
trafficking laws. The Israeli law that forbids sex
trafficking applies to the entire population, including
public officials. A wide variety of anti-corruption laws
also apply to public officials. The state attorney used
these laws to indict MK Shlomo Benizri in February 2006 on
charges of bribery, for accepting gifts from a manpower
company in exchange for information about quotas for foreign
workers. The police have also recommended pressing charges
against MK Yair Peretz, former chairman of the Knesset
Foreign Workers Committee, for helping a manpower company to
break the law in return for reported thousands of shekels.
The company continues to operate.

NGO representatives maintain that policemen patronize
brothels and on several occasions warned brothel owners of
impending raids. During the year, two NGOs surveyed 106
trafficked women, 44 percent of whom claimed that policemen
patronized their brothels.
For the last five years the Department for Investigation of
Police Officers, an autonomous division of the MOJ, has
operated an exposure unit that focuses on professional
ethics. This unit conducts investigations that require
intelligence deployment and long-term undercover activity.
Its officers investigate accusations that directly or
indirectly implicate police officers in trafficking,
accepting sexual or other forms of bribes from prostitutes or
brothel operators, and assisting felons by, for instance,
providing advance notice of police raids. The Department
also established a joint procedure for collaboration with the
IA which stipulates that, in cases in which the Department is
about to conduct an investigation and a foreign worker is an
essential witness, the IA will not deport or detain the
worker until the end of the judicial procedure necessitating
his presence in Israel.

The Department for Investigation of Police Officers
investigated an officer who had sexual relations, without
payment, with an illegal resident who engaged in
prostitution. The department ordered the officer to take
compulsory leave and has not yet decided the future of his
service. The Department completed an investigation of police
officers who met, in 2002, with prostitutes from an escort
service while a police operation was underway against the
same service; the details of this meeting came to light
during criminal proceedings in September 2004. The
department is currently reviewing disciplinary measures
against these officers.

In a recent case against police officers convicted of sexual
crimes against a foreign worker, the Supreme Court accepted
the appeal of the prosecution and increased one of the
sentences to 42 months of imprisonment from 24 months (C.A.
11088/04, 10670/04, 10721/04 Yaish et al. v. State of
Israel). In another case, a police officer confessed to and
was convicted of demanding sexual favors from a woman whom he
had threatened to arrest and deport if she did not comply.
In December, a judge sentenced him to eight months in prison
with an additional ten-month suspended sentence. In another
case, judges sentenced an officer from the IA charged with
causing palpable injury to a foreign worker during his arrest
to 15 months' imprisonment, 15 months' suspended
imprisonment, and 10,000 NIS compensation to the victim. The
defendant appealed his conviction and sentencing, and the
Supreme Court denied the appeal in November, 2005. In a case
that concluded in December, 2005, judges sentenced a police
detective for acceptance of bribery, indecent behavior,
sexual harassment and breach of trust to eight months'
imprisonment and 10 months' suspended imprisonment

Police investigated a former IA officer on charges of
extorting money from foreign workers in return for
facilitating their release from detention by transferring
them to other employers. Police charged that he abused the
"closed skies" system, under which the government encourages
employers to hire foreign workers from among those detained
and awaiting deportation, rather than bringing in new ones
from abroad. Many foreign workers have complained to NGOs
about similar abuse of this system. The IA officer has not
yet been indicted.

The Department for Investigation of Police Officers reports
that it received 15 complaints in 2005 of police officer
violence against illegal residents, a significant reduction
from the 50 it received in 2004. Investigators concluded 11
of the cases without indictment or disciplinary action, due
to lack of evidence, and continue to investigate the four
other complaints. The Department has set a guideline that
investigations of complaints made by foreign workers should
be concluded within a maximum of 45 days. In cases where
prosecutors gather sufficient evidence for indictment, they
can file the indictment through an accelerated procedure,
including pre-trial testimony, to ensure that the proceedings
will be effective even if the foreign worker leaves Israel.

-- M. If the country has an identified child sex tourism
problem (as source or destination),how many foreign
pedophiles has the government prosecuted or
deported/extradited to their country of origin? Does the
country's child sexual abuse laws have extraterritorial
coverage (like the U.S. PROTECT Act)?

No evidence exists to indicate that child sex tourism occurs
in Israel.

Section 15 of the Penal Law provides that when an Israeli
citizen or resident undertakes child sexual abuse activities
abroad that would be illegal if conducted within Israel, he
or she may still be charged in Israel with that crime, e.g.,
receiving sexual services of a child, child prostitution,
child pornography, and trafficking in children.

-- N. Has the government signed, ratified, and/or taken steps
to implement the following international instruments? Please
provide the date of signature/ratification if appropriate.

--ILO Convention 182 concerning the prohibition and immediate
action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor.

The government ratified ILO Convention 182 on December 16,

2004.

--ILO Convention 29 and 105 on forced or compulsory labor.

The government ratified these conventions on July 7, 1955,
and April 10, 1958, respectively.

--The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) on the sale of children, child prostitution,
and child pornography.

The government signed this protocol on November 14, 2001, but
has not ratified the conventions.

--The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the UN
Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.

The government signed this instrument on November 14, 2001,
but has not ratified it.

-------------- -

6. (SBU) PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS
-------------- -

-- A. Does the government assist victims, for example, by
providing temporary to permanent residency status, relief
from deportation, shelter and access to legal, medical and
psychological services? If so, please explain. Does the
country have victim care and victim health care facilities?
If so, can post provide the number of victims placed in these
care facilities?

-- Sex trafficking

Temporary or permanent residency status

Trafficking victims cannot receive permanent residency status
in Israel unless they marry an Israeli citizen or convert to
Judaism according to Orthodox requirements. The Interior
Ministry provides temporary visas (usually for up to one
year, and occasionally renewable for another year) to victims
serving as material witnesses in court cases. In some
instances, the Ministry grants permission for them to obtain
employment, and the GOI reported a rise in the number of
victims receiving this permission during 2005. During the
year, the Interior Ministry reports that it granted 24 women
visas to reside and to work in Israel; six women visas to
reside in Israel but not to work; eight women one-year visas
to reside but not to work in Israel; and two women
humanitarian visas to reside but not to work in Israel. The
Ministry also issued 30 laissez-passers for victims lacking
passports. Over the course of 2005, 46 shelter residents
worked outside the shelter in stores, bakeries, restaurants,
and the cosmetics industry.

The government during 2005 also began to grant temporary
visas and work permits on humanitarian grounds to some
victims who did not testify in court. In some cases, the
Interior Ministry awarded visas to victims of trafficking to
allow them a period of recovery. In one such case, the
Ministry granted to a victim who had been trafficked as a
minor a third visa extension, for six months, after two
one-year visas. To help a victim to stay in Israel in
humanitarian circumstances, the de facto coordinator submits
a request for temporary visa status to a senior official in
the Population Administration, a department in the Interior
Ministry. This senior official evaluates each application
individually, before submitting a recommendation to the
director general of the Population Administration. The
director general then makes the final decision whether to
approve or deny the visa.

NGO representatives acknowledge that the Interior Ministry
granted more visas to victims in 2005, but note that the
Ministry still denies approximately one half of the victims,
applications. NGOs also criticize the slow evaluation
process for what they describe as its unpredictable and
seemingly arbitrary nature. They claim that the Ministry did
not follow any identifiable logic or pattern in explaining
its visa refusals, or in establishing the length and
conditions of the visas it approves. Some of the
explanations for decisions reflected, NGOs aver, hostility
toward victims and a lack of understanding about the nature
of trafficking.

During 2005, the Legal Aid Division of the MOJ began to help
the de facto coordinator handle the increased number of visa
requests. Legal Aid now prepares victims, requests for
temporary residence visas once they have concluded their
court testimony. Legal Aid does not charge for this service.

Relief from deportation

Senior police officers in the INP, the IA, the detention
centers, and the Ramon Border Police told poloff that they
implemented a major policy change during 2005. They began to
send all suspected victims of trafficking for the purpose of
sexual exploitation immediately to the shelter for trafficked
women in Tel Aviv. They said they no longer transfer to the
shelter only those women who agree to testify, while
deporting the rest. During 2005, according to the GOI, 78
percent of the women who stayed in the shelter testified
against their traffickers, and the shelter accepted on a
purely humanitarian basis, without testimony, 15 percent of
the shelter residents, including pregnant women, women with
children, women under 18, sick women or women at risk at
their country of origin. In addition, the police have begun
to transfer women to the shelter to afford them time to
decide whether they wish to testify against their
traffickers; in 2005, according to the INP, three women took
advantage of this deliberation period.

NGO representatives questioned the consistency of this
practice as well as the ability of police officers to
identify trafficking victims during the short period of time
that precedes the victims, deportation. NGOs noted that
sometimes women do not seek immediately to identify
themselves as trafficking victims, for fear of either the
Israeli authorities or the traffickers. The IA, NGOs claim,
often deported victims before they had time to recover from
the trauma of trafficking, captivity and arrest.

The INP also reports that it began during 2005 to perform
risk assessments in cases where trafficking victims claimed
they or their families might face danger if returned to their
countries of origin. Police intelligence, with the
assistance of Interpol and the INP delegate abroad, assessed
victims' risk status in Israel and in their countries of
origin. In three cases during the year, the police concluded
that women would be endangered if they returned to their home
countries; GOI officials say the government did not deport
these women.

Shelter

On February 15, 2004, the GOI opened in Tel Aviv, with
funding support from the U.S. government, the first shelter
for trafficking victims. The shelter can accommodate a
maximum of 50 persons. The government reported that, over
the course of the year, 105 trafficked women, 45 of whom
arrived in 2004, and eight children resided in the shelter.
A steering committee for the shelter makes decisions on
matters of policy and practice, and includes representatives
from the Ministry of Social Affairs, police, Ministry of
Public Security, MOJ, Ministry of Health, and the NGO Keshet,
as well as the director of the shelter. Personnel from the
Ministry of Public Security guard the shelter, providing
protection for the women and accompanying them to court
proceedings and meetings with the District Attorney.

The government provides to all women residing in the shelter
legal, medical and psychological services and eligibility to
apply for a temporary visa. The Memorandum of Agreement
signed in 2004 between the U.S. and Israeli governments
stipulates that a "preference" be afforded to women who agree
to testify against their traffickers, but police have, until
this year, transferred to the shelter only those women who
agreed to testify.

The Interior Ministry, in cooperation with the ITL Ministry,
has established a system of issuing work permits to
trafficking victims residing in the shelter without limiting
them to a specific job or field. This system is not
available to trafficking victims who do not reside in the
shelter.

On January 1, 2006, the Knesset amended the Law regarding
Israel Economic Recovery Program to exempt employers of women
residing in the shelter from paying a foreign workers levy,
amounting to eight percent of the women's wages. This
important amendment removed a disincentive to employ former
victims of trafficking.

During the year, the state attorney took steps to guarantee
the privacy of trafficking victims. On September 22, he
instructed the district attorneys, the heads of departments
in the state attorney's office, and the head of the
Department for Investigation of Police Officers to use
initials rather than the full names of trafficking victims in
indictments.

Legal services

Legal Aid in 2005 provided legal assistance to victims in the
shelter to help them to submit visa applications and to
appeal their refusal, and to file civil suits against their
traffickers. In addition, the director general of the MOJ
issued a policy decision to broaden Legal Aid to include all
sex trafficking victims, including those in the detention
facilities. The GOI has set the date of April 23, 2006 for
implementation of this program.

Medical and psychological services

The Ministry of Health provided to the shelter a physician
and access for residents to the nearby Ichilov Hospital. It
also financed health care services, including general
check-ups, gynecological care, urgent dental care, pregnancy
and birth care, emergency room care, hospitalization,
hospital care and operations as needed, contagious and
infectious diseases care, sexually transmitted disease care
(including HIV treatment),medications, and aftercare
supervision.

The Ministry also provided a professional psychologist and a
social worker to offer regular counseling sessions to victims
on an individual basis, augmented by group activities, art
therapy, and an array of personal and professional enrichment
activities. To educate trafficking victims and the public
about the shelter, the staff created a website in 2005.

The country does not have specific victim care and victim
health care facilities. NGOs note that victims of sex
trafficking whom the police did not refer to the shelter
generally did not receive legal, medical, or psychological
services.

Safe Return

The shelter staff report that they operate a "Safe Return"
project that involves risk assessment and counseling with
psychologists and social workers to determine victims' need
for assistance in the return and rehabilitation process in
their countries of origin. Most victims feared returning to
their home countries, shelter staff report; as a result, 70
percent of the women who returned home in 2005 asked for
assistance. They reportedly received assistance at the
shelter in Tel Aviv, and from NGOs and IOM in their countries
of origin. According to the GOI, the shelter maintains
contact with 50 aid and assistance NGO's in countries of
origin. The shelter's staff members say they try to remain
in contact with victims following their return home.

-- Labor trafficking

Temporary or permanent residency status

During 2005, the Interior Ministry provided visa extensions
to trafficking victims serving as material witnesses in court
cases. In some instances, the Ministry allowed witnesses to
obtain other employment, although NGOs say the Ministry
rarely granted work permits to witnesses. More typically,
NGOs claim, the government either detained workers pending
conclusion of the trial, or deported them before they had an
opportunity to testify. Those who received permission to
work had to overcome the usual prohibitions on changing
employers, including the challenge of locating an employer to
hire them within the same sector where they previously
worked. Often, NGOs report, clerks in the ITL Ministry
required workers to produce a release letter from their
former employer before changing jobs, even though the
Ministry regulations no longer require these letters.

According to current procedures, to apply for a work permit,
a trafficked worker must seek an administrative ruling from
the Interior Ministry, and workers generally require the
assistance of a lawyer to complete this process. During the
year, the Ministry considered applications on a case-by-case
basis, taking into account the length of time the worker had
been in country and would need to stay in order to complete
court testimony. Victims who left the country needed to
re-enter with a valid visa, which deterred most victims from
leaving or, if they did, from returning.

Relief from deportation

The IA may grant foreign workers, including trafficking
victims, a temporary stay of deportation if they have a
complaint pending before the Crime Unit of the IA.

Legal Aid

The government does not provide state-funded Legal Aid to
foreign workers. They rely, instead, on NGOs. The
government does not provide to NGOs funding for this service.

Medical Care

According to the Foreign Workers, Law, employers must
provide medical insurance to their foreign workers. NGOs
aver that employers generally provide only limited coverage,
and some provide none at all. Detained foreign workers
receive basic medical care in the detention facilities.

Foreign workers in Tel Aviv receive social services from a
special welfare unit in the Tel Aviv Municipality. They do
not receive psychological treatment.

-- B. Does the government provide funding or other forms of
support to foreign or domestic NGOs for services to victims?
Please explain.

Currently, the government provides funding only to the
shelter in Tel Aviv. It does not fund or provide other
support to foreign or domestic NGOs for provision of services
to victims. Prior to the opening of the shelter in February
2004, police housed witnesses in police-funded hostels, but
police sources claim they have stopped this program and now
send sex trafficking victims to the shelter in Tel Aviv.

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