CONTINUING TO ENGAGE GOA, MEDIA AND NGOS ON TIP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 001099

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2017
TAGS: PHUM KCRM KWMN PREL AG
SUBJECT: CONTINUING TO ENGAGE GOA, MEDIA AND NGOS ON TIP

REF: ALGIERS 931

Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Following the June 12 release of the 2007
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, we are continuing to
engage the Algerian government and the media on TIP. The GOA
still maintains that Algeria has been maligned and says that
the government is addressing the TIP issue. The difference
remains largely one of conceptual language: the GOA sees TIP
as part of the overall problem of illegal immigration, a
problem it acknowledges; but the GOA has yet to articulate
TIP as a distinct issue and it is aware the clock is ticking.
At least one media contact has expressed interest in
reporting on the trafficking aspect of illegal immigration.
Three NGOs will distribute the Department's "Be Smart, Be
Safe..." guide on TIP. END SUMMARY.

GOA STILL UNHAPPY
--------------


2. (C) In a July 14 meeting with poloff, Mohammed Amara
(Director General of Juridical and Judicial Affairs, MOJ),
Khedidja Ladjel Aloui (Private Secretary, Ministry of
National Solidarity) and Saoudi Seddik (Deputy Director for
the status of people, social affairs and agreements, MFA)
spoke of GOA efforts to combat TIP and repeated the GOA's
position that Algeria's Tier-3 TIP status was inappropriate.
Both Amara and Seddik repeated the GOA mantra that the
concept of trafficking in persons did not exist in Algerian
law or culture, but added that the GOA will put forward
TIP-related amendments to its laws by the end of 2007.
Highlighting GOA activity, Aloui referenced a GOA interagency
group that she said produces a yearly report on trafficking,
the next edition of which is scheduled to be completed by
mid-August.


3. (C) MFA Deputy Director for Human Rights Ahmed Saadi
repeated the GOA refrain in a July 16 meeting, telling poloff
that Algeria was upset about its Tier 3 TIP status and said
the GOA was currently studying the TIP report. Saadi
acknowledged Algeria's lack of TIP-specific legislation, but
argued the country's current laws were being used to address
TIP-related problems. He also referred to previous GOA
responses to Embassy requests for information, as well as to
recent press reports detailing police action against illegal
immigration, citing these as evidence of GOA action on TIP.


4. (C) In both meetings, poloff stressed the need for a GOA
public statement acknowledging TIP as a problem and asked
that a GOA TIP point of contact be named. In the July 14
meeting, Amara volunteered to be the POC and Aloui said her
office was equally available. In the July 16 meeting,
however, Saadi told poloff that "the foreign ministry is your
point of contact on this issue." There was no response to
the request for a public statement in either meeting. Amara
asked the source of the 15,000 illegal immigrants mentioned
in the TIP report and poloff responded that NGOs provided the
information. Both Amara and Aloui said that NGO-supplied
figures can't be trusted because the organizations "don't
have the means to verify" them.

JOURNALIST REPORTS TRAFFICKING
--------------


5. (C) Mohamed Touati, a journalist for the French-language
daily L'Expression, told poloff on July 15 that trafficking
networks exist in Algeria, with individuals paying
considerable amounts of money to travel from Niger, Nigeria,
Cameroon and Mali. Touati described his former home of
Djanet, a small oasis city in southeastern Algeria located
100 kilometers from the Libyan town of Ghat, as an important
entry point, but was unable to provide numbers of victims or
identify specific traffickers.


6. (C) Touati addressed trafficking using Algeria's
semi-nomadic Tuareg population, a people he claimed preferred
not to work. According to Touati, Tuaregs benefit from
networks of illegal immigration because they hire individuals
(often Nigeriens) to do agricultural and other work they do
not want to do, paying them little. The relationship between
Tuaregs and Nigeriens is facilitated by their shared
language, Tamahaq.

ALGIERS 00001099 002 OF 002




7. (C) Touati asserted that illegal immigrants are able to
live and work in Djanet and Tamanrasset in part because some
GOA officials have been paid off. He also said that illegal
immigrants are often exploited and gave the example of how,
in some cases, an employer becomes the sole provider of food,
shelter, and payment for the trafficked victim, creating a
relationship of dependency ripe for exploitation. He noted
that, although the GOA occasionally rounds up and deports
individuals, many simply return at a later date, often after
paying large sums of money.

ENGAGING GOA, THE MEDIA AND NGOs
--------------


8. (C) Since June, we have been developing a strategy to
engage the GOA, NGOs and the media on TIP issues. In order
to garner GOA support for taking action on TIP issues, we
would like to host first a Digital Video Conference on the
subject for targeted GOA officials. If that program is
successful, we would like to follow it up with a special
single country project or voluntary visitor program to send
government officials, members of the press and social welfare
groups to the U.S. for an in-depth study of how all three
elements can work together to eliminate TIP. Separately, we
will approach the state-owned television corporation to
encourage it to broadcast G/TIP-provided films and
documentaries. We also intend to continue to encourage
Algerian journalists who have covered illegal immigration to
report on its trafficking aspects. Finally, the European NGO
CISP and Algerian NGOs AIDS Algerie and SOS Femmes en
Detresse have agreed to distribute "Be Smart, Be Safe...",
the Department's pamphlet on TIP. We will continue to
encourage the NGOs to increase their public discussion of the
TIP problem.

COMMENT
--------------


9. (C) Now almost two months after the release of the TIP
report, we continue to hear the same GOA message and see no
evidence of action (reftel) in the terms sought by the
report. There is an important disconnect in our
conversations. On the one hand, the GOA says that the
concept of TIP does not exist in its law. On the other hand,
the GOA says it has laws that combat TIP and that the GOA is
applying those laws. For all its activity, the GOA has been
incapable of or unwilling to supply the kind of information
that we have sought. Government representatives seem more
interested in the negative perception associated with Tier 3
status than demonstrating that the government is doing
something to address the problem. This may be because the
GOA has interpreted its Tier 3 listing as an attack on
Algeria's bona fides as a champion of social justice issues
in the region. To counter this, our demarches to the GOA
have taken the approach that TIP is a worldwide problem, one
we are struggling with ourselves, that exists in spite of
responsible government efforts to eliminate TIP. We have
asked GOA officials for the government's cooperation in
stopping TIP in much the same way we work to combat other
illegal activities, such as transnational terrorism.


10. (C) In contrast to the government, journalist Mohamed
Touati, who reported no previous contact with the Embassy and
who has not covered the trafficking aspect of illegal
immigration, articulated the links between the two
perspectives in a way the GOA has not, at least to date. He
appears to understand the problem and believed that Algeria
was beginning to acknowledge it as well. He also expressed a
willingness to "collaborate" on TIP-related issues, including
reporting, though he preferred meeting at the Embassy because
of the "sensitivity" of the subject. Media coverage through
Touati combined with distribution of the Department's
pamphlet on TIP should help to increase public awareness of
the problem.
FORD