Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07PRAGUE200
2007-02-28 13:42:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Prague
Cable title:  

PART I OF III: Seventh Annual Anti-Trafficking Report -

Tags:  KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KRFD ASEC PREF ELAB EZ 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO0435
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHPG #0200/01 0591342
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 281342Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY PRAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8650
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 0084
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0579
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 PRAGUE 000200 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT PASS TO HQ USAID WASHDC
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, EUR/NCE FOR ERIC FICHTE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KRFD ASEC PREF ELAB EZ
SUBJECT: PART I OF III: Seventh Annual Anti-Trafficking Report -
Czech Republic

Ref: 06 STATE 202745

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 07 PRAGUE 000200

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT PASS TO HQ USAID WASHDC
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, EUR/NCE FOR ERIC FICHTE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KRFD ASEC PREF ELAB EZ
SUBJECT: PART I OF III: Seventh Annual Anti-Trafficking Report -
Czech Republic

Ref: 06 STATE 202745


1. (U) Sensitive But Unclassified entire text; not for internet
distribution.


2. (SBU) SUMMARY: Throughout the course of 2006, the Czech
Government continued to improve its capabilities and methods to
combat trafficking in persons. GOCR political will to fight
trafficking remained strong. This was reflected statistically though
numbers of arrests and convictions of traffickers and a greater
focus on forced labor. The Czech Government continued its aggressive
and wide-ranging educational campaign to assist in the prevention of
trafficking, the identification and support of victims, the
dismantling of the criminal networks involved and the prosecution of
traffickers.

The government moved decisively to combat labor trafficking. In the
spring, the police created a new forced labor section within the
trafficking in persons department of the Organized Crime Unit. The
section is comprised of eleven investigators and a section head that
are focused solely on investigating labor trafficking cases. The
national police are also in the process of identifying specific
officers at the regional level that will function as local liaisons
to the forced labor section. The new unit cooperates closely with
local police, NGOs, Labor Offices and Labor Inspectorates. The
creation of a police unit solely focused on forced labor is unique
in the region and reflects the Czechs' commitment to addressing the
problem. The section is currently investigating several large labor
trafficking organized crime syndicates and is working closely with
third country police forces in the region to bring the traffickers
to justice.

In an effort to stem labor trafficking at its source, the Ministry
of Labor and Social Affairs in cooperation with the Ministry of
Interior introduced a pilot project that provides government-funding
to two NGOs (Caritas and IOM) in Ukraine (the source country of a
majority of legal and illegal workers as well as trafficking

victims). These NGOs assist in providing information to Ukrainian
citizens on work opportunities in the Czech Republic and serve as de
facto labor brokers free of charge in 10 of the largest cities
located throughout Ukraine that are known as principle source
locations for trafficking victims. The goal of the project is to
eliminate the need for intermediaries and brokers that frequently
resort to illegal and extortive practices.

In January 2007, the Ministry of Interior announced that as a result
of passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1718, the Czech
government is eliminating a program that provided DPRK citizens work
opportunities in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic was the
first country to eliminate its program for DPRK workers in the wake
of UNSCR 1718. The 408 DPRK laborers in the country at the start of
the year, almost exclusively female and mainly working as
seamstresses in factories throughout the country, will all leave the
country by the end of 2007 when their work visas and work permits
expire. The Czech Government has been diligent over the past year in
investigating the situation in each factory that employed North
Korean laborers and local labor inspectors had conducted dozens of
inspections on their various work locations.

The results of two large government-funded NGO research projects
helped significantly in strengthening intergovernmental and NGO
cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Prior to
these reports, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs had not been
actively involved in the area of labor trafficking. These reports
documented the involvement of sophisticated organized crime
syndicates in the forced labor trade. These studies initiated
greater involvement of local Labor Offices and Labor Inspectorates
and additionally helped to inform the public about this phenomenon.

Several revisions in Czech law were introduced in 2006 mainly
focusing on social services and social-legal protection of children.
The most significant change was an amendment to the law on
residency/stay of foreigners that introduced a new allowance for
long-term residence, which can lead to permanent residence, for
protective reasons. This new law, which came into force in June
20Q, significantly improves the status of trafficking victims in
that it now assigns to the Asylum and Migration Office within the
Ministry of Interior the role of granting long-term stay for
protective reasons. The law has already been applied once to grant
long-term residency to a female Ukrainian trafficking victim. This
law also codifies the practice of allowing a trafficking victim 30

PRAGUE 00000200 002 OF 007


days to decide whether he/she wishes to cooperate with the police
and enter the Program of Assistance and Protection of Victims or
whether she/he will return home. The law forbids any possible
deportation from the country during this 30-day period.

NGOs praise governmental and police efforts to provide consistent
close coordination on trafficking issues. NGOs, police and
government officials credit regular outreach meetings with providing
every organization an opportunity to learn from the best practices
of each other and to alter anti-trafficking campaigns and
investigations to address new issues as they arise.


There were no efforts in 2006 to legalize prostitution but works on
recodification of the Czech Penal Code continued. The new Penal Code
should include the criminal liability of corporations which would
allow the Czech Republic to ratify the UN Convention on Organized
Crime. The Ministry of Interior has also indicated it hopes
legislation will be introduced over the coming year that would
broaden the definition of disorderly conduct to include street
prostitution. The first two convictions under the new law would be
misdemeanors but a third conviction would be a felony punishable by
up to 2 years in jail.

Law enforcement had several major successes during 2006. The Czech
police in September 2006 broke up one of the largest local
trafficking syndicates that trafficked numerous young Czech and
Slovak Romani girls to Norway for sexual exploitation. The police
arrested 16 individuals for trafficking and pimping and more than
160 Czech police were involved in the investigation and sting
operation. The police also broke up a Vietnamese trafficking
organization that was active in the Czech Republic and Germany. The
police arrested 6 offenders for pimping and trafficking in persons.
The success of the police to break up this organized crime syndicate
is notable given the fact that the traffickers, victims and clients
are exclusively Vietnamese making such criminal organizations
extremely difficult to infiltrate.

Because of the complexity of the trafficking statute many
traffickers are charged with pimping. During 2006 police
investigated 14 offenders and arrested 15 individuals for
trafficking in multiple cases. Two criminals were convicted for
trafficking in persons, one under the new trafficking law and one
under the old law, and for the first time two other criminals were
convicted under the child trafficking statute. None of the four
offenders convicted of trafficking received unconditional sentences;
all 4 received suspended sentences. During the same time frame 88
persons (many of them traffickers) were charged with pimping, with
68 convictions resulting. Twelve of the criminals charged with
pimping were sentenced to jail time, while seven others were forced
to pay fines. The remainder received suspended sentences.
Additionally in January 2007, Czech courts sentenced two Germans who
had sexually molested multiple young Czech boys to 5 years and 3
years in jail for inducement of minors for sexual intercourse. An
additional 16 individuals were convicted under the same statute in

2006. Individuals not charged specifically with trafficking were
also charged with other offenses such as pimping, conspiracy, denial
or personal liberty, rape, etc.


3. (SBU) Post responses are keyed to questions posed reftel.

--------------
Overview (ref. Para 27 SECSTATE 202745)
--------------

A) The Czech Republic is a transit and destination country, and to a
lesser degree a source country, for trafficking in persons (TIP)
mainly for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Some victims are
trafficked internally from areas of high unemployment to Prague and
the border regions with Germany and Austria. Sources of information
on trafficking include: the Ministries of Interior, Justice, Labor
and Social Affairs, Health, and Education, State Police, as well as
several NGOs. Although there are no reliable statistics or estimates
available from either the Czech Government or from local NGOs of the
number of trafficking victims currently in the country, it is
broadly accepted that both sex trafficking and forced labor are
problematic issues in the Czech Republic. The Czech Government
conducts continuous research on the scope of the trafficking problem
in the Czech Republic.

Czech women between the ages of 18-29 with secondary or lower

PRAGUE 00000200 003 OF 007


educations from regions of high unemployment are at greatest risk of
falling victim to sex traffickers. Women who have previously worked
as prostitutes are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Roma
women are at the highest risk to be trafficked internally and
abroad. Czech labor trafficking victims are men and women spread
across a much wider age spectrum, but also likely to have relatively
little education and to be drawn from high-unemployment regions of
the country. According to IOM research conducted in 2005 for the
Czech Government, foreign labor trafficking victims in the Czech
Republic are relatively evenly divided between men and woman and
come to the country from a variety of source countries such as
countries in the former Soviet Union, Vietnam and China. They also
tend to be much more widely dispersed in terms of age than sex
trafficking victims. The Czech Republic is also a transit country
for labor trafficking victims to other European Union member states.


B) In 2006, the Czech Government's political will and adaptability
in the battle against trafficking remained strong. Sex trafficking
trends in the Czech Republic remained broadly static according to
Interior Ministry and NGO sources. The police continue to work
closely with other countries to monitor larger trends of trafficking
and improve methods in combating organized criminal groups. Labor
trafficking emerged as an area of increased focus for the Czech
Government in 2006. The rapid growth of the Czech economy has
attracted the attention of trafficking syndicates. Two
government-sponsored studies by the International Organization of
Migration (IOM) and Intermundia in 2005 provided for the first time
a systemic analysis of the scope of the problem and a strong impetus
to combat it. The integration of solid sociological research has
helped the Interior Ministry reach a clearer understanding of both
the scope and modus operendi of labor traffickers. The Czech
Government has responded to these studies by initiating discussions
with the Justice Ministry to develop clearer internal legal
guidelines to facilitate prosecution of labor traffickers and by
examining methods of strengthening the authorized manpower of the
Organized Crime Unit to deal specifically with the problem of labor
trafficking. The police also reacted by creating a specialized
section within the trafficking in persos department of the
Organized Crime Unit made upof eleven investigators to fight labor
traffickig. Based on the concluions of these studies the Ministry
of Labor and Social Affairs also became actively involved in
combating labor trafficking. Responding to allegations that North
Korean workers in the Czech Republic were victims of state sponsored
forced labor, the Labor Ministry n cooperation with local labor
inspectors took a leading role in inspecting the working environment
of the North Korean laborers and forwarded all pertinent information
to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry ofInterior. As a
result, the Czech Republic decided in mid 2006 froze new visas and
work permits for North Korean workers, prior to a January 2007
announcement that the entire program was being phased out.

Although the majority of women trafficked into the Czech Republic
for sexual exploitation are from the former Soviet Union, mainly
from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, there is also a large
number of victims from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Vietnam and the former
Yugoslavia. The long-term trend is cooperation of international
criminal groups with local citizens in their home countries. Czech
women are primarily trafficked into Western Europe (primarily
Germany, Austria and the Netherlands) to work as prostitutes, but
last year there were also several cases of organized street
prostitution of Czech women in Scandinavian countries. According to
information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a small number of
Czechs were trafficked in the past to the United States. Most of
these victims were men trafficked to the U.S. for coerced labor.
Foreign and Czech women are also trafficked within the country,
sometimes being sold from one organized trafficking unit to another.
Since entry into the European Union, NGOs estimated that nearly all
trafficking victims enter the country legally with valid tourist
visas. This held true for both forced labor and sex trafficking.
Trafficking for sexual exploitation and organized prostitution is
mainly organized by Russian speaking and Bulgarian organized
criminal groups that are active throughout the entire country but
mainly focused in Northern and Western Bohemia, Southern Moravia and
Prague. Trafficking in Vietnamese and Chinese individuals is
organized by Vietnamese and Chinese nationals. Vietnamese and
Chinese prostitutes and forced laborers are exploited by fellow
Chinese and Vietnamese nationals which makes these cases difficult
to investigate.

C) Although the Czech Government's political will to combat

PRAGUE 00000200 004 OF 007


trafficking in persons remains strong and the fight against
trafficking is a major priority, Czech anti-trafficking efforts were
somewhat hampered by limited prosecutorial resources. There were
also some unproven allegations of corruption among individual
officers in the Alien and Border Police as well as the local police.
As recommended in different studies and the government's own
"National Strategy for the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings
2005-7" the Organized Crime Unit (UOUZ),the main police unit
battling trafficking, was empowered to create a new specialized
police unit expressly focused on combating forced labor. The unit
was also provided necessary equipment from the 2005 EU twinning
program. The Ministry of Interior also translated into Czech for the
use of the police a new ILO manual entitled "Forced Labor
Trafficking - How to Monitor Recruitment of Working Migrants". The
manual will also be widely distributed within the government and to
NGOs in order to facilitate a better understanding of the labor
trafficking issue. With the 2004 accession of the Czech Republic to
the EU, all land border customs stations were closed complicating
the detection of traffickers entering the country (the Czech
Republic is completely surrounded by fellow EU members).

D) The Czech Government aggressively and carefully scrutinizes its
anti-trafficking campaign. The Czech Interior Ministry works closely
with other government ministries, NGOs, multilateral bodies, and
foreign police and government partners to improve its efforts. They
encourage a frank and ongoing dialogue in this area, and the
Government routinely publishes extensive information relating to all
aspects of its anti-trafficking effort. Czech authorities have been
admirably cooperative and transparent in their dealings with Post on
this issue; they have been willing to share best practices and to
seek assistance in areas where they feel they lack sufficient
experience or expertise.

--------------
PREVENTION (ref Para 28 SECSTATE 202745)
--------------

A) The government acknowledges that trafficking is a problem.

B) Government agencies most directly involved in anti-trafficking
efforts are: the Alien and Border Police, the Organized Crime
Investigation Unit of the State Police (UOOZ),the Crime Prevention
Department of the Ministry of Interior, the Security Policy
Department of the Ministry of Interior, the Asylum and Migration
Department of the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. The Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, and Ministry
of Labor and Social Affairs also play a role in prevention efforts
and victim assistance. The Interior Ministry is the lead agency for
implementation of the National Strategy Against Trafficking in
Persons

C) The Czech Government has a multi-faceted education campaign to
combat trafficking within the country.

To facilitate its demand reduction campaign, in 2006 the Interior
Ministry funded a pilot project focused on demand reduction for
sexual services by addressing clients. NGOs estimate that more than
two-thirds of all clients of prostitution (trafficked and others) in
the Czech Republic are foreigners. The majority of clients are
Germans, followed by Austrians, Brits and Americans. Germans and
Austrians frequently visit border regions and British and American
citizens mainly frequent sex clubs in Prague. Possible clients were
informed about the trafficking phenomenon and forced prostitution
through a newly created web page (http://www.rekni-to.cz/ available
in German),telephone hotlines and through pamphlets and other
materials. The clients were able to find out how to safely and
anonymously report suspicions of trafficking victims. The campaign
was organized by IOM in Southern Bohemia and Moravian border regions
and in cooperation with La Strada and Czech Caritas. These NGOs also
jointly created in June a new campaign called "Spolu Proti Obchodu s
Lidmi" ("Together Against Trafficking in Persons") to collect as
much data about clients as possible. After an initial reluctance of
clients to participate in the study, the researchers were able to
gather usable data from multiple sources. The focus of the research
was to determine not only the motivations of the clients, but also
to assess the ability and willingness of foreign clients to
recognize and report possible sex trafficking victims. The follow-up
campaign offered ways to do so and raised awareness not only among
Czech clients but also among German and Austrian clients in the
border regions and British and American citizens in Prague. The
campaign was conducted in Czech, German and English and will

PRAGUE 00000200 005 OF 007


continue through 2007.

The Interior Ministry also sponsored roundtable working groups in
five high-risk regions (Ostrava, Olomouc, Litomerice, Ceske
Budejovice and Znojmo) with NGOs, charitable organizations, police,
social workers, and other parties. These conferences were originally
funded under the auspices of the PHARE 2003 twinning project in
coordination with assigned British and Dutch officials. The earlier
programs were extremely well received at the local levels so the
government decided to continue funding the roundtables at their own
expense.

In Cheb, the Government continued to support activities of its
specialized police team, "Eger", as well as worked closely with Roma
police assistants. In addition, two projects were organized within
the framework of a trilateral Czech-German-Polish working group.
These projects focused on the creation and distribution of
informative leaflets warning against sex tourism. The local
government and police force also continued close cooperation with
several local NGOs. One such example of successful cooperation is
coordination with the German NGO EJF-Lazarus (evangelic social
services to youth) that provides care for criminal delinquent
children and youth all over Germany. EJF-Lazarus opened a
specialized center in Cheb named "Utociste" that is focused on
high-risk children, usually runaways with psychological problems.
The Cheb police developed a new "case management" system: a holistic
approach focused on working with specific youth and children that
are high-risk. The system requires the close cooperation of the
police and other social-legal institutions such as children
protective services, doctors, probation and mediation services as
well as counseling centers. This best practice has been adopted by
police in other regions.

The Foreign Ministry continued its anti-trafficking education
programs, and provided trafficking information to visa applicants
from common source countries for trafficking victims into the Czech
Republic. The leaflets are targeted towards individuals traveling to
the Czech Republic to look for work, highlighting the risks of
working abroad and ways to reduce the risk of being trafficked. The
leaflets provide contact information for NGOs and other
organizations in case of necessity and are distributed by Czech NGOs
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Czech Embassies and
Consulates abroad. The leaflets were unveiled during a regional
conference for foreign and border police which focused on
identification of victims of trafficking at borders. The conference
took place in Prague in May 2006 and was organized jointly with
UNDCP.

In order to assist Czech consular officials in identifying victims
of trafficking, the Ministry of Interior has assigned officers with
specialized experience to Czech Embassies in six countries of
concern (China, Belarus, Egypt, Mongolia, Ukraine and Vietnam).
These six countries were also chosen due to the high number of
individuals from them claiming asylum upon arrival in the Czech
Republic. Due to the growing number of visa applicants in Ukraine,
the Czech government opened a new consulate focused primarily on
visa adjudication. The Foreign Ministry also provided its consular
officers specialized training sponsored by the Interior Ministry to
assist in the identification of potential victims. The Foreign
Ministry completed and distributed its instructional manual on
trafficking for its consular staff.

The Interior Ministry prepared a trafficking educational training
program for local officials that took place in April 2006. The
ministry also continues to share the information with communities
through its website. The ministry plans to further build on this
program in close cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs by providing training for representatives of local/municipal
governments (social departments, Roma coordinators, etc.) on the
issue of trafficking in human beings. The educational outreach
activities are planned to take place during the second quarter of

2007.

The Refugee Center Administration of the Ministry of Interior
continued an awareness campaign among female applicants for
political asylum, informing them of the risk of trafficking and
sexual exploitation. The admissions centers employ a social worker
specializing in at-risk groups to counsel the women.

D) The Ministry of Education sponsors several programs to prevent
the victimization of students. Although the programs encompass both

PRAGUE 00000200 006 OF 007


primary and secondary schools, a major point of emphasis is a
program designed for 9th grade students and older (about 15 years of
age) who are interested in overseas jobs. The programs are designed
to warn students of the risks or trafficking and to provide contact
information to them in case of victimization.

The Education Ministry included anti-trafficking materials
(especially focused on issue of commercial sexual exploitation of
children) in its training for school teachers. This training is
provided by the National Institute for Further Education,
pedagogical centers, Institute of Pedagogical Psychological
Counseling as well as universities training new teachers ensuring
that all current and future teachers will be taught to pass on to
their students the dangers of trafficking. The ministry is also
working on creating a specialized trafficking program for school
counselors that is currently being tested at Charles University in
Prague.

The Ministry of Health in conjunction with the third medical faculty
of Charles University and the NGO Ruzova Linka organized seminars
for medical personnel, social workers and psychology students. These
seminars are focused on prevention, timely detection, intervention
and assistance to sexually exploited children. This training is part
of post-gradual studies but is also offered to all bachelor degree
students. The primary aim of the program is to make this training an
integral part of study at all medical universities.

The Third Medical Faculty of Charles University conducted research
that raised the awareness of children being exploited for commercial
purposes. The 2006 research was conducted over five years from 2001
- 2006 at secondary schools in Prague and in Cheb. Approximately
1200 students were asked whether they had ever had sex in exchange
for money. The research showed that 3.6% of girls and 1.8% of boys
had previously had sex for money. One fourth of female participants
admitted that they could imagine earning money through prostitution
if their life situation became difficult. When asked the same
question, one third of male participants also answered
affirmatively.

E) The Government works hand-in-hand with three main NGOs: Caritas,
La Strada, and Rozkos Bez Rizika (Pleasure Without Risk). Caritas
works in schools and asylum and reception centers to conduct
awareness campaigns among potential trafficking victims about the
risks of trafficking and the entrapment and coercion strategies used
by traffickers and to assist trafficking victims. La Strada focuses
upon advocacy, victims' assistance, and prevention programs.
Although both La Strada and Caritas both can provide short-term
crisis intervention, Caritas tends to focus upon providing
longer-term care and support, while La Strada specializes in
immediate intervention. Rozkos Bez Rizika works primarily with women
in the sex trade. All three NGOs play important roles in the
Government's "Program of Support and Protection of the Victims of
Trafficking in Persons". These NGOs praise governmental and police
efforts to provide consistent close coordination on trafficking
issues.

F) The Government carefully monitors migration policies and
statistics for evidence of trafficking, and it works with
international organizations and NGOs to gather information on
immigration and trafficking patterns. In 2005, the International
Organization for Migration and Intermundia both conducted
government-sponsored studies that revealed that labor trafficking
was a more prevalent and organized problem than was previously
thought. In June 2006, La Strada published a report on Trafficking
in Human Beings for forced labor and labor exploitation. The report
is a part of an international research project on forced labor
trafficking funded by the AGIS Program of the European Commission.
The project funded research in the Czech Republic, Great Britain,
Portugal and Ireland. In order to enhance dissemination and
discussion of the results among experts La Strada organized
roundtables which aimed to identify recommendations for improvement
of the present situation. Participants in the discussions included
representatives of different government ministries, trade unions,
police, prosecutors, international organizations, embassies and
NGOs.

The Interior Ministry, in conjunction with other agencies, evaluated
the results of the four year Program of Support and Protection of
Trafficking Victims which ended in 2005. The Government asked two
institutes to evaluate the results. The Demographic Information
Center focused on an evaluation of the results of the Program and

PRAGUE 00000200 007 OF 007


the Government Institute of Criminology and Social Prevention
analyzed motivational factors that influenced the victim's decision
to enter the Program. Their conclusions helped the Government to
identify specific priorities for 2007 activities.

These studies provided detailed information regarding trafficking
victims. The Government evaluated information such as states of
origin, means of recruitment, age, sex, nationality, education and
family situation, number of children of the victim, first
institution contacted, length of stay in the program and final
status of the victim. The studies found that about half of victims
who entered the program were younger than 25 and one third were over

30. Most often victims were Ukrainians and Bulgarians, Czech,
Vietnamese and Slovaks. Other victims were from Lithuania,
Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The time spent
in the program varied from one to 611 days but the average was 22
days. This number doesn't include time the victims spent at common
care of local NGOs. The studies found that older victims,
specifically those with children, spent more time in the program.
The time spent in the program also depended on nationality.
Vietnamese and Ukrainians stayed longer than Bulgarians who usually
stayed only a very short time. Over 70 percent of all victims who
entered the program had their first contact with the police, thereby
showing the effectiveness of police training.

In 2006, the Ministry of Interior also contracted with Ivan Gabal
Analysis and Consulting, an independent and well respected
organization, to conduct another study on labor trafficking. The end
report, "Combating Trafficking in Persons in the Czech Republic and
Possibilities for the Optimization of State Security Policy",
divided the problem of forced labor into several phases
(recruitment, migration, obtaining residency and accommodation,
trafficking of the individual and the proceeds of forced labor). For
each phase problems were identified and some solutions were
suggested.

At the end of 2006, IOM completed an additional study entitle
"Analysis of Offers of Job Intermediation in the Czech Republic that
Appeared in Russian Speaking Newspapers in the Czech Republic". This
analysis helped explain the recruiting process by labor brokers and
means of brokers to obtain tourist visas for illegal workers. As a
result of the study, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in
cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign
Affairs have reached several conclusions on how to simplify access
of foreigners from third countries to the Czech labor market.
Several minor changes to government regulations have already been
implemented but more changes will be forthcoming in 2007.