DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: PART 1, SEVENTH ANNUAL

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000444

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB DR
PGOV
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: PART 1, SEVENTH ANNUAL
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT

REF: STATE 202745


1. The following is Part 1 of Embassy's response to the
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) questions raised in reftel.


2. 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report for the Dominican
Republic, Part 1


I. OVERVIEW: EXTENT OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS IN THE
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE

The Dominican Republic is a country of origin, transit and
destination for trafficked men, women and children.

--------------
-- Trafficking from the Dominican Republic:
--------------

The Dominican Republic is a country of origin for women
trafficked internationally to work as female prostitutes,
cabaret dancers and domestic employees. Dominican-born
victims who work abroad generally do so in urban centers in
wealthier countries. Principal destination countries for
Dominican-born victims of trafficking were in Europe, the
Caribbean, and Latin America, and included Argentina,
Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Curaao, Germany, Greece,
Italy, the Netherlands, Panama, Spain, Surinam, St. Marten,
and Switzerland. Many trafficking victims travel using bona
fide legal documents, including non-immigrant visas, that are
often taken from them upon arrival.

There were some reports that suggest Dominican women may have
been trafficked across the border to Haiti to work in
brothels catering to UN peacekeepers.

There were no reports of children being trafficked outside of
the country, although some children were smuggled via boat
across the treacherous Mona Passage to Puerto Rico. In
addition, the Embassy has increasing evidence of smuggling of
Dominican children to the United States using U.S. birth
certificates.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated
that 50,000 Dominican women worked in prostitution around the
world. Of these women it estimated that one-third were
victims of trafficking. Other national and international
organizations have estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000
Dominican are victims of trafficking. However, these
estimates are unreliable. The IOM's estimate, which is the
one most commonly cited in the country, dates from the early
1990s; the organization has not conducted a thorough study
since then.

--------------
-- Trafficking within the Dominican Republic:
--------------

Dominican-born victims, primarily women and children, are
also trafficked within the country to conditions of forced
labor and/or prostitution.

Children are trafficked to conditions of forced labor, for
example in organized begging rings. Their movements are
constantly monitored and they are not allowed the freedom to
depart their environments. Many children are also trafficked
to prostitution in the tourist centers; there were reports
that some elements of the tourism industry facilitated their
exploitation. Some Europeans marketed the Dominican Republic
by suggesting that boys and girls could be found as sex
partners. The destinations most often suggested were Boca
Chica, Puerto Plata, and Sosua.

Women are trafficked into prostitution. Very few prostitutes
work in their areas of origin. Surveys indicate women
brought to sex tourism areas are usually deceived about the
nature of work, the demands to be made of them, or the amount
of money they will receive.

--------------
-- Trafficking to the Dominican Republic:
--------------

The Dominican Republic is also a country of destination for
foreign men, women, and children who are victims of

trafficking.

The principal source country for individuals trafficked to
the Dominican Republic is Haiti. The two countries share a
long and porous land border, and both lack effective border
controls.

With the government's blessing, the Dominican sugar industry
historically depended heavily on the cheap labor that
trafficked Haitian workers provide. They were housed in
industry shantytowns, called "bateyes," where living and
working conditions were extremely harsh. Field guards
patrolled the fields with guns and kept workers' clothes and
documents in order to prevent them from leaving before the
end of the harvest.

There were some indications that this problem became less
egregious this year. Factors such as the collapse of
organized sugar harvesting on government-owned land and
increasing mechanisation among private producers have reduced
the industry's need for seasonal laborers. Under pressure
from outside groups, private producers have implemented
policy changes to improve working conditions and allow
workers the freedom to leave their jobs. Even so, employers
continued to withhold a portion of wages to keep workers in
the fields.

There were reports that Haitian victims were trafficked into
exploitative conditions elsewhere, including construction,
organized begging rings, and other agricultural sectors.

There were some reports that Haitian children were sent
across the border to live with Dominican families who
promised to feed and care for the children in exchange for
some domestic servitude. These exchanges were motivated by
the dire economic situation in Haiti. It is not unreasonable
to assume that at least some of these children ended in
conditions of exploitative labor, including prostitution,
although there were no specific reports that this occurred.

There were also several reports of men and women trafficked
from Colombia and Venezuela for employment in exploitative
labor and prostitution.

--------------
-- An Analysis of the Dominican-born Victims:
--------------

Strong cultural pressures drive Dominicans to emigrate.
Traffickers exploit this tendency with offers of false
employment and a better future. In some cases, victims knew
they were being trafficked into prostitution, but went
nonetheless.

Dominican-born women 18-25 years of age who lived in rural
communities were at the greatest risk of being trafficked to
other countries. Many victims were uneducated single mothers
desperate to improve the living conditions of their children.
Traffickers frequently met women through friends and family;
they promised some form of employment, obtained false or
legitimate documents for the women, and often retained their
passports after arrival in the destination country. Many
women were reportedly pushed by family members to travel in
order to send money home.

Persons of Haitian descent were particularly vulnerable to
exploitation within the country. There is a large community
of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Dominican-born
persons of Haitian descent who have been unable to obtain
birth certificates or other forms of identity documentation.
They are functionally stateless. They generally reside in
communities on sugar plantations known as "bateyes" (see
above).

The collapse of the Dominican sugar industry on
government-owned land and increasing levels of mechanization
among private producers have left thousands of persons of
Haitian descent without work. Lacking documentation, they
have little possibility of participating in the formal labor
sector and few opportunities to seek recourse in the event of
mistreatment. The Hermanas Adoratrices (Adoratrices Nuns),a
religious organization that provides services to prostitutes,
including many victims of trafficking, reports that most of
those who visit their clinics are persons of Haitian descent

who were born and raised in bateyes.

There are no reliable estimates of the number of trafficking
victims in the Dominican Republic.

--------------
-- General Overview of Changes:
--------------

The U.S. Coast Guard reports that during FY2006, the numbers
of smuggling attempts across the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico
and the overall numbers of illegal Dominican migrants both
decreased. They attribute the change to joint operations
between the U.S. Coast Guard and the Dominican Navy, improved
inter-agency coordination, a greater willingness on the part
of the Dominican Navy to interdict vessels involved in
smuggling, and improving conditions in the Dominican economy.


The Office of the Attorney General made significant progress
in its efforts to investigate trafficking cases and to
prosecute offenders. It secured 11 convictions during the
year under Trafficking Law 137-03. The authorities
prosecuted several high-ranking officials, including a city
mayor and an assistant director of immigration, for
involvement in trafficking organizations.

Despite these achievements, there were continuing allegations
that high-level officials facilitated and profited with
impunity from trafficking and alien smuggling operations.

With the notable exceptions of the Office of the Attorney
General and the Dominican Navy, most agencies appeared to
backslide in their commitment to fighting trafficking in
persons. Coordination efforts were severely lacking.
Virtually no government funding was provided to prevention
and protection programs. Many of the most important
implementing regulations pertaining to the 2003 law against
trafficking were yet to be finalized.

--------------
-- Limitations on Anti-Trafficking Efforts
--------------

The government continued to claim that its resources for use
against trafficking were limited, but choices made in the
2006 and 2007 budgets suggested that its priorities were
elsewhere, including in controversial infrastructure
projects. Most of the resources and training for
anti-trafficking activities, especially those related to
prevention and protection, come from outside donors.

Haitians and their Dominican-born descendents remain deeply
unpopular, and authorities were reluctant to provide basic
services to them. This reluctance extended to services
associated with trafficking, even though the community of
persons of Haitian descent was particular vulnerable to this
type of exploitation, as noted above. When asked by an
Embassy political officer why the government provided no
prevention or protection services to residents in bateyes,
the Legal Advisor to the President on Gender Issues, who
nominally leads inter-agency coordination on trafficking,
stated that assisting batey residents was not the
government's responsibility because they were Haitian. The
practical effect of this exclusion was unclear, since the
government provides few such services anyway.

Corruption remains a deep-rooted problem in the Dominican
Republic. A USAID-financed study carried out by a
non-governmental organization documented the fact that from
1983 to 2003, only one person was convicted on corruption
charges. The Fernandez administration has shown enthusiasm
for bringing to trial on corruption charges officials from
the previous political administration. Cases involving
current officials either were not pursued, or were dropped,
as in the cases of Diandino Pea, Simon Lizardo and Haivanjoe
Ng Cortias. All are current high-level officials in the
administration of President Fernandez, and each was among
those accused by the previous administration of mismanagement
and malfeasance involving nearly RD 1.5 billion (USD $50
million) in government funds for employment generation.

Complicating this problem was a widespread attitude of
tolerance in society towards at least some forms of

corruption. In December results of a poll conducted by the
Pontifical Catholic University showed that 82 percent of
survey participants found corruption to be at least somewhat
tolerable. More than 67 percent of respondents reported that
they would suggest to their friends or family payment of a
bribe in order to expedite an administrative process.

Corruption and deeply rooted attitudes complicate the
government's response to trafficking. Many low- and
mid-level officials are inclined to look the other way rather
than help a victim, while others rely on corrupt practices to
supplement their income. The use of non-judicial sanctions
(e.g., dismissal, transfer, etc.) against members of the
military, policemen, and other lower-ranking officials
engaged in bribe taking and other corrupt behavior provided
insufficient dissuasion to check pervasive petty corruption.

The Dominican justice system is under-resourced, a factor
that significantly affects criminal prosecutions. Moreover,
prosecutors face challenges as they seek to bring complex
trafficking cases to completion. There is no integrated
electronic record keeping. Although the Justice Ministry
(Ministerio Publico) began implementing a law to create a
career civil service track for prosecutors, until the process
is completed the majority of current prosecutors remain
political appointees who are replaced during each transition
in political administration. This means that institutional
memory is general lost from one administration to the next.

Some prosecutors complained that no matter how well prepared
their cases, in some instances they were unable to secure
convictions or adequate sentences due to corruption and a
lack of training on the part of judges.

Inadequate training also affected law enforcement personnel
in the Justice Ministry and in the newly established anti-TIP
units of the General Directorate for Migration and the
National Police.

--------------
-- Governmental Monitoring of Trafficking
--------------

The government is responsive to requests for information.
Various agencies with anti-trafficking responsibilities work
closely with Embassy counterparts. For example, Dominican
migration officers bring suspected illegal aliens intercepted
at ports of entry/exit for interviews with U.S. consular
fraud prevention investigators for verification of identity
and documents. This provides the U.S. Embassy consular
section with important information for the creation of
lookout entries in the Department's computer database
regarding alien smuggling and fraud, when warranted. The
Dominican Navy, through their offices for Naval Intelligence
(M-2) and Naval Operations (M-3),works on a daily basis in
coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and
Board Patrol officials in the Dominican Republic and in
Puerto Rico to prevent and interdict illegal migrant trips
destined for Puerto Rico.

Government agencies generally do not cooperate with each
other on trafficking cases. The mechanisms for doing so are
not well established and some agencies are at times reluctant
to share information.


II. PREVENTION

--------------
-- The Relevant Actors:
--------------

The Government acknowledges that trafficking is a problem and
has formed specialized anti-trafficking units in the Attorney
General's office, the National Police, the Migration
Directorate, and the Foreign Ministry. Senior officials have
spoken out about trafficking both publicly and in private
communications.

Although most anti-trafficking work is conducted by the
Office of the Attorney General and the Dominican Navy, a
number of other agencies have nominal roles in the fight
against trafficking. These include:

- Secretariat of Women
- Directorate of Migration
- Secretariat of Foreign Relations
- National Police
- Secretariat of Tourism
- Secretariat of Labor
- National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI)

The interagency group Committee for the Protection of Migrant
Women (CIPROM) is nominally the lead agency on trafficking
issues; however, CIPROM functions with no budget, a fact that
undermines its coordination efforts. CIPROM is chaired by the
Secretariat of Women, and includes the Secretariat of Foreign

SIPDIS
Relations, the Secretariat of Labor, the Directorate of
Migration, the Secretariat of Tourism, the National Police,
the Attorney General, IOM, the National Hotel and Restaurant
Association (ASONOHARES),several non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and representatives of international
organizations. CIPROM was created in 1999 and charged with
developing plans and strengthening government programs and
measures to protect migrant and trafficked women, especially
those trafficked to other countries for sexual exploitation.

CIPROM representatives said they hosted monthly interagency
meetings involving high-level representatives from government
agencies involved in trafficking. Given the poor interagency
coordination that exists on these issues, it is unclear what
they actually discussed.

The government has relationships with NGOs that work on
trafficking. NGOs and international organizations are
included on CIPROM. The Secretariat of Women is a key
partner of the Center for Integral Orientation and
Investigation (COIN),the primary NGO source of information
on trafficking victims. COIN and IOM cooperate with the
Attorney General's office and the Migration Directorate in
identifying trafficking rings.

--------------
-- Outreach Campaigns:
--------------

The government has supported some education campaigns
targeted against trafficking and sexual exploitation, seeking
to reach potential trafficking victims and to lower the
demand for trafficking. Most of the funds used in these
efforts come from private sources. The campaigns are
sporadic, which reduces their impact.

The Prevention Unit of the Department of Alien Smuggling and
Trafficking in Persons in the Office of the Attorney General,
in coordination with the Secretariats of Labor and Education,
conducted outreach training at schools around the country.
The courses warned children of the dangers of alien
smuggling, commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking.
They were given to an estimated 5,610 adolescents during the
year.

The Secretariat of Labor, Migration Directorate, CIPROM, and
Secretary of Education all held seminars, chats, and

SIPDIS
town-hall meetings to educate communities about trafficking
and the anti-trafficking laws and their implications. These
programs reached an estimated 250 private citizens during the
year. None were residents of high-risk communities in
bateyes.

Authorities from various agencies involved in trafficking
received training on the anti-trafficking laws from the
USAID-supported NGO Foundation for Institution-Building and
Justice (FINJUS). Inter-agency representatives also received
training to recognize the signs of trafficking from the
International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Two focused courses or "diplomados" on "Alien Smuggling and
Trafficking in Persons" were carried out by FINJUS. A total
of 104 key actors directly involved in anti-TIP operations
were certified. These included members of the Justice
Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the Ministry of
Gender, the General Directorate for Migration, and civil
society organizations. The courses included the design of
pedagogical materials, field visits and interviews with
trafficking victims.

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

-- Child Labor Prevention
--------------

The International Labor Organization (ILO) continued its
Program for the Eradication of Child Labor. With other
international labor rights organizations, in collaboration
with the Secretariat of Labor, the ILO continued programs to
combat child labor. These included programs to eliminate
child labor in the tomato-producing province of Azua, in the
coffee-growing province of San Jos de Ocoa, and in the
agricultural province of Constanza, as well as a program to
combat the commercial sexual exploitation of minors in
popular tourist destinations. However, the government did
not provide the modest level of financial support it had
previously committed to giving these programs.

The National Steering Committee against Child Labor adopted a
National Strategic Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child
Labor, which include child prostitution. This plan set
objectives, identified priorities, and assigned
responsibilities so that exploitative labor can be
efficiently tackled and the number of child laborers
significantly reduced by 2016.

The Ministries of Labor and Education continued to support
the Combating Child Labor through Education program, which
established several camps that hosted children and
adolescents.

--------------
-- Border Control Efforts
--------------

The Armed Forces are nominally responsible for control of the
borders; however, it is in practice relatively easy for
traffickers to smuggle victims into, through, and out of the
Dominican Republic. The land border between the Dominican
Republic and Haiti is more than 240 miles long and extremely
porous. Inadequate staffing, poor management, and corruption
plague the nominal efforts that are in place to patrol it.
In addition, yolas (small wooden boats) and other vessels can
launch from almost anywhere along the 1000-mile-long coast
that defines three sides of the country.

The Armed Forces made an improved effort to deter illegal
immigration and trafficking. The Dominican Navy worked
closely with the U.S. Coast Guard to prevent illegal voyages
and to interdict illegal migrants. It is known that some
members of the Dominican Navy were complicit in allowing
these trips to depart. Between August 2006 and February
2007, the Dominican Navy's records indicate that they found
and destroyed 169 boats used for illegal migrant trips and
apprehended 2113 illegal migrants, most of these prior to
departure. Additionally, 91 captains and organizers were
submitted to prosecution through the court system for their
roles in the illegal trips. During FY 2006, the U.S. Coast
Guard intercepted more than 3,200 illegal migrants. The
Dominican Air Force sent personnel trained to identify
illegal migration to several ports and airports as well as to
the land border area.

The government continued printing new passports with advanced
anti-fraud features and gave investigation responsibility to
an anti-fraud department in the Dominican Passport Office.

--------------
-- National Plan of Action
--------------

There was no unified, continuous strategy or national plan of
action in place to combat trafficking in persons. Budget
constraints meant that agencies developed their own
individual, sporadic programs when funding is available, and
did not coordinate well with the interagency on their
implementation.

Thanks to technical assistance provided by USAID and FINJUS,
the first draft of a National Anti-TIP Strategic Plan has
been written. This national plan has not been implemented.
Responsible officials have not undertaken the work needed to
achieve legal clarity on institutional roles or agreement in
terms of which institution should take the lead on
implementation.

Most local NGOs involved in combating trafficking have
drafted their own short-term institutional plans, although
adjustments on indicators and data collection are necessary,
as well as more coordination between institutions to avoid
duplication of efforts. FINJUS conducted a series of meetings
and capacity-building workshops to strengthen civil society's
capacity to lobby, advocate and monitor policy-making
motions. These meetings have served as exercises in
information-sharing and reflection on the topic, with, as yet
no further tangible results.



3. Part 2 of this Report will follow as a separate cable.
HERTELL