(G/TIP) SENIOR COORDINATOR MARK TAYLOR'S JULY 5-7

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TAIPEI 001561 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM SMIG TW SUBJECT: (G/TIP) SENIOR COORDINATOR MARK TAYLOR'S JULY 5-7 VISIT TO TAIPEI AND KAOHSIUNG ¶1. Summary: G/TIP Senior Coordinator Mark Taylor visited Taipei and Kaohsiung July 5-7, meeting with government officials, NGO representatives, and trafficking victims. Taylor acknowledged Taiwan's progress, but urged Taiwan to strengthen efforts to detect and shelter TIP victims, and to stiffen punishments for those convicted of sex or labor trafficking. Taiwan officials detailed plans to expand shelter services, improve coordination with NGOs, and enhance cooperation with labor source-country governments to prevent and punish trafficking. They also said Taiwan is considering a comprehensive anti-TIP law. NGOs argued that Taiwan should not have been removed from the TIP "Watch List" because, in their view, it has failed to implement much of its TIP Action Plan. End Summary. Taiwan Has Made Progress, But Must Do More -------------- ¶2. G/TIP Senior Coordinator Mark Taylor met jointly on July 5 with officials from the Interior (MOI),Justice (MOJ),and Foreign Affairs (MOFA) ministries, and the Council for Labor Affairs (CLA). Taylor remarked that Taiwan had been removed from the Tier 2 Watch List after making significant progress over the past year in addressing its sex and labor trafficking problems. However, Taylor pointed out, labor brokers continue to hold too much power over foreign laborers, and Taiwan authorities fail to properly identify significant numbers of TIP victims. Taiwan should extend legal protections to the 170,000 foreign laborers employed as domestic helpers or caregivers, and must improve the quality and consistency of social services provided to TIP victims across the island. Taylor urged Taiwan to establish clear legal and financial incentives for victims to assist in the prosecution of their traffickers, and to enhance coordination and consultation between law enforcement agencies and NGOs. Taiwan Promises Continued Anti-TIP Momentum -------------- ¶3. Deputy Interior Minister Lin Mei-chu assured Taylor that Taiwan is committed to improving its ability to identify and protect victims, and to detect and punish traffickers. MOI, MOJ, MOFA, and CLA and other anti-TIP Task Force agencies are working with NGOs to increase penalties for traffickers, to draft standard procedures for placing TIP victims in shelters rather than detention facilities, and to streamline �0A;procedures for the return of TIP victims to their home countries. ¶4. According to CLA, Taiwan is investigating various methods to allow foreign workers to apply directly to CLA for jobs in Taiwan, sidestepping the brokerage companies altogether. According to CLA, Taiwan already has bilateral agreements to this effect in place with Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Related procedures and safeguards are still under negotiation. Taiwan is also considering changing its labor laws to allow Taiwan companies to hire workers through CLA, or through a local NGO intermediary. (Note: In a separate meeting, several NGOs rejected the latter idea as incompatible with the social welfare mission of most NGOs. End Note.) ¶5. According to MOJ, the Taipei High Court Prosecutor's Office is considering drafting a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, like the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). MOJ officials noted that many judges and prosecutors oppose a new law, believing that Taiwan's existing laws are sufficient to address Taiwan's trafficking problem, especially with the expected passage next year of Immigration Law amendments designed to encourage victim cooperation with prosecutors. (Note: A group of prosecutors in Kaohsiung told AIT they believed a comprehensive law would help them prosecute and convict traffickers who use "atypical" forms of coercion against their victims. End Note.) NGOs: Taiwan Should Have Stayed On The Watch List -------------- -------------- TAIPEI 00001561 002 OF 003 ¶6. NGO representatives who met with Taylor were critical of the decision to remove Taiwan from the Tier 2 Watch List, asserting that authorities had done very little to implement the improved victim protections and enhanced prosecution of traffickers outlined by the November 2006 TIP Action Plan. Garden of Hope Director Chi Hui-jung told Taylor that only two NGOs are invited to attend the bi-monthly meetings of the government Task Force, both of which have little direct experience with trafficking victims' issues. Ms. Chi also complained that the government should be running its own victim shelters, instead of relying on the few existing (and increasingly financially strapped) NGO-operated shelters. ¶7. Representatives from the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office (VMWBO),Taiwan Women's Rescue Foundation (TWRF),and the Hsinchu Catholic Diocese Hope Workers' Center (HWC) accused the Taiwan government of placing too much stress on the detection and prosecution of traffickers, and too little emphasis on the USG-endorsed "victim-centered approach." Taylor met with several Indonesian trafficking victims from the group of 35 who had been released from detention into NGO care in April 2006. These women reported that, for the two months they were detained, they were not given access to legal advice or medical services. The NGO representatives contend that this incident proves that Taiwan has taken only rudimentary steps toward identifying victims and offering them appropriate care. ¶8. At the National Immigration Agency (NIA) Special Operations Brigade in Kaohsiung, 25 men and 35 women were being held in two separate holding tanks for suspected immigration and/or labor violations. Several detainees had been in detention for more than two months. Some detainees may have been victims of trafficking. NIA Captain Lin Ching-chung told AIT that in the six months of the Special Brigade's operation, they had not identified a single victim of trafficking, despite having processed 195 separate individuals for labor- or immigration-related violations. TIP Doesn't Get Votes -------------- ¶9. KMT Legislature Joanna Lei told Taylor on July 5 that a bill to extend Labor Standards Law protections to domestic helpers and caretakers will continue to face opposition from elder- and disability-rights activists. Coupled with a lack of support from legislators, the bill is unlikely to pass in the near future. Foreign laborers have little money and cannot vote in Taiwan's elections. Furthermore, there is little public sympathy for the plight of trafficking victims, especially those coming from Mainland China. Thus, politicians are not motivated to advance the anti-TIP cause because it does not help them win elections. Nonetheless, Lei expressed hope that several legislators can be rallied to push through a comprehensive anti-trafficking act before the end of this legislative session in December. Comment: Future Efforts -------------- ¶10. Government officials and NGOs agree that Taiwan's current response to the trafficking problem is inadequate. Both sides also agree that greater interagency and international cooperation is needed to tackle TIP, and that limited budgets do not allow for the construction of adequate shelters. There is no consensus on the need for a comprehensive anti-TIP law, but there seems to be a growing understanding that such a law could help prosecutors convict traffickers and cause judges to hand down heavier sentences. Although a standardized procedure for identifying and processing TIP victims is in place, it does not appear to be working properly, due in part perhaps to the unclear distribution of responsibility among the government's various labor, immigration, and social services agencies. CLA labor inspectors do not have an enforcement mentality, nor the authority to actively pursue potential TIP cases. Lastly, victims are reluctant to identify themselves as victims, most likely because they fear prosecution for immigration and labor violations occasioned by their having been trafficked. TAIPEI 00001561 003 OF 003 Taiwan needs to formally extend immunity and economic opportunity to TIP victims to secure their cooperation in prosecutions against traffickers. ¶11. Senior Coordinator Taylor did not have an opportunity to review this cable. YOUNG