TIP: 2007 INTERIM ASSESSMENT REPORT FOR HONDURAS

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001794 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/PPC, G-ACBLANK, AND G/TIP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KCRM KWMN ELAB PHUM PGOV PREL HO SUBJECT: TIP: 2007 INTERIM ASSESSMENT REPORT FOR HONDURAS REF: A. STATE 148925 ¶B. STATE 118936 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Post submits the following 2007 interim Trafficking in Persons (TIP) assessment report for Honduras (ref. A). On September 26, 2007, Poloffs hosted a meeting with 15 members of the Inter-Institutional Committee, composed of Government of Honduras (GOH) officials, prosecutors, and police and NGOs, to inform them of the Tier 2 Watch List Action Plan for Honduras (ref. B). Poloff then met with the Special Prosecutor for Children, Nora Urbina, on November 9 to assess progress the GOH has made in combating TIP based on the recommendations of the Action Plan. Post believes that the GOH is making strong, concerted efforts in each area of the plan to investigate and gather law enforcement data on TIP cases, coordinate better assistance for victims and vulnerable populations, train law enforcement officials, and raise social awareness of the problem of Trafficking in Persons. END SUMMARY. -------------- Law Enforcement Efforts -------------- ¶2. (SBU) The Government of Honduras (GOH) has increased efforts to investigate trafficking offenders and is considering action to determine whether public officials were complicit in a particular TIP case. INL recently paid for travel expenses and gas for two trips to the North Coast including El Progreso, Yoro, Tela, La Ceiba and Tocoa by agents of the Directorate of Special Investigations (DGSEI). The purpose of the stakeouts was to identify, confirm and gather prosecutable evidence in two cases involving Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC). In one case, agents were able to identify sources in the La Ceiba area for a subject who is exploiting minors at a local hotel. In the other case, agents were waiting at the airport in La Ceiba to arrest an individual suspected of trafficking girls to the British Cayman Islands on a weekly basis, but he did not appear as expected. It is suspected that the individual in question may have been tipped off. When Poloff informed the Special Prosecutor for Children of the alleged leak, she said she would consider initiating a separate investigation. Both CSE cases continue to be investigated. According to the Special Prosecutor for Children, there are now 32 TIP cases under investigation in Tegucigalpa and 49 in San Pedro Sula, with others ongoing elsewhere in the country. In Tegucigalpa, seven cases this year have gone to trial, with two sentences so far. The average time for a case to be tried in Honduras is three years or longer with many never reaching conclusion. ¶3. (SBU) During a visit to Roatan in September 2007, police told Poloff there were a few isolated cases of CSE, but the police, district attorney and courts have encountered conflicts and lack of coordination that make prosecutions difficult. Under consideration is to initiate investigations from the prosecutor's office in Tegucigalpa, but this would require approval from the Attorney General or his deputy. The number of investigative analysts in Tegucigalpa assigned to children's issues, already disproportionately high in relation to other areas, has been increased this year. ¶4. (SBU) The Division Against Abuse, Trafficking and CSE (DATESI),a unit of the criminal investigative police, conducted a series of detection operations throughout the country including highways, airports, ports and hotels. On September 27, 2007, a woman was arrested for trafficking a female minor to Mexico for the purposes of CSE. A number of other Honduran female minors were reportedly rescued from bars, massage parlors and brothels in Mexico and are being repatriated to Honduras this month. Immigration authorities plan to hand them over to Casa Alianza for eventual reintegration into their families. On November 9, police raided four massage parlors in Tegucigalpa simultaneously to rescue underage sex workers and arrested two Honduran men. -------------- Law Enforcement Data -------------- ¶5. (U) The GOH has taken a qualitative step in improving efforts to gather law enforcement data on trafficking cases throughout the country. In 2007, Honduras implemented a nationwide system to track all forms of criminal complaints, including TIP, from the first record of the case to prosecution, using a single file for all law enforcement agencies. The new system is known as SEDI (Sistema de Expediente Digital Interinstitutional). Additionally, the Interpol Division of the police is implementing a website of missing persons, a project which is financed by Save the Children Sweden. Casa Alianza Honduras established a database of victims, which it is sharing with the Honduran Institute for Children and the Family (IHNFA) to coordinate victim assistance. It is also working with the Special Prosecutor for Children in providing witnesses in certain TIP cases. -------------- Victim Protection and Shelters -------------- ¶6. (U) As the third poorest country in the hemisphere, it is difficult for the GOH to increase dramatically its funding of shelters and other protection mechanisms. Instead, the GOH has raised awareness within public institutions, especially police and immigration, so that they know what NGO-funded mechanisms are available, and institute rules that require them to utilize these resources. In May 2007, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched a Protocol for the repatriation of children to coordinate attention to victims of CSE such that each entity of the Inter-Institutional Committee has a specific role. The purpose of the new protocol is to ensure that victims such as those arriving at the border from Guatemala or the airport in Tegucigalpa receive primary care and attention and immediately are passed to shelters such as Casa Alianza's Centro Querubines or reintegrated into their families. In the past IHNFA often failed to provide someone on the scene. Casa Alianza also is training IHNFA on victim assistance. So far in 2007, Casa Alianza has provided assistance to 200 victims of TIP. It has placed 66 children in schools and 40 in vocational studies. It also has reintegrated 95 victims of CSEC with their families. ¶7. (SBU) IOM already has conducted training on the protocol in the northern part of the country, including judges, immigration officials and civil society and is training professionals and technicians who give direct attention to victims or vulnerable persons. Later this month IOM is holding organizational meetings to coordinate the transfer of vulnerable returnees, who are now arriving from Guatemala in greater numbers in the Department of Puerto Cortes instead of Ocotepeque, to the ABC shelter in San Pedro Sula. As part of a INL-funded anti-TIP project that was initiated earlier this year, IOM provided a return ticket from Guatemala for a Honduran female minor by request from the Special Prosecutor for Children and in coordination with IHNFA and the consular affairs section of MFA. IOM also provided travel costs to another Honduran female minor from San Pedro Sula so that she could give testimony in her case to the Special Prosecutor for Children after she was repatriated from Guatemala as a victim of CSEC. IOM is coordinating rehabilitation services for a Honduran female minor after she was repatriated from Mexico as a victim of multiple violent sex acts and is coordinating action with the Special Prosecutor for Children and Honduran immigration authorities in a case of a Honduran female minor in Costa Rica. In addition, a comprehensive map of trafficking routes was completed by Save the Children Honduras, which was distributed to police and immigration officials, so that they can be more vigilant, track the patterns, and make arrests. -------------- Training and Public Awareness -------------- ¶8. (U) The Honduran National Congress currently is considering granting the Inter-Institutional Committee the status of a "GOH entity" which eventually may entitle it to its own funding. Formed in 2002, the Committee consists of the Honduran Supreme Court; Ministries of Foreign Affairs (Consular),Governance (Migration),Internal Security (Police),Health and Education; prosecutors from the Public Ministry; IHNFA; the National Human Rights Commission (CONADEH),the National Association of Mayors (AHMON) and Casa Alianza. It meets once a month with an agenda and often holds ad hoc meetings. Six individuals from the Committee, including the Special Prosecutor for Children, immigration officials and investigative police, attended training in Trafficking in Persons for Law Enforcement Professionals from April 23 to May 4, 2007 in El Salvador sponsored by G/TIP and INL. The Committee itself has embarked on an ambitious program of training and public awareness. In 2007 they have hosted approximately 50 training sessions for political leaders, international organizations, civil society, women's and community groups, tourism and health workers, prosecutors and law enforcement, judges, education officials, students, municipal and urban transport workers and the press. In January 2007 prosecutors from Tegucigalpa trained law enforcement officials in Roatan on CSE, including TV and radio spots. The Mayor's office of Tegucigalpa trained a number of city groups earlier this year and on November 9 and 10 it trained 50 police officers of the National Police Academy and 70 municipal officers. The Child and Women's prosecutors conducted public awareness campaigns in Olancho, Comayagua and Choluteca. The police also conducted training of justice officials in Ocotepeque and students in Tegucigalpa, Comayagua and Comayaguela. IHNFA promoted the National Action Plan in nine regional areas and trained law enforcement, NGOs, and local and civil society authorities. Save the Children trained students, youth groups, teachers, and parents and community groups. Casa Alianza conducted a course for DATESI police in El Progreso and municipal officials, judges, police, community groups, prosecutors and the press in Choluteca, including TV and radio spots. The International Labor Organization's Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO/IPEC) held training for the Association of the Honduran Press (APH) and completed on November 10 a journalism/CSE certification course for 30 participants that took place on weekends for three months in Choluteca. Even the Ministry of Governance has gotten into the act by encouraging 137 municipalities to name Public Defenders of Children. To date the municipalities of Brus Laguna, Islas de la Bahia, Marcala, Choloma and Villanueva have named new Defenders, who now will be trained by the Ministry. TV spots against TIP are now being run at the national level. ¶9. (SBU) COMMENT: As a result of more concerted efforts by the GOH led by the Special Prosecutor for Children and coordinated largely through the Inter-Institutional Committee, Post has witnessed much more public awareness of the problem of TIP in Honduras. With a new anti-TIP law that came into effect on February 4, 2006, which sets increased penalties and specifically makes trafficking a crime, a number of cases have been exposed in the media, often with an explanation that Honduras fell to a Tier 2 Watch List ranking earlier this year. As evidenced by the high number of cases under investigation in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, many of which originated from new citizen complaints, there is a growing and consistent public rejection of TIP. With assistance from the USG and donor community, Post expects the GOH, NGOs and IOs to further enhance coordinated efforts to identify, investigate and prosecute cases successfully and continue to provide victims and vulnerable groups adequate sheltering and assistance. END COMMENT. FORD