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.

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Law Enforcement Efforts
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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.

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Law Enforcement Data
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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.

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Victim Protection and Shelters
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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.

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Training and Public Awareness
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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