TURKEY/TIP: NEW PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 001709 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR G/TIP, EUR/PGI, EUR/SE, USAID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TIP SMIG PHUM KWMN KFRD ASEC ELAB TU SUBJECT: TURKEY/TIP: NEW PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED; CAPACITY CONTINUES TO BE STRENGTHENED REF: ANKARA 610 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The GOT has launched a media campaign, including posters, TV and radio spots, to raise public awareness of TIP and promote the "157" hotline, and is taking additional steps to generate public support in the fight against TIP. A draft GOT-commissioned report on demand for TIP in Turkey is expected to be released soon and should shed light on sources of demand for trafficked victims, including victims trafficked domestically. Institutional capacity has been strengthened greatly this summer through "train the trainers" courses for judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officials. We are still awaiting formal adoption of the National Action Plan and a solution guaranteeing long-term funding for shelters and hotline operation; shelter funding is ensured for the remainder of the reporting period and GOT officials assure us that a solution will be reached. Turkey supports the Council of Europe convention on TIP, but wants to ensure its ability to implement all provisions of the convention before signing. END SUMMARY. PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED -------------- ¶2. (U) The GOT launched a new trafficking-in-person (TIP) public awareness campaign June 30. The campaign features TV and radio advertisements and more than forty thousand posters in municipalities throughout Turkey, primarily in TIP hotspots, promoting the GOT's anti-trafficking "157" hotline. The campaign is the first of a two-tiered public awareness strategy being implemented by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) in partnership with IOM as part of the ongoing two-year, three million euro, EU-funded anti-trafficking program (reftel). Next year the campaign will be expanded to target media markets in key source countries throughout the Black Sea region, raising awareness of the hotline and the GOT's commitment to assisting victims. (The hotline can already be reached internationally by dialing (90)(312)157-1122.) ¶3. (U) A leading Istanbul advertising agency produced the posters and television and radio advertisements (CD-R copy sent by pouch to G/TIP). MFA Trafficking and Migration Section Head Nilufer Kaygisiz told us September 23 that she was proud of the cooperation demonstrated by GOT taskforce members, including IOM, who worked together to develop the campaign's themes. The ads use strong language and the TV spots employ stark visual imagery to underscore the human dimension of trafficking, urging Turks not to remain indifferent to human trafficking and to call the "157" hotline (the international number is also shown on the poster) if they suspect human trafficking. In the TV and radio spots, the narrator, in Turkish, states: -- Each year, approximately 800 thousand men, women and children are made victims of trafficking worldwide. -- A great majority of these people are forced into prostitution. -- Some are forced into labor. -- These people are being deceived and their desperation exploited. -- Every passing day, men, women and children are becoming TIP victims. -- They cannot get their voices heard; they want to be saved. -- By calling the "157" hotline, you can save a life. -- Turkey is determined in the fight against human trafficking. ¶4. (U) According to Kaygisiz and IOM Trafficking Assistant Meltem Ersoy, the GOT easily obtained Radio and Television High Commission (RTUK) approval of the commercials, and the ads are appearing regularly on major Turkish TV and cable channels, free of charge. However, Kaygisiz told us that MFA wishes to persuade the networks to air the spots more often, and will discuss this issue during the next scheduled interagency TIP taskforce meeting, October 10. ¶5. (U) The GOT is undertaking a number of additional measures to further raise TIP awareness in Turkey. Kaygisiz told us that representatives of the Turkish Doctors Association (TTB),Turkish Travel Agents Union (TURSAB),and the Ministry of Tourism will participate in the upcoming meeting of the interagency taskforce. TTB represents doctors in private practice who, said Kaygisiz, need to be informed, as public hospitals have been, that trafficking victims are guaranteed free medical treatment in Turkey by decree. The Ministry of Health will coordinate this outreach effort with TTB. ANKARA 00001709 002 OF 003 Likewise, the GOT believes the hotel and tourism industry can play a critical front-line role in identifying and reporting possible trafficking acts. Further raising public awareness, the GOT will soon release the print version of its 2007 "Report on Combating Human Trafficking in Turkey." (The report, like last year's, will be in Turkish and English; an electronic version of the data in Turkish is included on the CD-R pouched to G/TIP.) Upon public release, the link to the report will be updated on the MFA, MOI and Ministry of Justice (MOJ) homepages. GOT CONTINUES TO STRENGTHEN ANTI-TIP CAPACITY -------------- ¶6. (U) The GOT is undertaking a number of additional anti-trafficking activities as part of the EU-funded program. Kaygisiz and Ersoy said they expect that Middle East Technical University senior researchers will submit in the next couple of weeks a draft comprehensive report on demand for TIP in Turkey. The GOT-commissioned report is expected to shed light on sources of demand for trafficked victims, including those trafficked domestically, which some experts believe may be overlooked as a result of the GOT's bureaucratic focus on combating international trafficking for sexual exploitation. (MFA chairs the interagency taskforce.) The same researcher team will then begin work on a second report, that will set out recommendations for strengthening the GOT TIP taskforce. ¶7. (U) TIP training took place in Turkey throughout the summer. Thirty law enforcement officers and forty judges and prosecutors participated in "train the trainers" courses. The training focused not only on counter-trafficking skills, such as victim identification and interviewing skills, but also on training skills; the training will start to be "cascaded" to hundreds of officers in the respective agencies beginning after the Ramadan holidays (September 29-October 3). Ersoy expects the training to reach at least 300 judges and prosecutors and 280 "first contact" law enforcement officers. She noted that former Scotland Yard officer and renowned TIP expert Paul Holmes participated in one such training session earlier in the summer. Kaygisiz pointed out that counter-trafficking training has expanded greatly beyond the TNP Foreigners Department to include other departments in the TNP Security Directorate, namely Law and Order. Turkish law enforcement, she said, is increasingly well trained to identify and assist victims of domestic trafficking. ¶8. (U) An MOJ delegation traveled to Belgium July 7-10 and Italy July 14-18 to compare best practices on TIP. Ersoy contended that MOJ officials are eager to learn European best practices, but that those visiting Belgium and Italy came away from the visits feeling that Turkey's legislative framework for prosecuting TIP was, in fact, more advanced than what they saw in Europe. The delegation was reportedly more impressed by the NGO and international law enforcement cooperation they witnessed in Belgium and Italy. STILL AWAITING LONG-TERM SOLUTION ON SHELTERS -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Turkey's anti-TIP shelters are funded presently by the EU through the two-year counter-trafficking program. According to Ersoy, Chairman Kemal Gur is pushing the taskforce hard to identify a guaranteed and sustainable source of funding for the shelters. Nine months' funding is presently guaranteed for the Ankara-based shelter and twelve months for the Istanbul-based shelter. Kaygisiz assured us the Ministry of Finance (MOF) is prepared to provide short-term, bridge financing to ensure no disruption in shelter service, if necessary. However, a sustainable, long-term solution has yet to be reached. MFA will urge the creation of a taskforce sub-group of concerned agencies to work out the problem, probably led by TNP, which most directly engages with the shelters. Kaygisiz believes that creating such a sub-group would underscore the urgency attached to reaching a solution on this issue. She recalled that when statistical collection was proving impossibly disorganized, a sub-group was created under the MOJ Statistics Department, and GOT statistical reporting on TIP improved quickly. ¶10. (SBU) TNP has already indicated its intent to take over from IOM operation of the "157" hotline. TNP is in the process of identifying and training multi-lingual staff to administer the hotline; MOF has approved nine positions. ANKARA 00001709 003 OF 003 Both IOM and MFA noted to us a sense of caution: TNP, when it takes over, should continue to operate the hotline as effectively as IOM has. Ersoy said TNP should take over IOM's "whole capacity" for administering the hotline. Kaygisiz did not rule out the possibility that IOM would, in the end, continue to operate the hotline, with direct GOT funding. ¶11. (SBU) Key to building sustainable anti-trafficking capacity in Turkey is passage of the revised National Action Plan (NAP). The NAP has already been approved by the Council of Ministers, but is, to the taskforce's frustration, still awaiting the Interior Minister's signature (presumably at a ceremony) before it can be sent to the PM for formal adoption. Recognizing that terrorist attacks and domestic political turmoil have consumed the Interior Minister's attention in recent months, Kaygisiz said she is confident this will happen soon. TURKEY SUPPORTS COUNCIL OF EUROPE TIP CONVENTION; WEIGHING SIGNATURE -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Kaygisiz told us Turkey is considering carefully whether to sign at this time the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings. The taskforce will discuss the convention at its next meeting and may task MOJ to develop a recommendation. Turkey, she said, supports the thrust of the convention, participated in the working groups leading to its formation, and would like to remain engaged in the convention's further development. Before the GOT signs, however, it wants to ensure Turkey will be ready to develop the necessary implementing legislation to ratify the convention. Most European countries, in particular the source countries in Turkey's region, have signed the convention and even ratified it, without, Kaygisiz suggested, the necessary legislation to implement the convention fully, perhaps out of support for the convention's compensation and legal redress guarantees. She noted some potential Turkish concern with the provision criminalizing the use of services from a victim. The GOT, she said, has no objections to the provision in principle, but noted that, in Turkey, a significant percentage of calls to the "157" hotline come from clients, and said Turkey should be careful not to deter calls to the hotline that could rescue victims. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey WILSON