GREECE: ACTION GUIDE TO COMBAT TIP (2008-2009)

UNCLAS ATHENS 001272 CORRECTED COPY - CAPTION ADDED SENSITVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV GR PHUM SMIG KCRM KWMN KTIP SUBJECT: GREECE: ACTION GUIDE TO COMBAT TIP (2008-2009) DELIVERED REF: STATE 88098 ¶1. (SBU) On August 26, Charge, A/Polcouns, and PolAssistant delivered the TIP Action Guide to Minister of Justice Hatzigakis and SecGen of the Justice Ministry Gletsos. On August 28, Charge and Poloff delivered the guide to MFA General Secretary Agathocles. In these meetings, the Charge outlined specific issues that Greece needed to address. Among the steps discussed were the need for accurate and timely statistics, increased victim protection and assistance, and a review of the process of the issuance of visas to persons who become trafficking victims. Charge underscored that these issues needed to be addressed early. THE MFA -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Agathocles agreed that statistics were a problem but suggested that laws in Greece that protect individual privacy could present problems in compiling more detailed statstics. Charge noted that statistical informatin was key to the combating TIP and that last-minute scramble to put them together would not work. On increased victim protection and assistance, Agathocles asked whether Ambassador Lagon, during his visit September 1-3, could provide some advice on what had worked in other countries with similar cultures. Charge asked Agothocles about the issue of Greek visa issuance and TIP victims. Agathocles noted this issue was a result of public official corruption by the "Mafia." He also said that these visas were granted legally and then the victims were recruited once in country. Charge noted that Greece must have some controls over visa issuance to workers. Agathocles indicated agencies often handled them. Charge said that Consular officers could be told not to take applications from agencies known to bring in people who ended up as TIP victims. Agathocles ended the meeting by stating Greece and the U.S. were on the same side of the TIP issue, and that he was looking forward to Ambassador Lagon's visit next week. MINISTRY OF JUSTICE -------------- ¶3. (SBU) In the meeting with Minister of Justice, Hatzigakis and SecGen Gletsos, Charge likewise outlined the key issues of the Action Guide. She noted the importance that the U.S. government and Secretary Rice, in particular, placed on combating TIP and underscored the issue as a good area to develop further U.S.-Greece cooperation. Charge explained that the establishment of an accurate data-collection system was especially important. Without such numbers, neither the GOG nor the international community could understand Greece's efforts on arrests, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences for traffickers. Also, without good data, it was impossible to know how many victims had been identified or assisted. But Charge stressed that such a data collection system could not be created overnight, and she urged the GOG to get an early start to avoid a scramble next spring in the lead-up to the release of the next TIP report. ¶4. (SBU) Charge underscored as well other key issues in the last TIP report and the Action Guide for Greece, such as victim identification and protection. She noted the key role that NGOs played in this regard and urged the GOG to provide more support to them. Finally she noted for the Justice Ministry officials the issue of corruption and its role in trafficking. We were aware of a few individual cases of corrupt consular officials, as well as corrupt policemen. While corruption was not a quantitatively significant factor, the heinousness of the few cases we had heard about (such as the alleged rape of a TIP victim by police officers after her "rescue") caused concern and a desire for punishment and to have in place proper controls to avoid such situations in the future. ¶5. (SBU) The Ministry officials said they took the problem of trafficking -- which they called a combination of "modern slavery" and "sexual exploitation" -- very seriously. The perpetrator of a rape crime typically got 20 years in prison, they argued, so a trafficker, who was in effect guilty of multiple rapes, should get an even stiffer sentence. On the database issues, the Justice Ministry officials acknowledged past problems but said new measures were now in place. They said they had good cooperation with NGOs and had enacted improvements in Greek TIP legislation to assist NGOs. They also said they hoped to change the laws that required TIP victims to testify against their perpetrators to receive official victim status. They looked forward to Ambassador Lagon's impending visit and hoped to get advice from him on Greece's particular TIP problems. SPECKHARD