GREECE: DECEMBER 2008 TIP UPDATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 001715 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT ALSO FOR EUR/SE AND G/TIP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KCRM PHUM PREL SMIG KTIP GR SUBJECT: GREECE: DECEMBER 2008 TIP UPDATE REF: A. ATHENS 959 ¶B. ATHENS 1114 ¶C. ATHENS 1204 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY. ¶1. (U) This is Embassy Athens' third regular update on Greece's efforts to combat trafficking in persons (TIP). REFTELS refer to previous TIP update cables. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: Greek anti-TIP police continued aggressively tackling trafficking rings, successfully completing two major investigations in two months: Operation White Bread, with 15 arrests and 18 victims taken into protective custody, and Operation Ilaeira, with 17 arrests and 6 victims rescued. The GOG reorganized its TIP portfolio, giving full responsibility to the MFA and creating a new TIP section under MFA Secretary General Agathocles. Showing renewed political will in the fight against trafficking, FM Bakoyiannis highlighted TIP in her statement at the OSCE Ministerial in Helsinki as incoming Chairman-in-Office. Greek prosecutors and labor unions held their first-ever international conferences focusing on sex and labor trafficking. NGO contacts reported that TIP shelter capacity was adequate, with demand for beds declining -- the real need was funding for increased counseling, victim support, and legal aid. END SUMMARY. -------------- Police Tear Down Two Trafficking Networks -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The Hellenic Police continued to do a good job tackling trafficking rings. One recent success, Operation White Bread, involved INTERPOL and EUROPOL investigators and spanned more than a year. On November 9, police fanned out across Athens and arrested 15 suspected traffickers, taking 18 women -- all of them victims of sexual exploitation -- into protective custody. The operation was named "White Bread" after police discovered that the suspected ringleader used a chain of bakeries to launder his illicit proceeds. The trafficking victims had been recruited from as far away as Siberia and were lured to Greece expecting to be highly-paid club dancers. Instead, the women were coerced into prostitution, deprived of their travel documents, and threatened with physical harm. The 15 suspects, many of them Greek nationals, face a variety of felony charges, including human trafficking and grievous bodily harm. ¶4. (SBU) Operation Ilaeira, named for a kidnapping victim in Greek mythology, took place from December 3-6 and involved eight regional police divisions throughout the country, with 50 police officers taking part in Athens alone. Directed by Anti-Trafficking Police Chief Georgios Vanikiotis, the operation targeted a sex trafficking organization that recruited women throughout Eastern Europe. Pretending to offer waitress jobs in Greece, the organization used employment agencies based in Russia to facilitate the victims' travel to Greece, where they were forced into stripping and prostitution and threatened with physical harm. Police arrested 17 suspects (most of them Greek nationals) and rescued 6 victims, 5 of whom were granted official status as victims of trafficking (one case was pending). In addition, Operation Ilaeira netted two wanted fugitives, one of whom had been sentenced to 59 years in prison and had been on the lam for 10 years. Vanikiotis said that this operation involved unprecedented cooperation between the Athens-based Anti-Trafficking Police Unit and regional police divisions, as well as with prosecutors in Athens. (NOTE: Operation Ilaeira was cut short by one day due to the start of anarchist and student protests and rioting on the night of December 6. END NOTE.) -------------- -- MFA: New TIP Office Helps Reopen Public Shelter -------------- -- ¶5. (SBU) In OctQer the MFA took on full responsibility for the GOG's TIP portfolio, creating a special TIP office under MFA Secretary General Agathocles. This new unit, focused on working-level coordination between the MFA and other ministries, will take over day-to-day responsibilities from the unwieldy high-level Interministerial Committee on Trafficking set up under Greece's 2002 anti-TIP law. One positive result has already occurred: MFA pressure compelled the Ministry of Health and Welfare to reopen EKKA, a public shelter for TIP victims in Athens that had been closed for many months. EKKA's shelter is rehiring staff and is expected to be in operation in January 2009. ATHENS 00001715 002 OF 002 -------------- -------------- NGOs: TIP Shelters Suffice, but Counseling Needed -------------- -------------- ¶6. (SBU) NGO contacts stated that the need for TIP shelters had decreased, but that victim counseling and legal aid had become more urgent priorities. Dina Vardaramatou, a leader of KEDE / Stop Now, a women's rights and anti-TIP NGO, explained that demographic changes among trafficking victims led to decreased demand for TIP shelters. This meant, Vardaramatou said, that even after NGO Klimaka's TIP shelter closed (REF A),the remaining TIP shelters had enough bed space. Whereas past victims of sex trafficking predominantly came from Albania or other eastern European countries, recently-arrived sex workers from Nigeria and central Asian countries typically did not want to stay in shelters. (COMMENT: Greater language and cultural differences between Greek shelter providers and the newer TIP victims may be a factor. END COMMENT.) Victim counseling and legal aid were still critical needs, according to Vardaramatou, and Greek TIP NGOs offering these services were still desperate for funding. -------------- -------------- OSCE: GOG Commitment to TIP at Helsinki Ministerial -------------- -------------- ¶7. (U) On December 4, Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis, in her OSCE Helsinki Ministerial statement, made a clear public commitment to combat trafficking: "...human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as combating trafficking, the protection of the rights of women and the reinforcement of their role in policy and law-making are of utmost importance for Greece." In addition, an OSCE Human Dimension decision stressed a victim-centered approach to combating TIP. These positive results reflect the MFA's desire to tackle TIP issues, especially as Greece takes on the 2009 OSCE Chairmanship. -------------- - New TIP Partners: Prosecutors and Trade Unions -------------- - ¶8. (U) Mission Greece has continued reaching out to new partners in the fight against trafficking. At a regional conference for prosecutors on TIP and cross-border crime in the Balkans, Thessaloniki Consul General Hoyt Yee and Poloff advocated for our TIP agenda, encouraging the Greek Prosecutors' Union to pursue aggressively TIP-related convictions and sentences and to focus on good law enforcement data collection. The conference, held November 15-16, was sponsored by the MFA and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Greece's independent prosecutors wield immense power in determining which cases come to trial, and their reaction to our outreach at this conference was overwhelmingly positive. The good news has spread -- the National Judges' Union (more than 4,000 members throughout Greece) has since expressed interest in TIP training seminars. ¶9. (U) Additionally, Poloff met with Greek trade union leaders on the margins of the ILO-sponsored 2009 Athens International Trade Union Conference on Combating Forced Labor and Trafficking, held November 21-23. Zoe Lanara, the Greek General Confederation of Labor's (GSEE) Secretary for International Relations, stated that Greece's trade unions -- a powerful and influential political force -- had recently begun thinking about making TIP a central component of their advocacy efforts. Lanara welcomed the opportunity to work with the Embassy in fighting TIP and pointed out that the Department of State's Annual TIP Report was quoted numerous times throughout the conference. SPECKHARD