Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ATHENS1715
2008-12-23 13:02:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Athens
Cable title:  

GREECE: DECEMBER 2008 TIP UPDATE

Tags:  PGOV KCRM PHUM PREL SMIG KTIP GR 
pdf how-to read a cable
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OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTH #1715/01 3581302
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 231302Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2968
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
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.

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