DISCUSSIONS ON TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LAW AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KABUL 003036 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, GTIP, DRL, INL NSC FOR JWOOD OSD FOR MCGRAW CG CJTF-101, POLAD, JICCENT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV KDEM KTIP AF SUBJECT: DISCUSSIONS ON TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LAW AND IMPLEMENTATION KABUL 00003036 001.3 OF 003 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Afghan officials appear eager to implement the country's new anti-trafficking law, but the level of conceptual clarity on the definition of trafficking differed among government officials. Judicial delay, corruption, and weak coordination remain obstacles to effectively punishing trafficking offenses. The government has made some nascent progress and has already undertaken several important positive steps to protect victims, including increased coordination between police and women's shelters, active monthly prison monitoring by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) and the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA),and a new referral center for victims staffed by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and MOWA and supported by UNIFEM. ¶2. (SBU) G/TIP Officer Gayatri Patel discussed Afghanistan's new trafficking in persons law and plans for its implementation during her October 7-10 visit to Kabul. Patel met with officials from MOI, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), and MOWA. She also met with representatives from AIHRC, UNIFEM, UNICEF, and the International Organization on Migration (IOM) who provided further information about trafficking in persons and the GoIRA's efforts to implement a new anti-trafficking law and protect victims. Afghanistan's Anti-TIP Law -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Afghanistan's law was enacted by presidential decree in July. The law provides for protection of victims -- prohibiting the prosecution of trafficking victims and allowing foreign victims to legally remain in Afghanistan for at least six months. Second, it establishes a high commission for countering human trafficking, headed by the MOJ and composed of representatives from the Attorney General's Office, MOI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Religious Affairs, MOWA, Ministry of Public Health, AIHRC, and several other organizations. This commission is particularly important, IOM's Nigina Nomadjnova stressed, because it establishes a formal mechanism for government coordination in efforts to protect victims, prevent trafficking, and prosecute traffickers. In the past it was necessary to search out the appropriate institutional partners for each situation - a time-consuming and often ineffective process. GoIRA Officials' Reaction to the Anti-TIP Law -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Nazir Hakimi, MOI Chief of Detection for Organized Crime, said distinguishing between human trafficking and kidnapping is a new concept for the Afghanistan law enforcement community. He and other MOI officials present during the meeting, however, were able to articulate the difference between kidnapping and trafficking and discuss in detail provisions of the new law including those for protecting victims. ¶5. (SBU) MOJ Deputy Minister Qader Adalat described the process of proposing and drafting the law with the assistance of international advisors. MOWA's Legal Director Fawzia Hamini said that although the anti-trafficking law is new, all implementing government agencies are aware that it is in force and are making the necessary preparations to implement it. During an IOM-organized regional TIP conference held in Kabul on October 12-13, high level officials from MOI, MOJ, MFA, the Attorney General's Office, and MOWA also expressed strong support for the new law and a government-wide anti-TIP effort. Trafficking Patterns in Afghanistan -------------- ¶6. (SBU) MOI officials reported of trafficking incidents in which brokers lured third country nationals to Afghanistan under the pretense of high-paying employment opportunities in the reconstruction effort; instead, the brokers forced the people into labor or sex work without pay. MOI reported on other alleged cases where parents sent their sons with people who promised to deliver them to good schools in Pakistan when in reality they were sent to paramilitary training camps. Finally, officials reported brokers increasingly used internet sites to attract women and girls, promised marriage to a wealthy husband, provided the women with forged travel documents and then sold the victims to a trafficker. UNIFEM and others noted that some Afghan men prostitute their wives against their will. Further details and confirmation of these KABUL 00003036 002.3 OF 003 incidents were not available. ¶7. (SBU) MOWA's legal department assisted four victims of trafficking in the last six months, including a girl sold in Khost Province and an 18 year-old woman sent from Afghanistan to Lahore and back to Afghanistan under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Hamini said. Noriko Izumi, UNICEF, argued that much trafficking in persons organizational attention is paid to situations that likely are not trafficking - for example, deportations of economic migrants from Iran. She believes too little attention is paid to situations that likely are trafficking such as some forced marriages. ¶8. (SBU) MOI reported that during the last six months its officers investigated 173 kidnapping cases, some of which involved multiple victims. Of that total, 26 cases had a political motivation, 33 had a financial motivation, and in the remaining cases the motive was unclear. Information was not available on how many of those cases involved trafficking. Government Efforts: Protection and Prevention -------------- ¶9. (SBU) MOWA and civil society-funded shelters have a memorandum of understanding under which police refer cases to MOWA, which in turn refers women, including trafficking victims, to an appropriate facility. MOWA also supports the shelters by introducing potential donors to the NGOs that run the shelters. MOWA staff visit prisons several times a month to investigate why women and girls there are in custody, to ensure that they are not there because they are victims of sex crimes and/or trafficking. ¶10. (SBU) AIHRC, however, reported problems regarding security of TIP victims in ad hoc shelters. AIHRC noted that these shelters sometimes do not accept victims in cases that are too sensitive, and shelter managers sometimes face threats from the community and government leaders, particularly when assisting in cases that involve honor issues. In some cases, shelters will give women back to their families or to the police, leaving them vulnerable to further abuse. UNIFEM -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Dr. Anou Borrey, UNIFEM, said the above memorandum of understanding has led to increased cooperation between MOWA, MOI, and the shelters. The launch of a referral center in Jalalabad (operated by MOI with support from MOWA and UNIFEM) has led to a sharp drop in the number of arbitrary detentions of women. Some of these women were trafficked to Pakistan for forced marriage and escaped back to Afghanistan. Four MOI employees investigate the cases and four MOWA staff work as paralegals to support the women. A committee with representatives from the AIHRC, NGOs, UNAMA, MOJ, the Attorney General's Office, the Supreme Court, Ministry of the Youth, and Ministry of the Hajj - advise the referral center. Dr. Borrey said this cooperation stopped the arrests of women seeking social services. Another referral center opened October 9 in Bamyan and plans are set for a third to open in Jowzjan Province later this year. IOM --- ¶12. (SBU) IOM with the cooperation of MOI has conducted training focused on trafficking issues for 1000 police throughout the country in 2008. Nomadjnova has already observed an improvement in how law enforcement officials treat victims. MOJ and MOI requested training on implementation of the new anti-trafficking law. IOM will start this training in January through a G/TIP grant. MOI officials also plan to work with Ministry of Education officials to develop a program to raise awareness among teachers and students about human trafficking. They have already stationed staff at airports and border crossings specifically to combat trafficking. Nomadjnova said the biggest challenge to TIP work is poor coordination among law enforcement entities, but the new commission proposed in the anti-TIP law should improve this situation. AIHRC -------------- KABUL 00003036 003.2 OF 003 ¶13. (SBU) AIHRC discussed its efforts to monitor prisons in order to prevent victims of human trafficking from being detained. Corruption, judicial delay, and lack of resources are factors that inhibit proper identification of trafficking victims and chances of successfully prosecuting traffickers. ¶14. (U) Ms. Patel cleared on this message. WOOD