Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08STATE132279
2008-12-17 21:30:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Secretary of State
Cable title:  

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

Tags:  KCRM KWMN KTIP PHUM PREL SMIG IT 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO9025
RR RUEHFL RUEHNP
DE RUEHC #2279/01 3522139
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 172130Z DEC 08
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 8952
INFO RUEHFL/AMCONSUL FLORENCE 1470
RUEHMIL/AMCONSUL MILAN 5354
RUEHNP/AMCONSUL NAPLES 1470
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 STATE 132279 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM KWMN KTIP PHUM PREL SMIG IT
SUBJECT: ITALY: TIP ACTION GUIDE TO COMBAT TIP (2008-2009)

REF: 11/21/08 JESTER-BROWNFELD EMAIL OF FINAL
ELECTRONIC VERSION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 STATE 132279

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM KWMN KTIP PHUM PREL SMIG IT
SUBJECT: ITALY: TIP ACTION GUIDE TO COMBAT TIP (2008-2009)

REF: 11/21/08 JESTER-BROWNFELD EMAIL OF FINAL
ELECTRONIC VERSION


1. This is an action request (see para 5).


2. The 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report rates countries as
Tier 1 when host governments are fully meeting the minimum
standards to combat trafficking in persons (TIP) as defined
by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Remaining
on Tier 1, however, is not guaranteed; governments must
continue to demonstrate appreciable progress and continued
full compliance with the minimum standards. All countries
will be reassessed annually to determine whether they
evidence satisfaction of all of the minimum standards. Tier 1
countries are subject to slipping to Tier 2 if they do not
fully comply with the minimum standards, but do continue to
show significant efforts.


3. Please keep in mind the TIP Report measures host
government efforts. To be useful for tier placement
purposes, there should be a concrete role or tangible
value-added by a host government in activities by NGOs,
international organizations, or posts.


4. The following explains steps the government needs to take
in order to continue to fully comply with the Minimum
Standards for the elimination of trafficking, and therefore
qualify for a continued Tier 1 ranking, and offers
suggestions to address specific areas of concern highlighted
in the 2008 TIP Report. Legal standards are excerpted from
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended.
Implementation Principles are excerpted from guidance issued
in 07 State 150188 (October 29, 2007) and are not specific to
any country or region. Country-specific points are not
exhaustive, but offer steps and possible ways to address
specific areas of concern. The Department assesses
government efforts each year. All governments must show
concrete evidence of serious and sustained efforts in
eliminating severe forms of trafficking from the previous
year. Tier ranking determinations will be based on the
government,s efforts to comply with the Minimum Standards to
Combat TIP during the April 2008 - March 2009 reporting
period.


5. Begin action request: At post,s discretion, post may
draw upon the below to explain the areas of specific concern

noted in the TIP Report and suggested areas to continue to
fully comply with the minimum standards (and thus continued
Tier 1 placement). Post may offer and/or follow up on the
steps below as possible ways to address specific areas of
concern highlighted in the 2008 TIP Report. While the list
is not exhaustive, it should focus the host government on
potential deficiencies in meeting the minimum standards and
examples of ways to overcome them. As every year, the
Department will weigh the government,s level of support and
participation in reported activities, as well as the efficacy
and sustainability of government actions, in light of its
resources and capabilities.

Begin Action Guide and internal numbering.


1. Legal Framework: The government should criminally prohibit
TIP and punish such acts.

(A) For TIP crimes, punishment should be prescribed that is
commensurate with that for grave crimes, such as forcible
sexual assault.

(B) For TIP crimes, punishment should be prescribed that is
sufficiently stringent to deter and that adequately reflects
the heinous nature of the offense.

Implementation Guideline: At minimum, governments must
criminalize and prescribe penalties for all forms of
trafficking relevant in the country, including forced labor.
This must include the elements of "severe forms of
trafficking in persons" -- force, fraud, and coercion.
Although desirable, this need not be accomplished through a
comprehensive law, so long as relevant elements of
trafficking, specifically including fraud/deception and
coercion along with force, are covered by the country's laws.
Sanctions for sex trafficking should be on par with rape.
The prescribed penalties for sex trafficking crimes or
trafficking involving rape, kidnapping or death should be
substantially similar to those for rape, taking into account
the full range of sentences available. Consistent with the

STATE 00132279 002 OF 005


UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, criminal
penalties to meet this standard should include a maximum of
at least four years, deprivation of liberty, or a more
severe penalty.

COMPLIANCE: The government was in full compliance as
reported in the 2008 TIP Report.

Positive results that should be maintained:

-- Italy prohibits all forms of trafficking in persons
through its 2003 Measures Against Trafficking in Persons law,
which prescribes penalties of eight to 20 years,
imprisonment. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and
commensurate with penalties prescribed for forcible sexual
assault.


2. Prosecution and other Law Enforcement Efforts: The
government should show serious and sustained efforts to
combat TIP by vigorously investigating and prosecuting TIP
acts, and convicting and sentencing persons responsible for
such acts.

(A) The government must provide data regarding
investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences,
consistent with its capacity to do so, or it shall be
presumed not to have vigorously investigated, prosecuted,
convicted or sentenced such acts.

Implementation Guideline: All governments, consistent with
their capacity to do so, are required to submit full
comprehensive data on trafficking enforcement actions,
including length of sentences actually imposed on convicted
traffickers, as evidence of their vigorous law enforcement
efforts. Imposed sentences should involve significant jail
time, with a majority of cases resulting in sentences on the
order of one year imprisonment or more, but taking into
account the severity of an individual's involvement in
trafficking, imposed sentences for other grave crimes, and
the judiciary's right to hand down punishments consistent
with that country's laws. Convictions obtained under other
criminal laws and statutes can be counted as trafficking if
the government verifies that they involve trafficking
offenses.

COMPLIANCE: The government was fully compliant as reported
in the 2008 TIP Report.

Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded:
-- The Government of Italy continued its strong law
enforcement efforts in 2007. In a major prosecution in April
2007, the government sentenced four Italians and three
Romanian traffickers to between three and 12 years,
imprisonment after they were convicted for the forced
prostitution and exploitation of 200 Roma children between
2004 and 2006. In June 2007, the government prosecuted eight
other perpetrators on charges of sexually exploiting children
for coercing them into performing sexual acts in exchange for
small gifts. Government investigations resulting from the
previously reported large-scale anti-trafficking crackdown,
Operation Spartacus,between October 2006 and January 2007 are
reportedly still ongoing. Italian prosecutors launched
trafficking investigations against 1,202 individuals,
prosecuted 80 trafficking cases, and courts convicted 163
traffickers in 2007. The average sentence was four years.
The government reported that most traffickers remain in
detention during the criminal proceedings. For sentences of
more than two years, defendants are not eligible for
suspended sentences. The government continued its
prosecution of 19 traffickers from a 2006 case involving the
trafficking of 113 Polish tomato pickers in Puglia who were
exploited in forced labor conditions, and will begin to
prosecute an additional four perpetrators in early 2008.

3. Victim Protection and Assistance: The government should
demonstrate serious and sustained efforts to combat TIP by
protecting TIP victims and encouraging their assistance in
the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers.
Protection should include:

(A) provisions for legal alternatives to victims, removal to
countries in which they would face retribution or hardship.

(B) ensuring that victims are not inappropriately
incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized solely for
unlawful acts that were committed as a direct result of being
trafficked.

Implementation Guideline: Critical factors considered in
whether a country fully satisfies this part of the minimum
standards are: (1) Formal, systematic screening procedures

STATE 00132279 003 OF 005


that proactively identify victims and guide law enforcement
and other front line responders in the process of victim
identification. (2) Shelter, health care, and counseling
should be available to victims, allowing them to recount
their trafficking experience to trained social counselors and
law enforcement at an appropriate pace, with minimal
pressure. Shelter and care may be provided in cooperation
with NGOs, but part of the government,s responsibility
includes funding and referral to NGOs providing services; to
the best extent possible, trafficking victims should not be
held in immigration detention centers, or other detention
facilities. Factors also considered and strongly recommended
for favorable placement are: (1) Victim/witness protection,
rights and confidentiality; i.e., governments should ensure
that victims are provided with legal and other assistance and
that, consistent with its domestic law, proceedings are not
prejudicial to victims' rights, dignity or psychological
well-being; and that victims are provided information in a
language they understand. (2) Source and destination
countries share responsibility in ensuring the safe, humane
and, to the extent possible, voluntary
repatriation/reintegration for victims. At a minimum,
destination countries should contact a competent governmental
body, NGO or IO in relevant source country to ensure that
trafficked persons who return to their country of origin are
provided with assistance and support necessary to their
well-being. Trafficking victims should not be subjected to
deportations or forced returns without safeguards or other
measures to reduce the risk of hardship, retribution, or
re-trafficking.

COMPLIANCE: The government was fully compliant as reported
in the 2008 TIP Report.

Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded:

-- The Italian government sustained strong efforts to protect
trafficking victims during the reporting period. Article 18
of the anti-trafficking law allows authorities to grant
residence permits and provide protection and job training
services to victims of trafficking, and during the reporting
period the government expanded Article 18 benefits to labor
trafficking victims. The government allocated $3.75 million
in 2007 for an additional emergency assistance plan and
approved 23 projects implemented by NGOs. During the
reporting period, it earmarked approximately $9.75 million
for 65 victim assistance projects, although the government
did not provide data on the number of trafficking victims who
benefited from these projects or the number who entered
social protection programs. In 2007, NGOs, with government
funding, provided literacy courses for 588 victims and
vocational training for 313, helped 436 find temporary jobs
and 907 find permanent jobs. In 2007, the Ministry of
Interior issued 1,009 residence permits to victims who
assisted in a law enforcement investigation. The government
also ensured the responsible return of 62 foreign trafficking
victims in 2007 by funding their repatriation and
reintegration and providing money for resettlement in their
home countries. During the reporting period, the government
implemented systematic procedures for victim identification
among vulnerable populations in Italy. Based on a 2006
independent commission report that its victim identification
measures for immigrants arriving in boats from North Africa
were not fully effective, the government reportedly improved
its process for identifying trafficking victims and it now
allows international organizations and NGOs to inspect
detention facilities and to interview migrants. In 2007, the
government enacted guidelines for the identification of
victims of forced labor and promoted four regional studies on
victims of labor exploitation.

Recommendation for measures to ensure that the country fully
complies with Minimum Standards:

-- Increase outreach to women and children in prostitution
and those in detention centers to ensure that trafficking
victims are identified, provided care, and not penalized for
crimes committed as a result of being trafficked.


4. Prevention: The government should demonstrate serious and
sustained efforts to combat TIP by adopting measures to
prevent TIP, such as:

(A) steps to inform and educate the public, including
potential victims, about the causes and consequences of TIP,

(B) measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and
for participation in international sex tourism by nationals
of the country,


STATE 00132279 004 OF 005


(C) measures to ensure that its nationals who are deployed
abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other similar mission do
not engage in or facilitate severe forms of trafficking in
persons or exploit victims of such trafficking,

(D) measures to prevent the use of forced labor or child
labor in violation of international standards.

Implementation Guideline: The government should provide/fund
a hotline or similar mechanism that offers victims and
potential victims assistance/information about TIP. Per the
new amendments to the Minimum Standards, starting with the
April 2007- March 2008 reporting period to be covered in the
2008 TIP Report, countries should, for example, where
applicable: (1) Reduce demand for commercial sex acts:
Implement or support some form of visible awareness campaign
that educates the clients of the sex trade (and potential sex
trafficking victims) if the country has a significant sex
trafficking problem, or a campaign that targets those who
form the demand for victims of forced labor about the nature
of the relevant form of TIP. Nations with legalized
prostitution should make additional efforts to proactively
identify TIP victims among those in prostitution in the
legalized sex trade. This includes the systematic and
sensitive screening of persons in the legalized sex trade.
(2) Address child sex tourism: Countries that have a
significant number of nationals traveling abroad as child sex
tourists should undertake an awareness campaign that targets
tourists traveling to known child sex tourism destinations.
(3) Address trafficking and exploitation committed by
multinational peacekeepers: Governments with more than 100
troops on peacekeeping or other similar missions abroad
should provide anti-TIP training for these troops (directly
or through multilateral efforts),and should investigate and,
if appropriate, prosecute any allegations of trafficking
crimes or crimes of facilitating trafficking or exploiting
trafficking victims committed by these troops abroad and
referred to it by the UN or another competent organization.

COMPLIANCE: The government was fully compliant as reported
in the 2008 TIP Report.

Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded:

-- The Government of Italy continued to educate the Italian
public about trafficking through its funding of NGO awareness
efforts, and it initiated a new ad campaign in 2007 that
included TV spots, internet banners, and bumper stickers in
various languages. In March 2007, the Ministry of Interior
established a committee designed to improve oversight and
prosecution of trafficking and invited NGOs into the policy
making process by including their membership on this
committee. The Ministry of Interior is in the planning stage
of a public awareness campaign, with several other countries,
to reduce demand for commercial sex acts and raise awareness
about human trafficking called project Pentametro. The
Italian Ministry of Defense reported regularly organizes
training sessions on human rights and trafficking for both
civilians and military personnel who serve in international
peacekeeping missions abroad. The government contributed
funding to the NGO ECPAT, which conducts child sex tourism
prevention activities in Italy. In February 2007, police
arrested a university professor in Naples for committing
child sex tourism offenses while in Thailand.

Recommendation for measures to ensure that the country fully
complies with Minimum Standards:

-- Further expand public awareness campaigns aimed at
reducing domestic demand for commercial sex acts and take
steps to prevent Italian nationals from engaging in child sex
tourism abroad.


5. Corruption and Official Complicity: The government should
vigorously investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence
public officials who participate in or facilitate TIP, and
take all appropriate measures against officials who condone
such trafficking.

(A) This should include nationals of the country who are
deployed abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other similar
mission who engage in or facilitate severe forms of
trafficking in persons or exploit victims of such trafficking.

(B) The government must provide data regarding such
investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences, or
it shall be presumed not to have vigorously investigated,
prosecuted, convicted, or sentenced such acts.

Implementation Principle: Governments, consistent with their

STATE 00132279 005 OF 005


capacity to do so, must provide full comprehensive data on
actions taken against TIP-related complicity. Information on
general government corruption does
not satisfy this minimum standard, except in cases in which
specific cases of complicity are not reported by the
government or known to the USG, but where there is a
reasonable probability of such complicity within the wider
context of generalized corruption in that country.

COMPLIANCE: The government was fully compliant as reported
in the 2008 TIP Report.

Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded:

-- After local Italian police were initially slow to respond
to the Puglia tomato pickers, case, prosecutors and
Carabinieri vigorously investigated allegations of official
complicity when notified and found no evidence to support the
allegations.

Information for further follow-up:

-- According to an NGO based in Genoa working with Nigerian
victims of trafficking, some government officials have been
imprisoned for facilitating trafficking.

Recommendation for measures to ensure that the country fully
complies with Minimum Standards:

-- Continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute
trafficking-related corruption at all levels of law
enforcement. Share comprehensive data on investigations,
prosecutions, and convictions of complicit officials, and the
lengths of sentences imposed on those convicted, if specific
cases of complicity have occurred.

End Action Guide and internal numbering.


6. The Department appreciates Post,s continued efforts to
address trafficking in persons issues.
RICE