NEW ANTI-TRAFFICKING UNIT IN MUMBAI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MUMBAI 000305

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM KDEM ASEC KWMN IN
SUBJECT: NEW ANTI-TRAFFICKING UNIT IN MUMBAI

REF: A. A 08 MUMBAI 226

B. B 09 MUMBAI 293

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1. (U) Summary: The Mumbai Crime Branch Unit formed a new
cell in February to specifically address international
trafficking and human smuggling. The unit has already made some
progress: it arrested two Air India pilots for smuggling women
into the U.S. and rescued several Uzbek and Bangladeshi women.
However, in general police attention to domestic trafficking
cases in and around Mumbai remains inconsistent. The Mumbai
police are routinely overwhelmed with election and festival
duties, terrorist investigations, and increased security duties.
An anti-trafficking NGO working in Mumbai's suburbs recently
turned to the national Criminal Bureau of Investigation rather
than local police to successfully disrupt a trafficking ring and
rescue several minors. At the moment, the unit's ability to
crack larger trafficking networks is stymied by lack of adequate
staffing, resources and coordination with other police forces.
However, the establishment of the Anti-Trafficking Cell is a
step in the right direction. End Summary.



Mumbai Police Announce New Anti-trafficking/Smuggling Cell




2. (U) In May, Mumbai Deputy Chief of Police Rakesh Maria, who
heads the Crime Branch Unit, briefed Congenoffs about the new
anti-trafficking and human smuggling cell formed to exclusively
address international trafficking. (Note: The establishment of
the anti-trafficking unit in Mumbai stems from efforts of
Mumbai's ARSO-I in discussions with Maria and precedes the
Government of India's announcement on July 8 that it is working
on a proposal to set up anti-trafficking cells in states. End
Note.) According to Maria, the unit will have seven
investigators and 12 constables when fully staffed, but
currently only four investigators are assigned to the unit. The
unit does not yet have permanent office space or office
equipment. The new unit, also charged with addressing alien
smuggling, made headlines in May when it arrested two Air India
employees who used their wives' passports to help two women
enter the U.S. illegally. Consulate Mumbai's ARSO-I worked
closely with Maria in that investigation. ARSO-I is also
working with the anti-trafficking cell on a trafficking case --
women taken to the U.S. on performer visas, allegedly to be
"cultural dancers," but who were recently arrested in Georgia,
along with their visa petitioner, for prostitution. (ref B)




3. (U) Maria said that trafficking of Indian women abroad for
sex work often takes place under the cover of cultural shows
like "classical Indian dancers." He said that many Indian women
are trafficked to the United Kingdom on visas for cultural
dancers, but use the dancing as a front to solicit sex. They
work as bar dancers, he said, soliciting sex from the dance
floor, then perform the acts off-premises after their show,
similar to the practice in "dance bars" in Mumbai. He noted
that the girls, often recruited from dance bars in Mumbai, go
willingly, believing they will make more money abroad. (Note:
In 2005, the Maharashtra government banned dance bars in the
city of Mumbai, but the law was ruled unconstitutional by the
High Court. The case remains pending in the Indian Supreme
Court. Meanwhile, the bars operate with the girls serving as
"waitresses" rather than "dancers". End Note.) Maria told of
one woman, reported missing by her husband in Mumbai, who
eventually returned from the U.K. with 6000 pounds (roughly 9800
USD). He said the "agent" usually takes 60 percent of the
woman's earnings from prostitution.




4. (U) Tracking the ringleaders has been difficult, Maria
lamented. He explained that the traffickers often work from one
location for only two to three months before shifting, making it
difficult to locate them. A further obstacle is the fact that
agents and ringleaders use prepaid phone cards. (Note: Mumbai
RSO advises that these agents often also work as fraudulent
document vendors and are under investigation through the ARSO-I
program at post. End Note.) Maria also noted that Indian
states need to computerize police records so that trafficking
patterns and networks can be uncovered. He explained that
prostitutes generally have a five to seven year "shelf life"
during which the traffickers try to maximize earnings from the
girls; if a sex worker is arrested, he said, she is often

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relocated by the trafficking ring to another city where she has
no record with the police.



More Uzbek and Bangladeshi Women Arrested in Mumbai




5. (U) Maria reported that seven Uzbek women and six
Bangladeshis have been arrested in Mumbai for prostitution since
the international trafficking unit was formed in February 2009.
(See reftel A) Maria contended that the foreign women picked up
in trafficking raids come to India willingly to work as
prostitutes. He said the arrested Uzbek women came on tourist
visas, and since prostitution itself is not illegal under Indian
law, the women were released from custody with no further
investigation. Though he questioned why India issues tourist
visas to single women who realistically would not travel around
India alone, he did not plan to raise that issue with the
Ministry of External Affairs. Maria said that the policy is to
automatically notify the embassy of foreign nationals picked up
by police for any crime, but rehabilitation services are not
offered for the women because of the language barrier and their
resistance to rehabilitation.




6. (U) Maria said his department uses Russian speakers who
interview the women to try to obtain information regarding the
trafficking network that brought them to Mumbai. He also
claimed that most women speak enough English to get by. (Note:
RSO Mumbai reports that in previous meetings with Maria he
complained of a shortage of English speaking officers. Further,
as noted in reftel, the police had no Russian interpreter and
the court asked an NGO, Prerana, in December 2008 to find a
interpreter to speak to an Uzbek woman to see if they wanted
repatriation assistance. End Note.)




7. (U) Maria alleged that most trafficking of foreigners to
Mumbai is connected to Russian and Israeli mafia operations in
Goa, explaining why the Mumbai police had not cracked the
trafficking ring(s). Maria claimed credit, however, for the
arrests of leaders of the Central Asian trafficking ring in New
Delhi in January 2009, saying that bust was based upon
information supplied by his office.





Social Services Branch Handles Domestic Trafficking




8. (U) Maria explained that the police's Social Services
Branch (SSB) will continue to be responsible for addressing
prostitution that takes place in Mumbai--i.e., running sting
operations to crack "escort services" fronting for
prostitution--but leaving street level solicitation to the
neighborhood police precincts to handle. According to Maria,
the SSB identifies sex workers advertising in local newspapers
under the guise of "friendship services" and arranges decoys to
act as potential customers. Once the terms for payment in
exchange for sex are agreed upon, the police arrest the girl and
the "agent." Maria would not discuss, however, efforts to
identify the higher level trafficking networks that bring girls
to Mumbai.




9. (U) Justice and Care International (JCI),a relatively new
NGO on the trafficking front in Mumbai, and other NGO contacts,
have told Congenoffs that while Mumbai police have been
effective in closing down much of the brothel-based business in
the city, most of that traffic has shifted to truck stops,
restaurants and lodges just beyond the city limits. NGOs also
report that within the city, prostitution operations are now
more decentralized, with girls soliciting in railways stations,
on street corners, from taxis and through classified
advertisements in the newspapers, making it harder to reach the
women for rescue, rehabilitation or even to provide health
services. While NGOs reported increased police cooperation in

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rooting out trafficking of minors in the brothels, there has
been little or no coordinated effort to curb street-level
prostitution, according to Prerana and other NGOs working in the
city. JCI reports working with both SSB and local police
precincts to build awareness of the modes of trafficking of
women. One outcome of JCI's efforts is that Maria instructed
Mumbai police stationed at the main railway station, known as
CST, to watch for young girls coming off trains with men who do
not appear to be relatives, as this is often a major way to
bring minors and other new sex workers to the city.





Police reluctant to work with NGOs for anti-trafficking raids




10. (U) Maria said his office hosts quarterly meetings with
NGOs working on child trafficking issues, but he was not keen to
involve NGOs in his unit's investigations. He complained that
competition among NGOs trying to prove their worth to donors
often makes them difficult to work with. He preferred
personally selecting the decoys used to expose prostitution,
picking trustworthy people who could withstand the pressures of
testifying at trial.



Criminal Bureau of Investigation Rescues Trafficked Minors




11. (SBU) The anti-trafficking NGO International Justice Mission
(IJM) confirmed that they had been unsuccessful in trying to
partner with the Mumbai police, but generally spoke favorably of
the efforts of police in Mumbai to address trafficking.
Jonathan Derby, Field Office Director of IJM, reported that
police in Thane and Navi Mumbai, suburbs of Mumbai, were
obstructive, not only refusing to work with IJM, but tipping off
the bar owners that a raid was about to occur. Instead, IJM
turned to the federal Criminal Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for
a recent raid, resulting in the arrest of eight adults for
trafficking and rescue of 34 females, including several minors
on June 1. Michelle Mendonca of IJM told Congenoff that IJM's
investigators met with pimps at a local dance bar, and inquired
about "fresh girls," meaning virgins. They were then taken to
two hotels where they were shown two young girls. The CBI
raided the hotels, and arrested four adults for trafficking.
Media reports state the CBI interviewed the rescued girls,
resulting in the arrest of four more traffickers and the rescue
of another 13 girls in Chembur, another Mumbai suburb.
Officials also reported recovering 479,000 Rupees (10,000 USD)
in the raids.




12. (SBU) The rescued girls were reportedly from Bangladesh and
the states of West Bengal, Assam and Uttar Pradesh. Mendonca
said that four girls immediately acknowledged that they were
less than 18 years of age, one as young as 14 years old. Age
verification, completed June 5, revealed that 12 were minors,
according to IJM. The girls were transferred to a protective
home under the auspices of the Child Welfare Committee. Home
studies will be conducted to see if the minors can be safely
repatriated to their villages. The older females are receiving
counseling to determine whether they are amenable to
rehabilitation.




13. (SBU) Comment: Aside from his job as Mumbai's lead
anti-crime cop, Maria is also the lead investigator into the
26/11 Mumbai attacks. Terrorism and other high priorities for
the Mumbai police have drained resources and attention from
anti-trafficking efforts, but the establishment of these special
trafficking units is a milestone for law enforcement in Mumbai.
And, like anti-terrorism efforts, anti-trafficking work will get
a big boost from improved cooperation among state-level police
forces. Like most police units in India, Mumbai's police lack
the technology to quickly track cell phone users and integrated
computers systems to access police reports from other districts,
both which would aid in cracking terrorism networks as well as
identifying and disrupting trafficking networks. Digitizing

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police records and creating a shared data base of records and
intelligence remains a monumental task for India, especially
since law and order is a state issue and India is linguistically
diverse. While it will take time for this unit to reach full
strength, this unit's establishment is a positive step. End
Comment.
FOLMSBEE