CAMBODIA BORDER CROSSING VISITS HIGHLIGHT TIP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 PHNOM PENH 000246

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP, G/TIP, AND DRL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KTIP KWMN EAID TH VN CB
SUBJECT: CAMBODIA BORDER CROSSING VISITS HIGHLIGHT TIP
CHALLENGES, STRATEGIES


1. (SBU) Summary: Cambodian National Police officials from
the Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department
(AHTJP) recently joined Emboffs at the Poipet border crossing
area of Banteay Meanchey province to highlight the
Cambodia-Thailand cross-border trafficking in persons (TIP)
situation. During the visit, police discussed TIP trends,
challenges, and strategies to combat TIP. AHTJP officials
confirmed the recent removal of two border police officials
for corruption. During a separate cross-border TIP-focused
trip to the Cambodia-Vietnam border province of Svay Rieng,
Emboffs learned that while TIP from Cambodia into Vietnam
does not occur at the main Bavet border checkpoint, there
appear to be significant numbers of adults and children who
cross into Vietnam to beg through smaller border gates and
through areas where there are no official border crossing
points; some of those crossing the border are trafficked
and/or are led by recruiters. Svay Rieng is recognized for
having a model anti-TIP provincial working group under the
National Task Force structure; however, the province has not
seen a reported TIP arrest since 2003. A province-level
MOSAVY office and police coordinated with Vietnamese
authorities to repatriate 753 Cambodians from Vietnam in
2008, 182 of whom were identified by the MOSAVY office as TIP
victims. End Summary.

Embassy and Police Joint Visit to Poipet Border Crossing
-------------- --------------


2. (SBU) The national-level Anti-Human Trafficking and
Juvenile Protection Department (AHTJP) accompanied Emboffs on
March 16 and 17 to the Cambodia border town of Poipet, the
busiest border-crossing point from Cambodia into Thailand, to
engage in dialogue on cross-border trafficking issues with
local police and immigration officials. The AHTJP assembled
approximately 10 officials from the Banteay Meanchey province
police department, Banteay Meanchey province anti-TIP unit,
and the O'Chrov district (where Poipet is located) police
department to discuss strategies to combat TIP; the AHTJP
also took the initiative to include NGO International Justice
Mission (IJM) in the Poipet meetings, as a respected partner
in Cambodia anti-TIP law enforcement activities.


3. (SBU) During the meeting, a Banteay Meanchey province
deputy police commissioner reported that in January 2009,
32,249 illegal migrants were returned by Thai authorities to
Cambodia, 1,673 of whom were children, 21,702 male, and
10,547 female. He did not identify how many of these illegal
migrants were TIP victims, but stated that trafficking
victims who cross the border into Thailand come from a wide
variety of Cambodian provinces in search of income-generating
opportunities (distant provinces such as Prey Veng and
Kampong Cham, and closer areas such as Battambang, Kampong
Thom, and Siem Reap). He said one person from Prey Veng
province had sold the family cows to pay for the journey to
cross the border. He stated that information dissemination
activities in communities near the border have had little
effect because migrants come to the area from other parts of
the country and stay for a short time before entering
Thailand. He stated that many are targeted by recruiters who
persuade victims they can find work for a decent wage in
Thailand, but end up being sold to exploitative employers.


4. (SBU) The Banteay Meanchey province deputy police
commissioner told the group that most TIP cases come to the
Banteay Meanchey police through complaints of family members
of those who have been trafficked. However, the police lack
the expertise and resources to investigate alleged
recruiters. AHTJP Deputy Director Pak Youleang recommended
that the Banteay Meanchey and O'Chrov police work more
closely with TIP victims to identify recruiters and to elicit
testimony that can be used as evidence during investigations
and prosecutions. Pak Youleang also requested that local
police report TIP cases to the Banteay Meanchey anti-TIP unit
for investigation support, and to work together with NGOs
which could have further expertise to provide services to the
victim, and to encourage victims to provide testimony to
identify traffickers.

Banteay Meanchey Police Working Group
--------------


5. (SBU) Banteay Meanchey provincial police, provincial
anti-TIP unit police, and district police agreed to Pak
Youleang's idea to form a temporary police investigation
working group to include two officers from each unit that
would collaborate with immigration police to interview
laborers leaving Cambodia as well as individuals who are
returned to Cambodia from Thailand to obtain information
about recruiters. He stated the group's first goal will be

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to arrest three or four recruiters to start putting the
message out that TIP will not be tolerated. He stated that
the collaboration between the members of the police working
group may also have the effect of building up the
capabilities of non-anti-TIP unit agents who might not be as
familiar with anti-TIP law enforcement techniques.

Need for More Collaboration with Immigration and
Border Officials
-------------- ---


6. (SBU) During a separate meeting with AHTJP, Banteay
Meanchey anti-TIP, and Banteay Meanchey immigration police
officials, a Banteay Meanchey immigration police deputy chief
agreed to cooperate with a provincial-level police working
group to identify and investigate cross-border TIP cases, and
to ensure victims are referred to appropriate victim service
providers such as NGOs and the Ministry of Social Affairs,
Veterans, and Youth (MOSAVY)-operated Poipet Transit Center
(PTC). Banteay Meanchey anti-TIP unit director Oum Sath told
Emboffs that a lack of willingness to cooperate on the part
of military border protection units has been a hurdle to
targeting cross-border TIP cases. Oum Sath stated that
border protection officials at the international border
crossing in Poipet are cooperative, but not officials at the
other, smaller border crossings in the province, where
anti-TIP police have the impression that they cannot go into
some of the border zones because it is perceived that they
are interfering in the work of the border protection units.
He added that in cases where local border units or police do
provide information on trafficking cases, the information is
usually at least several days old, proving too late to
conduct a raid or disrupt an operation.


7. (SBU) Oum Sath identified border protection units 911,
891, and 895 as units whose cooperation would be critical in
the effort to eliminate TIP, and requested USG, AHTJP, and
NGO assistance in suggesting that the Banteay Meanchey
anti-TIP unit set up satellite offices at two of the main
border crossing points outside of Poipet called Beung Tkuon
and Malai where the police could work together with local
units and NGOs to disseminate anti-TIP information, and
research, identify, investigate and arrest recruiters.
(Note: If 1207 funds are approved for Cambodia, post will
assess the feasibility of funding for the Cambodia-Thailand
border protection unit in order to further cooperation with
anti-TIP police. End Note.)

Removal of Two Poipet Immigration Officials
--------------


8. (SBU) During the Poipet visit, Banteay Meanchey anti-TIP
unit director Oum Sath confirmed earlier news from AHTJP
Director Bith Kimhong that in December 2008 and January 2009
the chief of the O'Chrov district police unit and one
immigration official who worked at the Poipet border crossing
were removed from their positions for "not paying attention
to" possible TIP cases, and for taking bribes from persons
crossing the border. Bith Kimhong reported in early March
that one of the officers had received complaints from persons
who were reportedly returned to Cambodia after having been
trafficked to Thailand, but the officer did not submit the
complaints to the court in accordance with standard police
procedure to prosecute cases.

Banteay Meanchey Anti-TIP Unit Willingness High,
Capability Low
-------------- ---


9. (SBU) IJM Investigator Ron Dunne reported to Poloff that
IJM has been working with Banteay Meanchey Anti-TIP Unit
Director Oum Sath for a number of years, and considered him
one of the better-trained, and more committed and motivated
police officers conducting anti-TIP work. Dunne stated that
while the AHTJP police invited IJM to Poipet to participate
in meetings together with emboffs and police, he was using
this as an opportunity to investigate tip-offs IJM received
from Oum Sath regarding no fewer than 50 brothels that Oum
Sath suspected might be providing underage victims to
clients. IJM Country Director stated that when he asked Oum
Sath why he had not yet conducted operations against the
brothels, Oum Sath said that the Banteay Meanchey Anti-TIP
Unit was waiting for the expertise of IJM to assist in
investigating the tip-offs.

Poipet Transit Center
--------------


10. (SBU) While in Poipet, Emboffs visited the O'Chrov

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district office of the MOSAVY Poipet Transition Center (PTC),
a temporary shelter for unaccompanied children who are
returned to Cambodia from Thailand. The shelter was
established in 2000 with the assistance of the International
Organization for Migration (IOM),and IOM played an advisory
role in the PTC until 2008 when IOM handed complete
operations over to MOSAVY. The PTC works to locate the
families of TIP victims, reintegrate victims into their
families and communities, refer some victims to NGOs for
extended care, and monitor and follow-up with reintegration
cases. The facility was clean, had separate rooms for male
and female children, and the director seemed knowledgeable
about victim care. Victims are referred to the PTC by
immigration police who screen Cambodian returnees from
Thailand to determine age and whether returnees are TIP
victims. In 2008, the PTC provided shelter to 101 victims,
and the PTC director stated that the center can house about
10 children at a time. The PTC director stated that 22
children were reintegrated into their families in 2008, and
the remainder were referred to NGO partners for long-term
services and care. ThePTC refers victims to: Krousar
Thmey, Don Bosco, Cambodian Women's Crisis Center (CWCC),
Damneuk Teuk, Komah Rikreay, Mitapiep Komar, Komar Nay Prohm
Daen, AFESIP, Nearey Thmey, HAGAR, and Mith Samlanh.

Svay Rieng Province as a Source of Child Beggars in Vietnam
-------------- ---


11. (SBU) During a separate March 13 visit to the
Cambodia-Vietnam border province of Svay Rieng, one NGO, the
Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children's Rights
(CCPCR),estimated that 10 children cross into Vietnam
illegally every day to beg, sell lottery tickets, or sell
flowers. Police and NGO representatives stated that they
believe most illegal migration into Vietnam for begging takes
place through the smaller border checkpoints along the
Cambodia-Vietnam border, and through areas where there are no
official border crossing gates. Many people who cross at
border points illegally wait until dark or until border
officials are on lunch breaks to cross when officials are
less likely to see them or to pay attention. It is believed
that little illegal migration for begging takes place across
the main border gate at Bavet, where immigration police
estimated that 900 to 1,800 persons crossed to and from
Vietnam every day.


12. (SBU) The Cambodian NGO Watnakpheap conducts prevention
activities such as income-generation activities, and outreach
to local communities where persons are at risk of being
trafficked into Vietnam. The NGO's director told Poloff that
many children cross the border together with a relative, such
as older siblings or parents, some children cross the border
on their own, and others cross with the help of recruiters.
He stated that in most cases when children are led by
recruiters to beg in Vietnam, parents are complicit in the
process.


13. (SBU) The Watnakpheap director confirmed statements of
local MOSAVY and NGO contacts that parents who fall on hard
financial times or who fall into serious debt due to, for
example, a family member falling ill and requiring medical
care, or other family emergency, will frequently solicit a
recruiter in their community to loan them money in exchange
for their child going to Vietnam to beg with the recruiter's
begging ring connections. Recruiters are generally well
known to other community members, and are financially better
off than their neighbors. During a drive through parts of
Chantrea district of Svay Rieng, one interlocutor was able to
point out five or six houses of recruiters in one community.
Their houses were generally made of painted wood planks
raised off of the ground by stilts (to protect from
flooding),in contrast to most other villagers' houses made
of unpainted mud or tree branches and built at ground level.

Svay Rieng Police Acknowledge Lack of Ability
--------------


14. (SBU) The Svay Rieng province anti-TIP police unit
appeared to be less active and less capable than its
counterparts in Banteay Meanchey province along the
Cambodia-Thailand border. The Svay Rieng unit was housed in
a small, unpainted, nearly empty outbuilding at the edge of
the police station property behind a row of hedges and other
buildings. One police official requested USG assistance for
further training on investigating recruiters. He stated that
UNICEF had provided funding to build a separate room in the
unit's office where police can privately interview child
victims and videotape their testimony. The police reported
that they last arrested a husband and wife pair of recruiters

PHNOM PENH 00000246 004 OF 005


in 2003; however, the wife was actually allowed to "escape"
arrest because the couple had children and there would be no
one to take care of their children if both parents were
arrested. The husband was convicted in 2005 and sentenced to
20 years in prison.


15. (SBU) Svay Rieng province anti-TIP police reported that
if they take serious action against child begging
perpetrators in source communities, there will be many
children left behind whose parents have been arrested and who
have no one to take care of them. They also stated that they
have recently been investigating 14 TIP cases but that the
victims in these cases have not cooperated with police; the
Svay Rieng anti-TIP police director stated that he believes
that many of the victims are unwilling to report who
trafficked them because it is a parent or someone else close
to the victims and who the victims do not want to
incriminate. (Note: While the Svay Rieng anti-TIP unit did
seem to be inadequately trained and equipped to carry out TIP
investigations, Emboffs welcomed their openness regarding the
unit's shortcomings and about TIP crimes in Svay Rieng
communities. End Note.)

Recent IOM Statistics and Outstanding IOM Work
-------------- -


16. (SBU) IOM recently made available to Emboffs statistics
from their work in Svay Rieng province on the return and
reintegration of trafficked and other vulnerable women and
children from Vietnam. The goal of IOM's programming in the
province is to increase return and reintegration
interventions to reduce, and eventually eliminate,
trafficking and irregular migration activities that put
people at risk of trafficking from Cambodia to Vietnam. Of
the more than 1,000 Cambodians whom IOM assisted in returning
from Vietnam, nearly all were originally from Kampong Ro and
Chantrea districts of Svay Rieng; 67 percent were children
and 33 percent were adults; 94 percent reported that they
went to Vietnam voluntarily, four percent said they were
"rented" to recruiters, and two percent said they were forced
to go. Among trafficking victims interviewed, facilitators
of migration to Vietnam for begging were reported to be:
relatives (more than 60 cases),self (more than 50 cases),
siblings (more than 50 cases),neighbors (more than 30
cases),and parents (nearly 20 cases).


17. (SBU) IOM Cambodia appears to have done outstanding work
in coordinating and educating Svay Rieng province government
officials and NGOs regarding how best to return and
reintegrate Cambodian migrants from Vietnam, and prevent
Cambodians from departing to Vietnam in the first place.
IOM's work has been funded by PRM since October 2006; project
funding from PRM came to an end in December 2008. IOM works
with local MOSAVY and Ministry of Women's Affairs
representatives, the Ministry of Health, Ministry of
Education, UNICEF, CCPCR, Watnakpheap, and other donors to
increase service providers' capacity, and build links between
Cambodian and Vietnamese government officials in order to
facilitate a smooth migrant and trafficking victim
repatriation process.


18. (SBU) CCPCR and Watnakpheap are the only two local NGOs
working on the ground in Svay Rieng communities, and both
NGOs' representatives reported their high regard for IOM
staff who have sought to understand the situation on the
ground, and to bring together the appropriate resources and
government agencies to respond to community needs. (COMMENT:
Clearly there is a great need in Svay Rieng province for
additional NGO services that could assist with micro-credit
and other income-generation projects, scholarship programs
for children to remain in school, and community outreach
programs to discourage family members from sending their
children to Vietnam to beg. END COMMENT.) In Poipet during
Emboffs' visit to the Cambodia-Thailand border, local NGOs
and MOSAVY officials also paid tribute to the past effective
work of IOM, and expressed regret that IOM had to pull most
of their services from the area due to project funding coming
to an end.

Porous Border Points Permit More Than Trafficking in Persons
-------------- --------------


19. (SBU) Emboffs visited small border gates in the Chantrea
district of Svay Rieng province along the Vietnam border, and
in the Malai and O'Chrov districts of Banteay Meanchey
province along the Cambodia-Thailand border. One contact in
a Cambodia-Vietnam border community stated that despite
police and border officials' presence at small border
crossings, more than just migrating persons seemed to be

PHNOM PENH 00000246 005.2 OF 005


crossing the border illegally. The contact stated that he
had seen large semi trucks carrying timber offload cargo onto
smaller trucks before reaching smaller dirt roads to cross
the border at small crossing gates, and then those trucks
cross into Vietnam without inspection. The contact stated he
had seen shipments of medicines, CDs and DVDs cross the
smaller border points uninspected, too. When Emboffs visited
a one-lane, dirt path border crossing in the O'Chrov district
along the Cambodia-Thailand border, six border protection
unit officials who were playing volleyball within eye-shot of
the gate told Emboffs to do whatever they wanted at the
border gates, just not to bother the border unit officials
when they were "busy." A motorbike taxi driver sleeping by
the border gate permitted the embassy vehicle access to the
area by lifting the large pole that served as a gate allowing
the vehicle entry. While security at the border gate
appeared to be lax, Emboffs observed only the movement of
people, and not goods, at this border point.

Comment
--------------


20. (SBU) Embassy visits to the opposite ends of Cambodia
highlighted the fact that trafficking in persons challenges
stretch across the country. Most interlocutors communicated
that poverty and the pursuit of income drive Cambodian
citizens to migrate across borders, their financial straits
making them vulnerable to trafficking, exploitation, and
other mistreatment. Police have not yet been able to
effectively stop the traffickers who prey on Cambodia's
impoverished people, but police and other government
officials are committed to eliminating the scourge and are
seeking better methods to investigate and arrest
perpetrators, and to assist and learn from victims, including
through increased cooperation with NGOs and civil society
partners.
RODLEY