PRETORIA INPUTS TO THE 2009 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 PRETORIA 000271 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR AF/S, AF/RSA; G/TIP FOR STEPHANIE KRONENBURG; G-ACBLANK, INL, DRL, PRM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL SA KTIP KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC, PREF, ELAB SUBJECT: PRETORIA INPUTS TO THE 2009 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) REPORT -- PART 2 OF 2 REF: A. STATE 05577 ¶B. 08 STATE 132759 ¶C. 08 PRETORIA 2249 ¶D. 08 PRETORIA 2454 ¶E. 08 PRETORIA 1926 (Text continues from Paragraph 9 of the "Part 1" cable.) -- G. There has been little, if any, cross-border law enforcement cooperation on TIP between the SAG and neighboring countries, although DSD and IOM do assist in victims' repatriation. As noted above, initiation of regional joint efforts against TIP is a goal of the NPA's Inter-Sectoral Task Team, and EU funding is being applied to enable cross-border data sharing for TIP monitoring. The SAPS noted a particular focus on cooperation with authorities of Mozambique, the land border experiencing the highest traffic in contraband goods as well as TIP. -- H. Neither Post nor the SAPS trafficking desk is aware of any extraditions by South Africa to other countries to face TIP charges, nor of any requests by other nations for such extraditions. -- I. Post has no evidence of official SAG involvement in TIP or institutional tolerance of TIP. Some individuals in immigration or other law enforcement areas may have corrupt dealings with traffickers but Post has no such evidence. -- J. No SAG officials are known to have been prosecuted for involvement in TIP. A multinational anti-TIP team at Johannesburg International Airport expressed frustration that corruption did occur among DHA immigration officials apparently bribed by traffickers to overlook TIP. Given long delays in investigations and low likelihood of successful prosecution, punishment was limited to dismissal of suspected employees. Further, strong trade unions blocked the permanent barring of such employees from future airport work, raising the prospect of recycling of offenders. -- K. Prostitution is illegal in South Africa. The activities of prostitutes, brothel operators, clients, pimps, and enforcers are all criminal. Police enforcement can be lax, given South Africa's exceptionally high rates of violent crime and overstretched policing resources. Victims' rights NGOs told us that while police generally take proper care of victims, delivering them to shelters or alerting SAG social workers, they then usually failed to investigate perpetrators. Despite headline-grabbing efforts by the advocacy group Sex Workers' Education and Advocacy Task Force (SWEAT) in favor of decriminalization of prostitution in 2010, we find SAG and advocacy groups opposed to that idea, on the evidence of increased criminality in countries which have experimented with legalization. While enforcement will likely be uneven outside VIP zones, as police scramble to provide security for the games, Post does not expect formal decriminalization. -- L. The South African Defense Forces provides troops to peacekeeping units deployed abroad, primarily on the African continent. While our interviewees were aware of crimes committed by these troops, none were TIP-related. -- M. South Africa does have a problem of child sex tourism, Q-- M. South Africa does have a problem of child sex tourism, particularly in its most popular destination of Cape Town. While post has no hard data on offenders, anecdotally we understand that client perpetrators are largely from Europe (e.g. UK, Germany, Holland) and even the U.S., with exploitative activities occuring primarily in rented holiday apartments. The amended SOA expressly provides for the exercise of South Africa's laws outside its territories (extraterritoriality). No one to date has been prosecuted PRETORIA 00000271 002 OF 008 under these extraterritorial provisions. -------------- Victim Protection and Assistance -------------- ¶10. (Responses to paragraph 26 of Ref B.) -- A. Recent legislation provides specific protections to TIP victims. The amended SOA stipulates that TIP victims are not to be charged with crimes -- such as immigration violations or prostitution -- which are the direct result of their having been trafficked. Following extensive awareness and sensitivity training conducted by the UNODC, IOM, and others, police action toward TIP victims is said to be not always perfect, but markedly more in line with this policy. Both the SOA and the amended Children's Act of 2007, expected to be implemented by mid-2009, commit the SAG to victims' assistance in terms of places of safety, medical aid, and legal support. In practice, the SAG does abide by these commitments, although provision of these services can be uneven, and lacking most in rural areas. The Children's Act will give extra legal protection to vulnerable children, especially those living and working on the street, children with disabilities, and children affected by the HIV pandemic. This Act further includes a requirement for planning at national and provincial levels and uniform roll-out of services. South Africa was a strong participant in the "Towards the Elimination of Child Labor" (TECL) project funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and implemented by the IOL. Under TECL's auspices, the SAG drafted a Child Labor Plan of Action comprising hundreds of measures to combat and prevent child labor, including in its worst forms like trafficking. SADOL, still the lead agency, says many of the measures have been incorporated into the current plans of SAG agencies, and implementation will begin in 2009. -- B. South Africa has a wide array of care shelters for victims of domestic abuse, gender-based violence, rape, and sexual assault. Although there are no specialized facilities specifically targeted to TIP victims, trafficked persons can access any of those other shelters. Due to the extremely high prevalence of those crimes (e.g. a rape rate higher than any other country not at war),assistance and care services are well established, albeit at insufficient capacity. Facilities are mainly run by NGOs, faith-based organizations (FBOs) and community charities, in coordination with the Department of Social Development (DSD). As the only body formally authorized by judicial authorities to refer crime victims to private shelters, the DSD must always be involved in each case, even though it contracts with private entities to furnish shelter and care. The DSD's Victim Empowerment Directorate is currently undertaking a five-year review of its 2004 'shelter strategy,' with a view to updating accreditation procedures, promoting more uniform standards of care, and boosting direct funding to its network of service Qcare, and boosting direct funding to its network of service providers. Foreign victims have equal access to these shelters, with South Africans. Shelters segregate women from men, for whom few facilities exist since men comprise a small fraction of victims. Children under 16 years of age, who are thought to make up over half of TIP victims, are cared for in dedicated and specialized facilities, with stringent requirements on accompaniment and monitoring by social workers. In a 2007 State/DRL-funded project to prompt awareness and collaboration among care providers to TIP victims in the inner city of Johannesburg, local NGO Khulisa found that many shelters had assisted TIP victims without identifying them as such, i.e. addressing and healing abuse without recognizing signs of trafficking. In more developed provinces like PRETORIA 00000271 003 OF 008 Gauteng and Western Cape, Khulisa found (after probing) that about two thirds of organizations surveyed did in fact deal with victims of human trafficking; this figure was 57 percent in Mpumalanga province bordering Mozambique and 40 percent in Limpopo bordering Zimbabwe. In addition to DSD's networks of affiliated private shelters, the SAG has established a network of Thuthuzela Care Centers (TCCs),described in greater detail in paragraph 13 below. Further, UNODC funding of $18 million has been committed to the DSD's Victim Empowerment Unit to build a national network of victim drop-in centers. Because TIP victims are assisted through the same channels as victims of other types of violence and abuse, and in many cases not necessarily identified as TIP victims per se, the SAG does not have figures for amounts spent specifically assisting TIP victims. In the case of TCCs, which are collaborative efforts across multiple SAG departments, each of the partners bears the costs for the services it contributes -- Department of Health for medical care, Department of Justice for legal aid, and DSD for counseling. -- C. As noted, the SAG does provide TIP victims with legal, medical, and counseling services. All TCCs, for instance, are staffed by doctors, forensic nurses, social workers, and satellite NGOs providing psycho-social help. Subcontracted services, such as for overnight shelter, are funded by DSD, albeit at tiny levels of subsidy. (The Saartjie Baartman Centre said it receives funding equivalent to $100 a month for every child in its care, and $300 a month per adult woman.) According to DSD, victims' assistance funding is allocated in a cascade fashion, parceled from national government to departments and then to provinces, where the funding is spent by a combination of provincial and local authorities. Foreign victims often do not avail themselves of counseling or legal aid, instead preferring only critical medical services followed by repatriation at the earliest opportunity. -- D. As noted, the SOA provides TIP victims with relief from criminal prosecution or deportation. Foreign victims are allowed to remain in the country temporarily to receive assistance and to assist law enforcement investigations. -- E. The SAG does not provide long-term shelter or housing to TIP victims; its programs are meant to be emergency response and transitional towards reintegration to normal life. An exception is the case of foreign victims who may agree to remain in South Africa in witness protection programs while awaiting the trial of their traffickers. Three Thai women are currently in this status, but it is uncommon, since most victims want to return to their home countries as quickly as possible, and the trial wait can extend for several years. -- F. DSD, SAPS, and private shelters collaborate in attending to victims when TIP situations come to light. A social worker may be approached by an escaped victim, or Qsocial worker may be approached by an escaped victim, or called by a church shelter; or police may rescue a victim in the course of a raid; or an alert call may come through the IOM TIP hotline. In any of these cases, DSD and SAPS notify each other to enable rapid care as well as effective gathering of evidence and testimony. DSD is the only agency then authorized to refer victims to registered private shelters, and to monitor their care, prepare them for court, and accompany them through trial and/or repatriation stages. DSD aims to have social workers on call, nationwide, 24x7, to respond to new cases, but if a social worker cannot be contacted the SAPS are also authorized to place victims in temporary overnight shelter care rather than housing them in police custody. These protocols, under development by the Task Team over the last year, are due to be finalized in the first quarter of 2009. PRETORIA 00000271 004 OF 008 -- G. Until passage of the TIP law, TIP victims continue to be categorized with other victims of rape, domestic abuse, and gender based violence. As a result, there are no available statistics of TIP victims assisted during the reporting period, as these numbers are subsumed within much larger headings. Even after the law is passed, lack of recognition of trafficking victims, even among social workers, will contribute to the absence of statistics or even estimates of numbers of victims assisted. -- H. NPA-contracted IOM training to police, immigration and border officials, and social workers includes instruction in the identification of TIP victims among sex workers, laborers, travelers, and victims of abuse. The Thai Embassy's TIP officer described how SAPS alerts the Embassy and IOM in advance of raiding a brothel holding suspected Thai victims. With Embassy translation, IOM then conducts screening interviews with those persons found, in order to distinguish trafficking victims from voluntary prostitutes. -- I. Historically, TIP victims were often charged with offenses like prostitution or immigration violations, and foreign victims were generally quickly deported without medical attention, legal assistance, or counseling care. The SOA has since provided protections from prosecution of victims for crimes committed under TIP coercion. Police are also being trained to protect rather than punish victims. In March, however, press reported that police intended to deport 27 Chinese women along with their seven alleged traffickers. -- J. Victims may seek legal action against traffickers, but despite SAG encouragement to TIP victims to do so the vast majority prefer to return home without pressing charges, according to the SAPS and NPA. No statistic is available on the exact number of victims willing to testify, but the figure above of six TIP cases opened this year is an indicator that the number is small. Four Thai TIP victims remain under witness protection during the ongoing trial of their traffickers. Post received a phone inquiry from the SAPS about digital videoconferencing (DVC) capabilities from Thailand, and TIP officer passed this query on to the Thai Embassy. Testimony via DVC from South Africa's Embassy in Bangkok would be a much better option, to enable Thai victims to return home quickly and testify remotely. For those victims who remain in South Africa, those who are citizens or otherwise entitled to work may naturally seek new employment while a court case is pending. Some shelters do offer basic trade skills training, and IOM provides small seed capital for repatriated adult victims to launch new legal livelihoods in their home countries. In the case of child victims, IOM undertakes the tracing of the victim's family through its office in the country of origin, a process that normally lasts a few months, while the child remains under DSD supervised shelter. Q -- K. As noted earlier, the SAG has conducted extensive interagency training on TIP, including procedures for victim identification and assistance. IOM told TIP officer that DHA had requested supplemental training targeted to its consular officers going abroad, but Post is not aware of any cases in the reporting period of such assistance by South African diplomatic missions. Typically repatriation of South African victims is mediated by the IOM in both countries, or in a December 2008 by contacts between SAPS and UK police who had rescued a South African victim in Wales. -- L. Post is not aware of any requests for SAG assistance by repatriated South African victims, nor of any mechanism for its provision, other than through the mediation of IOM. -- M. IOM is the main international organization assisting TIP victims in South Africa -- advising the SAG on policy, PRETORIA 00000271 005 OF 008 serving as a member of the NPA/SOCA's Inter-Sectoral Task Team on TIP, running a national TIP phone hotline, conducting screening interviews to identify TIP victims, directly facilitating the provision of shelter, and arranging returns of foreign nationals. These areas of victim assistance are alongside the IOM's extensive training of SAG officials, research on TIP, and production of informational materials and participation in awareness-raising campaigns. IOM confirmed TIP officer's impression that the working relationship with NPA/SOCA, DSD, and other SAG officials was close and very productive. -------------- Prevention -------------- ¶11. (Responses to paragraph 27 of Ref B.) -- A. The SAG, IOM, and NGOs continue to expand awareness-raising activities. More than 85,000 countertrafficking posters and brochures in six languages were distributed in local towns during IOM's training workshops, publicizing the IOM's toll-free helpline. A TV ad aired in September drew 576 referral calls, five times the usual volume. The above-referenced IOM survey on domestic TIP drew press attention, raised public awareness of the issue, and provided authorities with useful information on TIP flows, patterns, and modus operandi. Annual campaigns targeting the general public generated anti-TIP media blitzes. The third annual Human Trafficking Awareness Week (a 'best practice' of the 2007 TIP Report), held in October, alerted the public to the TIP threat and promoted the IOM's TIP helpline. Coordinated by the NPA, IOM, and a popular radio station Metro FM, the week featured a film festival, rock concert, and a blitz of radio spots. This augmented the annual '16 Days of Activism' campaign to end the abuse of women and children. Justice Minister Surty has proposed making TIP a central issue in the next '16 Days' cycle, with the busy transport route between Maputo and Koomatiport a candidate for an anti-TIP roadshow. As noted above, 30 IOM-spawned awareness-raising workshops across all nine provinces drew 573 community participants, directly spreading the word. For 2009, IOM is now launching a series of 'indaba' style traditional village counsels with tribal leaders, specifically targeting potential TIP victims in rural communities. Although IOM has the lead role in coordinating the SAG's EU-funded anti-TIP training and curriculum development, myriad private initiatives are also ongoing. A Catholic nuns' group has drafted a school curriculum. In inner city areas of Johannesburg, local NGO Khulisa has educated communities to detect trafficking, and it is creating "referral map" posters for citizens to contact authorities. Khulisa has a child-friendly kit for elementary school teachers to use with their students. The Alliance of Christians Against Trafficking (ACT) conducts scenario-based "Traffic Proof" seminars in churches, schools, and community halls to sensitize audiences to signs of TIP, ending with Qhalls to sensitize audiences to signs of TIP, ending with mnemonic games to help the public memorize the TIP helpline number 0800-555-9999. Looking ahead to South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup of football, the SAG's Inter-sectoral Task Team focused its latest meeting in December on an assessment of 2010 preparedness gaps conducted by local children's NGO Molo Songololo and funded by regional countertrafficking NGO the Southern Africa Network Against Trafficking and Abuse of Children (SANTAC). Since that meeting, previously overlooked anti-TIP prevention and child protection measures have been added to planning agendas across SAG departments. The DSD's Victim Empowerment directorate, for example, has been tasked with formulating a child protection strategy. Cape Town Tourism, a SAG-funded destination marketing organization PRETORIA 00000271 006 OF 008 which also sits on a World Trade Organization (WTO) board for the protection of children in tourism, has proposed that Cape Town act as pilot site for the roll-out of the Code (detailed in paragraph 12 below). Civil society organizations are important collaborators in the 2010 anti-TIP efforts. ACT, in partnership with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and Ultimate Goal, who have historically been involved in World Cup events globally, are already active in enlisting a projected 3,500 volunteers from abroad with defined skills in physical education, medical assistance, and child protection. These YWAM staff will help generate recreation opportunities for unaccompanied kids flocking to fan parks when public schools are suspended during the games. They will also distribute anti-TIP pamphlets in game areas and man lost-children booths and TIP information stands. YWAM's volunteer force, together with the industry support delivered by FTTSA (below) and Cape Town Tourism, and with the local knowledge of child protection NGOs like Molo Songololo, should provide a powerful deterrent to potential clients and victims. -- B. The SAG does monitor physical flows of persons at ports of entry, screening for behavior patterns indicative of TIP. The multinational South African Immigration Liason (SAIL) Team at Johannesburg Airport, for example, observes and interviews passengers leaving the country, alert to signs of TIP, such as adults traveling with children evidently not their own. Other suspicious signs include one-way tickets, same-day ticket purchase, unaccompanied minors, ignorance of final destination, or travel rationales which do not appear to be bona fide. TIP detection is mainly a matter of pattern identification over time -- e.g. a suspect traveling repeatedly in varied company for no clear reason in a short period of time. Before boarding, flight data is mined for known suspects by comparing it against data bases of persons of concern. Because sufficient evidence takes a long time to collect, and prosecution of offenders is a slim prospect as they may switch modes of operation, the SAIL team's primary strategy is one of disruption of detected activity, by screening and offloading of suspects and their potential victims. -- C. See paragraph 8B above for details of the NPA/SOCA-led Inter-sectoral Task Team on TIP. -- D. Last year, Post reported that the SAG had a national anti-TIP plan, albeit unimplemented. In more recent discussions, NPA/SOCA said a new plan was to be drafted in the context of the EU-funded broad-based TIP initiatives running to the end of 2010. The NPA noted that South African Development Community (SADC) members including South Africa had recently committing all of its members to have such plans by 2015. -- E. Prostitution is illegal in South Africa, and so is the purchasing of commercial sex services. As mentioned, enforcement can be lax, given the competing priorities Qenforcement can be lax, given the competing priorities generated by South Africa's exceptionally high rates of violent crime and overstretched policing resources. The SAG's greatest deterrence effort is its continuing arrests and prosecutions of violators. -- F. Cape Town Tourism plans to convoke in late March 2009 a small, focused, and closed-door workshop (which Post may attend as observers) among representatives of the tourism industry, government, and civil society, to find ways to combat sex tourism. Further efforts to deter sex tourism are described in paragraph 12 below. These initiatives will impact the activities of foreign tourists in South Africa, and also South Africans who might travel abroad in future. -- G. The South African military has prosecuted its own troops involved in sex crimes such as rape while deployed on PRETORIA 00000271 007 OF 008 peacekeeping missions abroad. All troops involved in such missions receive behavior and conduct training to avert problems of sexual abuse. -------------- "TIP Heroes" -------------- ¶12. (Response to paragraph 28 of Ref B.) Post applauds the initiative of Ms. Jennifer Seif, Executive Director of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA),in introducing "the Code" against child sex tourism to South Africa's vital tourism sector. By its full name, The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism (http://www.thecode.org) is a worldwide campaign committing signatories to six concrete anti-TIP actions related to institutional policy, training, contracting, awareness-raising among clients and counterparts, and reporting. The Code was launched by the Swedish NGO ECPAT, on whose steering committee FTTSA now holds one of the NGO seats, with UNICEF funding and WTO support. For its part, FTTSA (http://www.fairtourismsa.org.za) is a local nonprofit encouraging tourism that is sustainable and respectful vis-a-vis environmental resources and culture, and that is ethical and equitable to local communities. By FTTSA's action, South Africa will join Kenya in leading the Africa continent towards adoption of the Code. By its proactive and preventative nature, this initiative is particularly welcome in advance of South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In advocating for the Code, FTTSA is marshaling resources and commitments from a broad spectrum of anti-TIP stakeholders -- from the government sector, through coordination with the SAG's Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Department of Home Affairs, and National Prosecuting Authority; from private businesses, ranging from major multinational hotels and auto rental chains, to small community cooperatives, who have agreed to sign on; and most importantly the traveling public, who will be encouraged to be vigilant against the sex trade in children. Through its interest in the Code, the tourism sector has recognized the importance of 2010 in showcasing South Africa to the world as a safe, lawful, and ethical destination. We urge the SAG to go beyond mere endorsement of this initiative, and to supply tangible resources and funding, and perhaps even regulatory incentives to encourage the widest possible adoption of the Code in 2009. -------------- Best Practices -------------- ¶13. (Responses to paragraph 29 of Ref B.) The SAG has established an internationally lauded network of Thuthuzela Care Centers (TCCs),essentially crisis centers to assist victims of rape and sexual violence. The TCC model is an integrated "one-stop shop" addressing victims' medical, legal, and social needs, and coordinating the services of SAG Departments of Health, Justice, and Social Development. TCCs are not shelters -- they are not designed for victims to stay overnight, although they can refer victims to NGOs that do Qovernight, although they can refer victims to NGOs that do offer shelter. Under the leadership of NPA/SOCA, 17 TCCs have been established to date. Another 35 are due for completion by 2011 -- 23 of them funded by an $11.7 million contract awarded by USAID under the Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative, and the other 12 by UNICEF. The ultimate goal is a total of 80 TCCs nationwide. USAID estimates that the TCCs already serve approximately 20 percent of all victims of rape and sexual offences. -------------- PRETORIA 00000271 008 OF 008 Sources and Contributors -------------- ¶14. Information above is derived from post meetings with government officials, law enforcement and the judiciary, lawmakers, academics, IOs and NGOs, diplomatic counterparts, trainers and researchers, and members of civil society: - Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) - Department of Labor (SADOL) - Department of Social Development (DSD),Victim Empowerment directorate ('VEP') - (Dept. of Justice) National Prosecuting Authority / Sexual Offences and Community Affairs unit (NPA/SOCA) - Thuthuzela Care Centers - implementing contractor 'RTI' - (Department of Home Affairs) South Africa Immigration Liason (SAIL) Team and border control officers, Johannesburg International Airport - South African Police Service (SAPS) / TIP desk - South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) - Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) - Cape Town Tourism - International Organization for Migration (IOM) - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) - Royal Thai Embassy, Pretoria - Susan Kreston, University of Free State / U.S. Fulbright - Dr. Carol Allais, University of South Africa (UNISA) - Khulisa (human rights NGO),Johannesburg - Molo Songolo (children's NGO),Cape Town - Alliance of Christians Against Trafficking (ACT),Cape Town - Saartjie Baartman Centre (victims' shelter),Cape Town - Anex / CDW (victims' support NGO),Cape Town ¶15. Post's interagency TIP working group coordinates anti-TIP reporting and programs among the Political section, DHS/ICE, DoJ/INL/Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative (WJEI),Economic / Labor office, and USAID. ¶16. The estimated total time spent by Post to compile this information is 136 hours. This includes 93 hours by the TIP officer, and 43 by the rest of post's interagency working group. Of this, an estimated 60 hours were devoted to interviews with interlocutors, 33 arranging and holding group meetings, and 43 writing the reporting cable. ¶17. Post point of contact on TIP is Cassandra Carraway, telephone 27-(0)12-431-4374 and fax 27-(0)12-431-4612. LA LIME