GREECE -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 STATE 060485 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG GR SUBJECT: GREECE -- 2009 TIP REPORT: PRESS GUIDANCE AND DEMARCHE REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 ¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10 through 12. ¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a press conference in the Department's press briefing room. This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic and foreign news outlets. Until the time of the Secretary's June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or country narratives contained therein is prohibited. ¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter. Also provided is demarche language to be used in informing the Government of Greece of its tier ranking and the TIP Report's imminent release. The text of the TIP Report country narrative is provided, both for use in informing the Government of Greece and in any local media release by Post's public affairs section on June 16 or thereafter. Drawing on information provided below in paras 8 and 9, Post may provide the host government with the text of the TIP Report narrative no earlier than 1200 noon local time Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB local time Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts. Please note, however, that any public release of the Report's information should not/not precede the Secretary's release at 10:00 am EDT on June 16. ¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 release. Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts in all countries appearing on the Report. The Secretary's statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website shortly after the June 16 event. Ambassador de Baca will also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. ¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform the appropriate official in the Government of Greece of the June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the points in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the text of the country narrative provided in para 8. For countries where the State Department has lowered the tier ranking, it is particularly important to advise governments prior to the Report being released in Washington on June 16. ¶6. Action Request continued: Please note that, for those countries which will not receive an "action plan" with specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw host governments' attention to the areas for improvement identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the "Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the narrative text. This engagement is important to establishing the framework in which the government's performance will be judged for the 2010 Report. If posts have questions about which governments will receive an action plan, or how they may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. ¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the press guidance provided in para 11. If Post wishes, a local press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP Report's country narrative provided in para 8. ¶8. Begin Final Text of Greece,s country narrative in the 2009 TIP Report: -------------- GREECE (Tier 2) Greece is a destination and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and for men and children trafficked for the purpose for forced labor. Women and teenage girls were trafficked from Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, other parts of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, Nigeria, and Brazil into forced prostitution and forced labor. One NGO reported that there were many teenage male sex trafficking victims from Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa in Greece. Victims of trafficking for labor STATE 00060485 002 OF 005 exploitation originated primarily from Albania, Romania, Moldova, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh and most were forced to work in the agriculture or construction sectors. Child labor trafficking victims were subjected to forced begging and forced to engage in petty crimes. Some victims are found among the approximately 1,000 unaccompanied minors who enter Greece yearly. Several NGOs reported anecdotal evidence that Roma women and children were trafficked within Greece. There was also anecdotal evidence of trafficking in the domestic service sector. The Government of Greece does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government increased overall funding toward victim protection, and specialized anti-trafficking police demonstrated strong law enforcement efforts, but the government lacked sufficient progress in punishing trafficking offenders, proactively identifying victims, providing reliable shelter facilities for trafficking victims, and specifically targeting domestic audiences with prevention campaigns. Recommendations for Greece: Ensure that convicted trafficking offenders receive adequate punishments that deter exploitation of additional victims; vigorously investigate and prosecute offenses of officials complicit in trafficking; improve tracking of anti-trafficking law enforcement data to include information on sentences served; continue victim identification and assistance training for officials most likely to encounter labor and sex trafficking victims; encourage the sustainability of funding for anti-trafficking NGOs; ensure specialized protection for potential child victims; ensure potential victims are offered options for care and immigration relief available under Greek law; and strengthen public awareness campaigns targeted to a Greek audience, including potential clients of the sex trade and beneficiaries of forced labor. Prosecution -------------- Greece,s specialized anti-trafficking police officers demonstrated strong law enforcement efforts, but concerns over inadequate punishment of trafficking offenders, including officials complicit in trafficking, remained. Greek law 3064, adopted in 2002, prohibits trafficking for both sexual exploitation and forced labor, and prescribes imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of $14,000 to $70,000. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes. Many trafficking-related statistics, such as the total number of trafficking prosecutions and suspended sentences of convicted trafficking offenders, were unavailable. According to available data, law enforcement arrests of suspected trafficking offenders increased from 121 in 2007 to 162 in ¶2008. Police conducted 37 sex trafficking investigations, two labor trafficking investigations and one investigation of trafficking for the removal of human organs. The government reported 21 convictions of trafficking offenders, 17 acquittals, and 41 ongoing prosecutions during 2008. Sentences for the 21 convicted offenders ranged from one year to almost 17 years, imprisonment, and many sentences also included fines, though many convicted trafficking offenders continued to be released pending lengthy appeals processes. Greek courts, especially at the appeals level, often give convicted trafficking offenders suspended sentences. Several former government officials, including an ex-mayor charged with trafficking complicity in 2005, were given suspended sentences during the year. Three police officers allegedly involved in the rape of a victim while she was in police custody in 2006 remained on bail while awaiting prosecution on charges of breach of duty, abuse of authority, repeated rape, and complicity in rape. During the last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs completed investigations of several officials suspected of involvement in a trafficking network but found no evidence of trafficking complicity. Protection -------------- The government demonstrated uneven efforts to improve victim protection during the reporting period. Inadequate measures to identify trafficking victims and provide appropriate shelter were the government,s greatest limitations in combating human trafficking, according to local observers. The government trafficking shelter in Athens closed for several months and later re-opened during the reporting period. The government increased funding specifically directed toward assistance for trafficking victims by 32 percent, but delays in government funding of anti-trafficking NGOs hindered their effectiveness and as a result two NGO trafficking shelters closed down. The government encouraged STATE 00060485 003 OF 005 trafficking victims to participate in investigations or prosecutions of trafficking offenders through a law that provides for a 30-day reflection period, but according to NGOs, authorities did not always provide the reflection period in practice. The government provided trafficking victims who assisted the government in prosecutions with temporary, renewable residence permits and access to social services and healthcare after the government certified victim status. It provided inconsistent access to longer term shelter options for victims through intermittent funding to NGOs. Health officials providing care to people in Greece,s regulated sex trade lacked sufficient training on victim identification and protection of trafficking victims. In 2008, Human Rights Watch, the UNHCR, the Council of Europe,s Commissioner for Human Rights, and multiple domestic NGOs criticized Greece for failing to ensure that victim identification procedures were used by border police, the coast guard, and the vice squad. Greece,s specialized anti-trafficking police exhibited adequate victim identification procedures, though NGOs noted that trafficking victims were far more likely to be first encountered by personnel of other Greek law enforcement agencies that did not have the same skill in identifying victims. Anti-trafficking police made efforts to address this problem through training and dissemination of awareness materials for border and vice squad authorities. Officials identified 78 trafficking victims in 2008, compared to 100 identified in ¶2007. NGOs and international organizations reported assisting at least 657 victims in 2008. NGOs reported excellent cooperation with the specialized anti-trafficking police unit and lauded a memorandum of cooperation between the government and NGOs, but potential victims remained vulnerable to arrest for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. The Greek government in 2008 ratified a child repatriation agreement with Albania that had been drafted in 2004, but implementation has been slow. The government has few special protections in place for child victims of trafficking; when identified, they were often sheltered in orphanages or detention centers that did not have specialized facilities for trafficking victims. Prevention -------------- The government conducted general anti-trafficking awareness campaigns during the reporting period but insufficiently targeted potential clients of the sex trade or beneficiaries of forced labor in Greece. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) funded several prevention initiatives, including a hotline for potential victims and an extensive joint campaign with UNICEF focused on global child trafficking. The government also funded the production of public awareness posters and information cards printed in multiple languages alerting potential victims to government resources. In 2008, the MFA created a new working-level task force on combating trafficking to complement the high-level Inter-ministerial Task Force on Human Trafficking. The government funded training and seminars on trafficking awareness for various government officials. Greek law has extraterritorial coverage for child sex tourism. The Greek government gave its peacekeeping troops explicit anti-trafficking training before deploying them abroad. Greece has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. -------------- ¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report country narrative: (begin non-paper) -- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to Congress. The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and create partnerships around the world in the fight against modern-day slavery. The USG approach to combating human trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol"). The TVPA and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, or coercion, whether overt or through psychological manipulation. While much attention has focused on international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a showing that the victim was moved. STATE 00060485 004 OF 005 -- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of three tiers. Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1. Countries assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, but making significant efforts to meet those minimum standards are classified as Tier 2. Countries assessed as neither complying with the minimum standards nor making significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. -- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a "Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of each year. Countries are included on the "Special Watch List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. -- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: (1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim population. As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 contains a provision requiring that a country that has been included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier ¶3. Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to Tier 3 in the 2011 Report). The new law allows for a waiver of this provision for up to two additional years upon a determination by the President that the country has developed and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards. -- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for participation by government officials or employees in educational and cultural exchange programs. In addition, the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to international financial institutions to oppose loans or other utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, trade-related or certain types of development assistance) with respect to countries on Tier 3. Countries classified as Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's release to show significant efforts against trafficking in persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier classification, would avoid such sanctions. Guidelines for such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared by Posts with host governments. -- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon: fraudulent recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor. As the May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion. The current global financial crisis threatens to increase the number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated "cost of coercion." -- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on website www.state.gov/g/tip. -- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State Department. We are providing you an advance copy of your country's narrative in that report. Please keep this information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June ¶16. The State Department will also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June STATE 00060485 005 OF 005 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. (end non-paper) ¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as possible after the TIP Report is released. Funding for translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human Rights Report. Posts needing financial assistance for translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX office. ¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use with local media. -------------- - Q1: Why was Greece given a ranking of Tier 2? A: The Government of Greece does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Q2: What steps has Greece made in the past year? A: The government increased overall funding toward victim protection, and specialized anti-trafficking police demonstrated strong law enforcement efforts, but the government lacked sufficient progress in punishing trafficking offenders, proactively identifying victims, providing reliable shelter facilities for trafficking victims, and specifically targeting domestic audiences with prevention campaigns. Q3: What can Greece do to improve its fight against trafficking in persons? A: To improve its anti-trafficking performance, the Government of Greece could: ensure that convicted trafficking offenders receive adequate punishments that deter exploitation of additional victims; vigorously investigate and prosecute offenses of officials complicit in trafficking; improve tracking of anti-trafficking law enforcement data to include information on sentences served; continue victim identification and assistance training for officials most likely to encounter labor and sex trafficking victims; encourage the sustainability of funding for anti-trafficking NGOs; ensure specialized protection for potential child victims; ensure potential victims are offered options for care and immigration relief available under Greek law; and strengthen public awareness campaigns targeted to a Greek audience, including potential clients of the sex trade and beneficiaries of forced labor. ¶12. Post may want to highlight the work of Major George Vanikiotis, one of Heroes in the Global Effort to Combat Trafficking in Persons honored by the Secretary of State in her 2009 TIP Report, in its engagement of local media. Major George Vanikiotis, a commander in the Anti-Trafficking Unit of the Attica Police,s Organized Crime Division, is one of Greece,s most knowledgeable anti-trafficking proponents. Major Vanikiotis provides training to police cadets, prosecutors, health professionals, labor inspectors, and NGOs throughout the country. He also leads anti-trafficking seminars at high schools and universities. Major Vanikiotis directs operations for the Anti-Trafficking Unit, which concentrated on tackling several major urban trafficking rings in 2008 and will focus on labor exploitation and international law enforcement cooperation in 2009. ¶13. The Department appreciates posts, assistance with the preceding action requests. CLINTON