CHINA-MONGOLIA COOPERATION ON TRAFFICKING IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 000037

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM; EAP/PD; EAP/RSP; G/TIP CCHAN-DOWNER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/11/2035
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SMIG KTIP KCRM KWMN CH
SUBJECT: CHINA-MONGOLIA COOPERATION ON TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS

Classified By: Acting Political Minister Counselor Ben Moeling. Reason
s 1.4 (b and d)


1. (C) Summary: China-Mongolia cooperation on combating
trafficking in persons (TIP) improved over the past year,
particularly at the local levels, according to official and
NGO contacts in Beijing, Ulaanbaatar and Erlian, a Chinese
town located near the PRC-Mongolia border. Mongolian
officials described counter-TIP collaboration with local
Chinese counterparts as "very good" so long as these
counterparts were adequately informed and had the skill set
to respond effectively to TIP cases. Mongolian trafficking
victims faced particular hardships in China, the primary
destination country for Mongolian trafficking victims,
particularly in areas where local Chinese authorities had not
received specialized training or were not experienced in TIP
issues, reported one Ulaanbaatar-based NGO contact. Training
Chinese and Mongolian local security officials was the key to
ensuring the use of "correct practices" in TIP cases,
suggested another NGO interlocutor. Counter-TIP training in
select border towns had helped sensitize Chinese officials to
the plight of trafficked Mongolian women and girls and had
reinforced to Mongolian officials the importance of
cooperating with Chinese counterparts. End Summary.


2. (SBU) PolOffs discussed China-Mongolian cooperation on
counter-TIP efforts during a series of meetings in Beijing,
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and the Chinese border city of Erlian
in Inner Mongolia with: the Consul General to the Mongolian
Embassy in Beijing on September 10; the Mongolian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) Consular Department
Director, The Asia Foundation and the Mongolia Gender
Equality Center (GEC) in Ulaanbaatar on November 4; and the
Mongolian Consul General to Erlian on November 6 in Erlian.
Embassy contacts had suggested a visit to Erlian, the primary
gateway for Mongolian trafficking victims crossing the border
into China, to gain a better understanding of the trafficking
problem and to discuss the recent improvement of
Chinese-Mongolian cooperation on counter-TIP efforts,
especially at the local level.

Bilateral Cooperation on Counter-Tip Efforts
--------------


3. (C) Chinese cooperation with Mongolia on TIP in the last
year improved at the working level in Chinese destination
cities for Mongolian victims of trafficking (VOTs),MFAT
Consular Department Director Damba Gankhuyag told PolOff in a
November 4 meeting in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Beginning in
2009, China had become more forthcoming in its cooperation
with Mongolia on TIP issues, he said. Gankhuyag said that
the PRC Ministry of Justice (MOJ) had agreed to, but had not
yet signed, Mongolia's proposed bilateral consular agreement
to exchange information on TIP cases. The proposed consular
agreement would upgrade the two countries' counter-TIP
collaboration from the current mid-level consultations
between consular officials to the justice ministry level,
according to Gankhuyag. He acknowledged that relations
between the two justice ministries previously had been under
strain. Mongolia and China still had no Mutual Legal
Assistance Agreement although Mongolia had long requested
one. And on TIP issues, said Gankhuyag, Mongolia typically
initiated contact with its neighbor to the south, while China
was more reactive.


4. (C) As of early January 2010, Chinese and Mongolian
officials were finalizing a formal agreement to provide
assistance to Mongolian trafficking victims in the Macau
Special Administrative Region (SAR),Gankhuyag said. This
agreement would set forth parameters for the exchange of
information between Macau and Mongolian police departments on
Mongolian citizens who had been identified as potential or
verifiable VOTs, explained Gankhuyag, and would serve as a
model for future agreements with Chinese cities such as
Shenzhen. Later this month, a delegation headed by MFAT
State Secretary Tsogtbaatar and comprised of officials from
MFAT and the Mongolian Embassy in Beijing will travel to
Macau to sign the agreement with Macau public security
officials. On the same trip a similar agreement on TIP
information sharing and victim assistance, in the form of a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Hong Kong SAR
and Mongolian officials, will be signed in the Hong Kong SAR
as well, MFAT officials told Embassy Ulaanbaatar PolOff on
January 6. Mongolian consular and police officials visited

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the PRC southern city of Shenzhen in August 2009 to explore
cooperation on TIP issues, although no agreement for Shenzhen
currently is in the works.

"Exemplary" Counter-TIP Cooperation in Border Town...
-------------- --------------


5. (C) Mongolian counter-TIP cooperation with the local
Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Erlian, a Chinese
city near the PRC-Mongolian border (also referred to as
Erenhot in Mongolian),was "exemplary," said Mongolian Consul
General in Beijing Yadmaa Ariunbold during a September 10
meeting in Beijing with PolOff. The positive cooperation in
Erlian led Mongolia to forge a similar arrangement with Macau
SAR authorities.


6. (C) During a November 6 meeting in Erlian with Poloff,
Mongolian Consul General in Erlian Myagmar described the
Consulate's cooperation with Erlian police on combating
trafficking of Mongolian women as "positive." After
Mongolian VOTs contacted the Mongolian Consulate to seek
help, the Consulate would turn these cases over to local
Chinese police for investigation, rescue, and repatriation
assistance. Mongolian MFAT Consular Department Director
Gankhuyag also affirmed that cooperation with working-level
officials in Erlian and Macau was "very good," particularly
if these officials were adequately informed of trafficking
cases and had the skill set to respond effectively.
Gankhuyag noted that officials in these places often worked
closely with Mongolian NGOs such as the Mongolian Gender
Equality Center (GEC) to counter TIP and protect VOTs.

..."Inadequate and Uncoordinated" Elsewhere
--------------


7. (C) While hailing the "dynamic" counter-TIP cooperation
between local-level Mongolian and Chinese public security
officials in Erlian and with authorities in Macau, Ariunbold
bemoaned to PolOff the "inadequate and uncoordinated
response" of local Chinese Public Security Bureaus (PSBs)
with whom Mongolian authorities had not previously
established ties. In his view, local Chinese auth/QQ\azS%Qinistry
of Public Security (MPS) Office to Combat Trafficking in
Persons had nationwide jurisdiction to rescue and assist VOTs
and that the PRC Ministry of Civil Affairs was responsible
for protecting and providing services to rescued VOTs.

Mongolians Trafficked to China
--------------


8. (SBU) Nearly one million Mongolians crossed the
Mongolian-Chinese border every year, Gankhuyag stated, with
three to seven thousand passing through Erlian daily.
Mongolians were free to cross into China for up to 30 days
without a visa (14 days in Hong Kong and three months in
Macau),making it difficult for Mongolian and Chinese
authorities to assess an exact number of Mongolians in China.
Gankhuyag estimated that there were 5,000 Mongolian
permanent residents in China, 3,000 of whom were students and
business persons, and 2,000 of whom were unaccounted for.


9. (C) China was the primary destination country for
Mongolian sex and labor trafficking victims, said Asia
Foundation Program Manager Avkhia Jargalan in a November 4
meeting with PolOffs in Ulaanbaatar. Nearly all Mongolians
trafficked through or into China traveled from Ulaanbaatar
through the border town of Erlian. Many victims, primarily
women, stayed in Erlian, while others were trafficked to
Macau, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen. Geleg Ganbayasgakh, Director
of the Mongolian Gender Equality Center (GEC) in Ulaanbaatar,
a leading NGO in the fight against trafficking of Mongolians,
told PolOffs during a separate meeting November 4 in
Ulaanbaatar that Mongolian VOTs were also trafficked to

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Hohhot, Beijing, Chongqing, and other border cities.


10. (C) In a separate conversation in Erlian November 6,
Ganbayasgakh noted that most female Mongolian VOTs are
between the ages of 18-25 years with a nearly 80 percent rate
of sexual exploitation. Ganbayasgakh described how Mongolian
women often were lured to come to China with promises of
work. However, upon arrival in China, the VOTs were told
that they were required to pay off a RMB 10,000 (USD$1,470)
debt and could repay it by engaging in prostitution. The
debt was designed to be very difficult to pay, and victims
were frequently told that they could have some of their debt
forgiven if they contacted female friends in Mongolia and
convinced them to come to China. These friends then fell
into the same trap, said Ganbayasgakh, adding that
traffickers in China periodically relocated victims to
protect their investment from local police enquiries.
Traffickers also increased their profits by moving victims to
new locations where prostitution fees were higher.


11. (C) According to Jaragalan, trafficking rings typically
were comprised of three to seven VOTs with Mongolian
traffickers transporting victims across the border and
Chinese traffickers receiving trafficking victims. Mongolian
women usually were courted in advance of being trafficked for
a period of up to 3 months by Mongolian traffickers. The
Mongolian traffickers often have cross-border ties to
Inner-Mongolian Chinese, and tend to be friends, relatives,
or contacts of their victims. Mongolian traffickers
typically received USD$500 to USD$1000 for each victim
trafficked.

Foreign VOTs Face Particular Hardship
--------------


12. (C) Foreign female trafficking victims faced particular
hardships in China, especially in areas where public security
forces had yet to receive adequate training and were not
aware of how to handle TIP cases, said Jargalan. In areas
where TIP training of security officials was not prevalent,
Chinese "immigration police" had been known to treat
Mongolian trafficking victims as "irregular migrants,"
charging fees or fines and placing them in deportation
centers; however, this practice was beginning to change.
Most Mongolian VOTs, fearful of being detained, were
reluctant to seek help from Chinese local authorities and in
many cases were unaware of resources available to them
because of the language barrier. Trafficking hotlines in
China and Macau lacked Mongolian speaking staff. Jargalan
suggested establishing a call forwarding program in China
that would enable Mongolian trafficking victims' calls to be
connected to the GEC-administered Mongolian domestic
trafficking hotline in Mongolia.

Training of Local Security Yields Positive Results
-------------- --------------


13. (C) The Mongolian Gender Equality Center (GEC) since 2007
had been working with Chinese and Mongolian local security
forces posted in the cross-border towns of Erlian, China and
Zamiin-Uud, Mongolia to increase bilateral cooperation on
Mongolian TIP cases, Ganbayasgakh said. GEC initially tried
to establish a basis for this bilateral cooperation through
Mongolian government channels, but was more successful
establishing bilateral ties at the local level with tacit
approval from Mongolia's MFAT and China's MPS.


14. (C) In May 2008 and May 2009, GEC conducted joint
training sessions for Chinese and Mongolian local security
forces in Erlian and Zamiin-Uud on appropriate procedures for
identifying, providing care to, and repatriating VOTs. The
training sensitized Chinese officials to the plight of
trafficked Mongolian females, stressed to Mongolian officials
the importance of cooperating with Chinese counterparts, and
educated the officials on the correct methods of doing so.
Prior to the training, Chinese security officials viewed all
Mongolian women working in the sex trade as voluntary
prostitutes and not VOTs. As a result of this training,
there has been significant joint cooperation on TIP cases and
a formal memorandum on providing repatriation assistance and
support to VOTs in the border area was signed by the Chief of
the Erlian City Policy and the Chief of the Zamiin-Uud Police
on November 13, 2009, according to Ganbayasgakh. Moreover,
Mongolian trafficking victims in Erlian were no longer

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charged fees or penalized for violating Chinese immigration
law.


15. (C) With many of the Erlian and Zamiin-Uud security
forces trained and employing "correct practices" in TIP
cases, GEC was beginning to engage Chinese security officials
and their Mongolian counterparts in other border towns, such
as Hohhot, where it hoped to employ the "Erlian model" as
well. Despite significant progress, there remained
"difficulties" with the implementation of counter-TIP
procedures among some Chinese local security forces,
Ganbayasgakh noted. Chinese police continue to emphasize
identification, rescue and repatriation of VOTs over
providing adequate care and counseling, a role that NGOs were
trying to fill. In border towns where local security forces
had not received specialized TIP training, Chinese local
authorities were known to charge Mongolian VOTs 500 yuan a
day for violating Chinese immigration law. The Chinese
tended to react to information provided by the GEC, rather
than initiate finding and rescuing VOTs themselves,
Ganbayasgakh acknowledged.

Erlian: "Unsafe" Border Town
--------------


16. (C) The city of Erlian was "extremely unsafe, especially
for women," especially when they entered areas controlled by
organized crime, said a former police official, current owner
of an Erlian-based import/export company, and occasional
bodyguard for Mongolian NGO workers. During a meeting with
PolOff on November 6, the bodyguard (who declined to provide
his name) described a recent operation, led by GEC director
Ganbayasgakh, to rescue trafficked Mongolian woman from an
Erlian brothel. The official policy toward drugs and
prostitution in Erlian was "relaxed," he explained, because
it was a border town. To illustrate his point, the former
police officer drove PolOff by an Erlian police station
surrounded by a large number of brothels. Despite this
permissive policy, local police occasionally conducted raids
on local prostitution dens. PolOff later was driven to an
area in the south of Erlian where a recent raid had closed a
large number of brothels. (Note: Mongolian Consul General
Ariunbold separately told PolOff on September 10 that Chinese
police were reluctant to shut down the brothels near the
police station in Erlian because this only would result in
the brothels operating elsewhere away from the "watchful
eyes" of local police.)


17. (C) Organized crime was "pervasive" in Erlian, the
bodyguard continued. Experienced in cross-border trade, he
described how organized crime rings hired Mongolian drivers
to transport women from Mongolia to Erlian. From there, the
women either remained in Erlian or Chinese drivers
transported them to Beijing. The transportation system was
loosely organized, employing many drivers who did not work
full time for organized crime. Local government officials
and crime bosses organized the trade, from a "higher level,"
he said, and did not usually get involved in the day-to-day
details of transporting women.

HUNTSMAN