This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HELSINKI 000407 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, EUR/PGI, AND EUR/NB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SMIG SOCI FI
SUBJECT: FINLAND: UPDATE ON TRAFFICKING-IN-PERSONS; FINLAND 
RELEASES LONG-AWAITED NATIONAL ACTION PLAN 
 
REF: A. HELSINKI 00274 
     ¶B. HELSINKI 00353 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (U) This supplemental report provides additional 
information about trafficking and Finland, in particular 
Finland's newly released National Action Plan, which centers 
on victim assistance.  The 66-page plan was released on March 
¶31.  An English language translation of the entire plan is 
expected in the near future, but this cable summarizes many 
of the key points.  We also address various questions post 
received from EUR and G/TIP after Ref A was submitted.  End 
Summary. 
 
Finland's New National Action Plan 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja unveiled Finland's new 
National Action Plan (NAP) to combat trafficking-in-persons 
on March 31.  Speaking at a televised press conference before 
Finland's national press, and flanked by the members of 
Finland's anti-trafficking interagency working group, 
Tuomioja said that Finland had been "too sanguine" in the 
past about human trafficking, and that the NAP was a strong 
signal that Finland was aware of the problem and ready to do 
its share along with other EU countries.  Tuomioja described 
the NAP as a "human rights-based and victim-centered" 
approach aimed at preventing human trafficking, protecting 
and assisting victims, and ensuring that those guilty of 
human trafficking are prosecuted and punished. 
 
¶3. (U) Johanna Suurpaa, the working group's chairperson and 
Director of the MFA's Human Rights Unit, told reporters that 
identification of TIP victims was the most difficult and 
important issue in the short term; the lowest possible 
threshold should be set as regards investigating situations 
where trafficking is suspected.  She also said that demand 
reduction campaigns needed to feature as prominently as 
victim assistance and investigations.  (Note: This was a 
point particularly stressed by Finnish President Halonen in 
the June 2003 conference on combating trafficking that was 
co-sponsored by the Embassy and the GoF.)  Suurpaa added that 
a new telephone hotline would be set up in Finland for TIP 
victims -- or anyone else with information about suspected 
trafficking. 
 
¶4. (U) Major Ilkka Herranen, Regional Commander of Finland's 
Frontier Guard, told reporters that the USG has been correct 
in pointing out that Finland has a problem with 
trafficking-in-persons.  (Note: Herranen is scheduled to 
participate in the June 2005 European regional International 
Visitor program on combating trafficking in persons.) 
 
¶5. (U) Members of the press asked the Finnish officials 
several pointed questions about the recent case in which a 
busload of Georgian women was stopped at the Finnish-Russian 
border and the passengers ultimately denied entry into the 
Schengen area (Ref B).  Reporters wondered whether the police 
had acted inappropriately by taking the women into protective 
custody.  Tuomioja and the other officials present strongly 
defended the police's actions, and said that investigating 
the suspicious situation had been the right thing to do. 
(Note: As reported Ref B, it was first suspected that the 
women were being trafficked for sexual purposes.  GoF 
ministries drew on the as-yet-unpublished NAP to guide their 
response, housing the women passengers at a refugee-asylum 
center and interviewing them over the course of several days 
to attempt to determine whether they were trafficking 
victims, rather than returning them outright.) 
 
A Victim-Centered Approach 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Finland's NAP is based on three principles: 1) all 
efforts against human trafficking must be grounded in human 
rights and must focus on the victim, 2) emphasis must be 
placed on the "gender perspective" and the particular 
vulnerability of women in certain trafficking situations, and 
3) intra-governmental cooperation within Finland, and 
bilateral and multilateral cooperation among like-minded 
partners, are essential.  The NAP covers the entire chain of 
human trafficking.  The need for continued 
government-sponsored demand reduction efforts is highlighted, 
as is the need to aggressively implement Finland's new 
anti-TIP law, enacted last August.  However, the NAP's core 
consists of new guidelines for victim assistance.  Highlights 
of the NAP's victim-centered approach include: 
 
-- Temporary Residency:  The EU Council Directive 
(2003/81/EY) -- stating that by August 6, 2006 EU members 
must pass legislation guaranteeing some form of temporary 
residency to victims -- will be enacted.  It may be possible 
to amend Finland's current "Alien's Act" to specifically 
provide temporary residence for victims.  TIP victims would 
not be returned or deported while the permit was being 
processed, even if they were illegally in the country. 
Victims would also be able to work inside Finland without 
having to obtain a standard labor permit.  Victims would be 
given time before having to decide whether they wished to 
apply for the residency permit or return to their home 
country. 
 
-- Witness Protection:  A witness protection program will be 
set up to enable victims to testify anonymously at trials of 
traffickers.  Protection would extend to the victims' 
families as well.  This will require new legislation, since 
persons accused of any crime in Finland have the right to 
"face their accuser" in court, and there are no exceptions in 
current Finnish law for special circumstances like 
trafficking. 
 
-- Housing: Certain safehouses and shelters will be dedicated 
for TIP victims; they will also be able to live in private 
dwellings if they have the resources and so choose. 
 
-- Income/Support: Victims will have the right to earn income 
and receive support while in Finland. 
 
-- Education: Victims will have the right to language 
training, basic literacy skills training, and vocational 
training. 
 
-- Integration: The Social Affairs Ministry will be 
responsible for designing an integration program for victims 
to help them live and, if they so choose, eventually 
assimilate into Finnish society.  Part of this will be the 
appointment of a National Rapporteur for Trafficking Victims. 
 
-- Psychiatric Services: Victims will receive psychiatric 
services and counseling from the national health service, 
particularly recognizing the trauma that victims of sexual 
exploitation have gone through. 
 
-- Health: Victims will eligible to use the full range of 
Finland's national health services. 
 
-- Legal Assistance: Victims will have, and be advised of, 
the right to legal assistance and counseling. 
 
¶7. (U) The NAP will now be sent by the Foreign Minister to 
the Council of State for adoption as GoF policy; no 
objections to the NAP are expected as the key ministries 
involved were all a part of the interagency working group 
that drafted the plan, and as both President Halonen and 
Prime Minister Vanhanen have voiced support.  A new 
interagency working group, co-chaired by the Interior and 
Social Affairs Ministries, will be appointed to oversee the 
Plan's implementation. 
 
Addressing the Department's Questions on 
---------------------------------------- 
the Scope of Trafficking in Finland 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Embassy understands that there may be some confusion 
about the number of women entering Finland for prostitution 
each year.  Post reported in Ref A that police and NGOs 
estimate there were 6000-8000 entries into Finland each year 
by women for prostitution.  Since many women enter Finland 
multiple times each year to engage in prostitution, the 
actual number of women involved would be lower than 
6000-8000; some of these might have been trafficked into the 
country.  The 6000-8000 entry estimate, or similar estimates, 
have been quoted for several years in press and NGO accounts 
of prostitution and/or trafficking in Finland.  However, no 
hard figures exist.  While preparing this supplemental 
report, post pressed both GoF and NGO contacts about the 
accuracy of this commonly cited 6000-8000 range.  Without 
exception, these contacts backed away from the estimate and 
said that there was no way to know the actual incidence of 
prostitution or trafficking in Finland since neither the 
police nor NGOs have conducted any systematic surveys.  Post 
now believes that the previous 6000-8000 figure was more the 
result of self-referential feedback from government and NGO 
contacts than a scientific estimate. 
 
¶9. (U) Finland's National Action Plan states that while the 
actual incidence of TIP in Finland is unknown, there could 
"possibly be hundreds" of women and girls trafficked to and 
through Finland each year.  Johanna Suurpaa, the Director of 
the MFA's Unit for Human Rights and chairperson of the 
interagency anti-TIP working group, admitted to PolOff that 
even this number is ultimately a guess and not based on a 
survey.  The IOM office in Helsinki declined to speculate as 
to the incidence of trafficking into and through Finland. 
According to Lucy Laitinen, the IOM's regional anti-TIP 
coordinator, there has never been a systematic survey done in 
Finland to estimate scope or incidence.  She said that the 
IOM had no current cases open in Finland.  The IOM has 
submitted a proposal to the GoF to undertake a survey of 
trafficking in Finland. 
¶10. (U) Reftel B cites new information that as many as 1500 
women may have been trafficked or smuggled through Finland 
from Georgia since 2002.  It is not known whether these women 
were involved with commercial sex trafficking, labor 
trafficking, or labor smuggling/illegal immigration, although 
the GoF has stated that it believes "at least some" were part 
of the commercial sex trade.  Some Georgian officials and 
media have subsequently criticized the GoF for its handling 
of the case, claiming that the women were legitimate tourists 
and were victims of police discrimination. 
 
Prostitution vs. Trafficking 
---------------------------- 
 
¶11. (U) All Embassy contacts in Finland cite the difficulty 
in disaggregating prostitution from trafficking as a main 
reason no hard estimates exist as regards TIP.  It is 
believed that most foreign prostitutes in Finland come from 
nearby countries and voluntarily enter Finland to engage in 
prostitution.  There are a small number of known cases, such 
as that cited in Ref A section 18 (B) detailing a Latvian 
minor who was duped by traffickers into believing that she 
would be offered a job picking strawberries only to be forced 
into prostitution.  Such cases may be the exception rather 
than the rule, however.  When trafficking for purposes of 
sexual exploitation occurs in Finland, it is almost always 
because women who have become involved with organized crime 
syndicates find themselves coerced into continuing to work as 
prostitutes after their "contract" has been altered and the 
conditions in which they work have been changed (negatively). 
 According to police, such coercion may be violent, 
aggressive (taking away passports or threatening the victim's 
family), or more psychological and subtle.  Finnish police 
cannot say how many foreign prostitutes may be subject to 
such coercion, thereby making them TIP victims.  However, the 
police do report that they do not believe that a majority of 
foreign prostitutes in Finland are subject to such coercion. 
NGOs inside Finland seem to agree with this assessment.  Lucy 
Laitinen of IOM told PolOff that the Finnish situation was 
"one of the most difficult" that IOM was working with as 
regards the disaggregation of trafficking from prostitution; 
as mentioned above, she would not even speculate as to the 
number of women possibly trafficked to and through Finland 
each year. 
 
¶12. (U) As reported in Ref A, Finnish police report that 
there were 12 investigations in 2004 that led to multiple 
arrests and the break-up of prostitution rings; there were 31 
total prosecutions from these cases (for pimping).  Since 
these crimes occurred before Finland's new TIP law came on 
the books, it is unknown how many of these cases might 
actually have involved trafficking. 
 
¶13. (U) Since Finland's new TIP law was enacted last August, 
three investigations into possible trafficking have been 
initiated and are still underway; the investigations have not 
yet been referred to prosecutors. 
 
The Estonian Connection to Trafficking in Finland 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶14. (U) Finnish officials and NGOs agree that, as reported in 
Reftel A, most foreign prostitutes in Finland come from 
Russia and Estonia; the GoF and NGOs presume that this also 
holds for most trafficking victims, although they can provide 
no numbers to back this up.  Major Ilkka Herranen, Regional 
Commander of Finland's Frontier Guard, told PolOff that he 
believes perhaps "75% of foreign prostitutes in Finland are 
Russian and 25% are from Estonia," but declined to provide 
actual numbers.  Herranen also opined that given the ease 
with which Estonians can travel to and from Finland, there 
were probably more Russian trafficking victims than Estonian. 
 Herranen and other Finnish authorities said that Estonian 
prostitutes in Finland were generally better educated and 
"more sophisticated" than Russian prostitutes and seemed less 
likely to become victims of trafficking; the Russian women 
were much more isolated and cut off from their home 
communities, whereas the Estonian women could communicate 
more effectively (given the close relationship of the Finnish 
and Estonian languages), could maintain close contact (even 
daily) with friends and family in Estonia via mobile phones, 
and were only a 90-minute ferry ride away from their 
homeland.  Because of this, Herranen opined that most 
Estonian prostitutes were associated with crime rings or were 
freelancers, but were not victims of trafficking. 
 
¶15. (U) Finland's Frontier Guard reported that in 2003, 150 
Estonian women were denied entry into Finland for suspicion 
of prostitution; most had entered Finland multiple times and 
made contradictory statements about their trips during 
secondary inspection.  Some confessed to coming to Finland to 
work as prostitutes, although some maintained their 
innocence.  Few women showed any inclination to cooperate 
with Finnish authorities, and most asked to return to Estonia 
on the next ferry.  The Frontier Guard report only ten such 
cases in 2004.  Herranen attributed the drop to Estonia's EU 
accession.  He said that Estonians entering Finland are no 
longer subject to the same screening procedures as before, 
and that only extremely suspicious persons or persons already 
entered into Finland's law enforcement database would be 
questioned.  Given the paucity of information about possible 
Estonian trafficking victims in Finland, post defers to 
Embassy Tallinn's reporting for more definitive information. 
 
¶16. (U) In addition to Russia and Estonia, other countries 
that have been cited as possible source countries for 
trafficking to and through Finland in recent years include 
Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, and 
most recently China, Thailand, and other "unspecified Asian 
countries."  There are no numbers for how many women from 
these countries might have been trafficked to and through 
Finland other than the Georgian case detailed in Ref B and 
the Latvian minor mentioned in Ref A. 
 
¶17. (U) In conclusion: Now that Finland has a National Action 
Plan in place, one that engages the GoF and local NGOs in 
victim assistance, we would expect that over time more 
concrete information on each of the issues raised above will 
develop.  We also expect this process of clarification to be 
aided by the new U.S.-funded anti-trafficking NGO project 
involving an Estonian NGO with Finnish partners (Ref A para 
(19)(C)). 
MACK