VZCZCXRO5569
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ
DE RUEHTC #0399/01 0531908
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221908Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4903
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHBM/AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST 1091
RUEHKV/AMEMBASSY KIEV 0415
RUEHSF/AMEMBASSY SOFIA 0398
RUEHWR/AMEMBASSY WARSAW 1962
RUEAWJB/DOJ WASHDC
RUEHC/DOL WASHDC
RUEHAT/AMCONSUL AMSTERDAM 0404
RUEAHLC/HOMELAND SECURITY CENTER WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 THE HAGUE 000399 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, EUR/PGI, EUR/UBI 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ELAB SMIG KCRM KWMN PREL NL
SUBJECT: TIP EXPERTISE CENTER STRENGTHENS DUTCH ANTI-TIP LAW 
ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS 
 
THE HAGUE 00000399  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. The Dutch National Expertise Center on 
People Trafficking and Smuggling (EMM) opened on May 18, 
2005, bringing together officers from regional, national, 
and military police, as well as the Social Information and 
Investigation Service, and the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service.  The EMM serves as a national 
resource center for TIP investigations and prosecutions.  It 
is supervised by National TIP Prosecutor Warner ten Kate. 
The EMM focuses on the most complex trafficking and 
smuggling cases, and in particular, is developing a test 
case to prosecute trafficking for labor exploitation, a new 
area of Dutch trafficking law.  The EMM operates a 24-hour a 
day hotline.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) During a February 13 tour of the TIP Expertise 
Center, the Director of the Center and the National TIP 
Prosecutor provided emboffs an overview of the center's 
operations and priorities.  The EMM opened on May 18, 2005 
and employs 38 officers from the national police (KLDP), 
regional police forces, and the military police (KMAR, 
responsible for border security), the Social Ministry's 
Social Information and Investigation Service (SIOD, 
responsible for enforcement of labor and welfare 
regulations), and the Immigration and Naturalization Service 
(IND).  The Director of the EMM is Rene Nuijten, the Deputy 
Director of the National Crime Squad's Northeast Region.  It 
is the first interagency center established in response to 
the Biennial National Crime Threat Assessment, which 
identified six priorities for combating organized crime; in 
addition to the EMM, expertise centers are planned on 
counter-terrorism, drug smuggling, synthetic drugs, money 
laundering, and arms trafficking. 
 
¶3. (U) The objective of the EMM is to enhance law 
enforcement operational effectiveness at the regional and 
national level by facilitating information gathering and 
exchange related to people trafficking and smuggling.  EMM 
staff use a multidisciplinary approach to analyze trends and 
patterns that might not be apparent to police, immigration 
service, or labor and welfare program investigators working 
on separate cases.   National TIP Prosecutor Warner ten Kate 
oversees the work of the EMM to ensure that investigations 
meet requirements for successful prosecution and to ensure 
consistency with the Justice Ministry's overall TIP policy 
objectives. 
 
¶4.  (U) The EMM focuses on the most complex and potentially 
precedent-setting trafficking and smuggling cases while 
regional police and prosecutors handle more routine cases. 
Each of the Netherlands' 25 police regions has a TIP 
investigations team; the 19 regional prosecutor's offices 
each have a designated TIP prosecutor.  The expertise center 
provides training for regional law enforcement authorities 
to enhance their capacity to successfully identify, 
investigate and prosecute trafficking and smuggling cases. 
For example, the Expertise Center Advisor on prostitution 
trains regional police and immigration officers on interview 
and document review techniques to help them identify 
possible TIP victims.  EMM Chief Nuijten noted that 
providing such training also increases the EMM's visibility 
to local and regional authorities as the national resource 
center for TIP crimes. 
 
¶5. (U) The EMM has a 24-hour hotline to receive tips, and to 
provide information and assistance to regional police 
officials and to victims.  The Center also actively engages 
with police liaisons from other EU member states posted at 
Europol, and with EuroJust, to encourage joint 
investigations and cooperation on prosecutions to combat TIP 
on a European level.  EMM chief Nuijten traveled in mid 2005 
to Romania, a major source country for TIP victims in the 
Netherlands, to establish contacts with law enforcement 
authorities and to train prosecutors.  He said that Romanian 
officials were eager to cooperate with Dutch law enforcement 
on trafficking cases.  He plans to develop similar contacts 
in Bulgaria and the Ukraine, also important source countries 
for the Netherlands. 
 
¶6. (SBU) EMM investigators described several cases currently 
 
THE HAGUE 00000399  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
under investigation.  They highlighted, in particular, the 
first major labor exploitation trafficking case to be 
investigated since the Dutch TIP legislation was amended to 
include labor exploitation.  The case involves the 
recruitment of female laborers, primarily from Poland, 
brought to the Netherlands to work at very low wages and 
under primitive conditions.  The investigation began with a 
tip to the EMM and is expected to progress through arrest 
and prosecution of the traffickers.  The investigators 
stressed their intention to build a solid test case to help 
establish the legal precedents for prosecuting future labor 
exploitation cases. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) A smuggling operation bringing in North African 
immigrants seeking employment in the Netherlands was broken 
up in late 2005 following a joint investigation by the EMM 
and regional immigration officers.  The investigation began 
after several Dutch municipalities reported a sharp increase 
in applications for temporary residence permits from North 
African nationals unqualified for permanent residence 
status.  The investigation revealed that most of the 
applications listed the same legal advisor.  Approximately 
250 applicants had been accompanied to the Netherlands by 
the same escort, who was employed by the legal advisor. 
Both the legal advisor and the escort were arrested; the 
case has not yet gone to trial.  The EMM subsequently 
assisted the Immigration Service to revise the procedures 
for applying for temporary residence permits, and provided 
training for regional immigration officials on fraud 
detection methods. 
 
¶8. (U) The Expertise Center will issue a report in the 
spring detailing accomplishments in its first year of 
operations and identifying priorities for future activities. 
 
¶9.  Comment: Early indications are that the Expertise Center 
will significantly enhance Dutch effectiveness in deterring 
human traffickers.  In addition to bringing together the 
interagency resources needed to investigate and prosecute 
complex networks of traffickers, the Center's training and 
information-exchange functions will help improve the 
capacity of regional police and prosecutors to pursue TIP 
cases.  End Comment. 
 
Blakeman