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

080756Z Mar 06

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 09 HELSINKI 000182 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, PRM, IWI, AND EUR/NB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SOCI SMIG PGOV KCRM ELAB KWMN ASEC KFRD PREF FI
SUBJECT: FINLAND:  2006 ANNUAL TRAFFICKING-IN-PERSONS REPORT 
 
REF: A. STATE 03836 
 
     ¶B. 05 HELSINKI 01277 
     ¶C. 05 HELSINKI 00353 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  The following responses are keyed to the checklist 
in ref A.  Embassy Helsinki's point of contact on TIP is 
Political Officer David Allen Schlaefer; 
SchlaeferDA2@state.gov; 358-09-6162-5482 or 
 358-050-322-7923.  The Embassy estimates that 80 hours of 
time were spent preparing this report. 
 
Overview of Trafficking in Finland 
---------------------------------- 
¶2.  (SBU)  A:  Finland is a transit and destination country 
for trafficked men, women, and children; it is not a source 
country.  There are no reliable estimates as to the actual 
incidence of TIP in Finland, and there have been no 
systematic studies of the phenomenon.  The GoF has agreed to 
fund a comprehensive IOM survey of trafficking in Finland; 
IOM expects to begin this project in the summer of 2006. 
Past estimates of the incidence of TIP in Finland appear to 
have been inaccurate due to conflation of organized 
prostitution/trafficking, and to circular reporting within 
the GoF and the NGO community.  The GoF identified 15 likely 
TIP victims during the reporting period; however, it is 
believed that the number of victims trafficked through 
Finland to elsewhere in Europe (and, in some cases, even the 
United States) may be higher.  Most victims trafficked 
through Finland are probably women and girls destined for 
western Europe's commercial sex industry and come from 
Russia, China, and, to a lesser extent, Moldova and the 
Caucasus. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  B:  There is strong political will at the highest 
levels to combat TIP.  Law enforcement officials believe 
trafficking patterns through Finland have changed in recent 
years.  The Criminal Intelligence Division of Finland's 
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) reports that Estonian 
organized crime syndicates formerly engaged in trafficking 
and prostitution are no longer active in these areas; 
however, they remain active in narcotics smuggling.  Finnish 
officials attribute this to Estonia's entry into the EU and 
pending entry into the Schengen region, as well as economic 
development within Estonia.  Overall, the number of Estonian 
women working as prostitutes in Finland has dramatically 
decreased.  Russian organized crime syndicates remain active 
in trafficking and prostitution.  Although there are no "red 
light" districts in Finland, there are a handful of 
nightclubs and casinos in larger cities such as Helsinki, 
Turku, and Tampere that are run by or associated with the 
Russian mafia.  Russian women work as prostitutes inside 
these nightclubs.  Finnish authorities and NGOs believe some 
of the women working in these clubs may have been trafficked; 
the women were aware that they were coming to Finland to work 
as prostitutes, but after arrival the "rules" are changed and 
they receive less compensation and are pressured to see more 
clients than anticipated.  It is believed that economic 
coercion and exploitation of women with limited financial 
resources plays a larger role than physical coercion in the 
recruitment and retention of these women by the crime 
syndicates. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  B, cont.:  Despite the presence of Russian 
criminal organizations in Finland, the actual number of TIP 
victims inside the country appears low.  However, Finnish 
police are increasingly concerned about the transit dynamic, 
particularly trafficking from Asia.  According to police, 
Chinese snakehead gangs have begun to use expanded air routes 
to Helsinki's Vantaa Airport from Beijing, Shanghai, and 
Bangkok for human smuggling and trafficking.  Migrants and 
TIP victims then change planes and fly to their destinations 
elsewhere in the Schengen Region.  Since the travellers 
usually have valid visas for their onward destinations and -- 
even in TIP cases -- are often uncooperative when referred to 
secondary inspection, it is difficult for Finnish Frontier 
Guard and Customs officials to intercept them.  More than 100 
presumed smuggled migrants have been stopped at Vantaa 
Airport during the past year and referred to asylum and 
refugee processing centers.  (NOTE: These migrants have an 
opportunity to claim asylum before deportation proceedings). 
Since Finnish reception centers are "open," almost all of the 
referred Chinese persons subsequently disappeared from the 
shelters, usually within 24 hours of arrival.  It is presumed 
that they continued on toward their destination by ferry. 
Ten Asians (Chinese and Thai) were intercepted at Vantaa and 
presumed to be TIP victims.  Seven of the 10 were minors. 
These victims were taken into protective custody and housed 
in separate facilities at a government refugee reception 
center.  After having been given an opportunity to remain at 
least temporarily in Finland, they chose to return to China. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  B, cont.:  The March-April 2005 case (see ref C) 
of a busload of Georgian women attracted considerable 
attention in Finland and Georgia.  The bus was intercepted at 
the Finnish-Russian border, and the women on board were 
subsequently housed at a reception center run by the Labor 
Ministry until their return to Georgia.  The women were 
uncooperative with police and, although offered the 
opportunity to remain at least temporarily in Finland, asked 
to be returned immediately to Georgia.  Georgian (and some 
Finnish) media criticized the GoF's handling of the case, 
accepting the women's' claim that they were tourists 
travelling to Italy, and alleging that they would now face 
stigmatization and humiliation in Georgia as presumed 
prostitutes.  Finnish officials maintain that the women were 
illegal migrants being smuggled to Italy to work as 
domestics, and that the bus in question was only the latest 
in a series of similar incidents in which tourist buses were 
used to transport both smuggled migrants and TIP victims 
through Finland and into the EU.  Subsequent to the incident, 
Finnish authorities report that the "Georgian bus" phenomenon 
has ceased, and that the organizers and traffickers have 
apparently chosen to bypass Finland and attempt alternate 
routes into the EU. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  B, cont.:  Labor Ministry officials are concerned 
about labor trafficking to Finland.  The incidence of such 
activity is unknown, but the GoF believes that some smuggled 
workers in the construction industry could be exploited after 
arrival in Finland.  The ministry has formed a special 
working group together with trade union officials to 
investigate the situation.  The group's initial report is due 
in May 2006.  The GoF also believes a smaller number of 
Asians may be forced to work in unacceptable conditions in 
restaurants and as domestic workers (employed by Asians, 
often with family ties to the victims).  Finnish police 
report that investigating such cases is very difficult 
because of the closed nature of the small Asian community in 
Finland, language barriers, and the unwillingness of victims 
or witnesses to cooperate with Finnish authorities. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  C:  Corruption is not a problem in Finland.  Law 
enforcement and legal authorities suffer from some 
underfunding due to budget constraints. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  D:  The GoF has an interagency TIP working group 
that meets regularly and monitors all aspects of the 
government's anti-TIP efforts.  The working group is 
currently monitoring the implementation of the 2005 National 
Action Plan (NAP).  The GoF releases periodic statements 
about its anti-TIP efforts, as well as disseminating 
information through multilateral organizations like the 
Nordic-Baltic Task Force Against Trafficking.  GoF 
representatives brief NGO-sponsored seminars and meetings on 
trafficking. 
 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
¶9.  (SBU)  A:  The GoF acknowledges the trafficking problem 
and has taken proactive steps to combat it. 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  B:  The GoF's interagency working group is 
composed of representatives from the Ministries of Foreign 
Affairs, Labor, Interior, Justice, Social Affairs, and 
Education, and from the Frontier Guard, Customs Service, and 
National Bureau for Investigation.  The Labor and Interior 
Ministries have the lead and rotate every six months as 
chair.  Mervi Virtanen, the Director of International 
Relations at the Labor Ministry, is the current chairperson. 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  C:  Within Finland, the Social Affairs Ministry 
has the lead on domestic prevention programs.  The programs 
are primarily geared toward demand reduction, especially 
Finns who might travel abroad to engage in sex tourism. 
During the reporting period, posters and other media 
targeting clients and challenging the view that sex tourism 
is a "victimless" crime have been displayed at 
ports-of-entry, post offices, and other locations.  A 
separate information campaign running from 2003-2006 in 
northern Finland aims to discourage clients and advise 
Russian women that they can seek help from Finnish 
authorities.  Similar campaigns are underway in Finnish 
Karelia and in Oulu.  The Education Ministry includes 
education about trafficking in its curriculum for high school 
students.  The GoF also funds an NGO-operated hotline for TIP 
and domestic violence victims. 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  C, cont.:  Finland's largest prevention projects 
are outside its borders, aimed at creating economic 
opportunities for at-risk women and girls before they are 
caught up in the trafficking dynamic.  Projects that are 
currently being funded by the GoF include: 
 
Russia: 
 
--  Finland is a main contributor to a Nordic-Baltic Task 
Force Against Trafficking project in Murmansk focused on 
providing education, information, and economic opportunities 
for at-risk women. 
 
--  In St. Petersburg, Finland has funded a 400,000 Euro 
ILO-IPEC (International Program for the Elimination of Child 
Labor) program to combat the abuse of homeless children 
preyed on by traffickers and sexual predators.  The program 
runs from 2005-2007. 
 
--  In Moscow, Finland has funded a similar 300,000 Euro 
ILO-IPEC program to combat the abuse of homeless children 
at-risk for trafficking.  The program also runs from 
2005-2007. 
 
--  In Kaliningrad, Finland has funded a 151,040 Euro IOM 
project called "Trafficking Assessment and 
Counter-trafficking Capacity Building for the Kaliningrad 
Oblast."  The aim of the project is to prepare an extensive 
study on human trafficking in the region and promote 
cooperation among local judicial, police, and NGO actors to 
combat TIP. The project runs through the end of 2006. 
 
--  In Russian Karelia, Finland is currently financing an 
anti-TIP project parallel to the one described in para 11 on 
the Finnish side of the border. 
 
Ukraine: 
 
--  Finland is currently financing an NGO project that 
includes a hotline and video spots targeting TIP victims. 
Informational seminars were also conducted by the same 
project in several areas of the country, including video 
presentations at schools.  To date, the GoF has provided 
32,376 Euro for the project, operated by the "La Strada 
Ukraine" NGO. 
 
Moldova: 
 
--  In 2004, Finland provided 1 million Euro to IOM for an 
ongoing multi-year anti-trafficking project; the grant was 
the single-largest grant to an NGO in Finnish history. 
 
--  Finland is currently financing a project by the 
International Helsinki Foundation (IHF) that aims to combat 
human trafficking through a combination of police training 
and education campaigns for women's rights. 
 
Multilateral Prevention Efforts: 
 
--  In addition to the above projects, Finland plays an 
active role in the anti-TIP efforts of the Nordic-Baltic Task 
Force Against Trafficking, the Council of Baltic Sea States, 
the Barents Euro Arctic Council, and provides additional 
funding to these organization's projects. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  D:  See response in para 12 above. 
 
¶14.  (SBU)  F:  Finland is a social welfare state where the 
government is expected to assume responsibility for many 
services that elsewhere are largely provided by NGOs.  As a 
result, there are no NGOs exclusively working on TIP, and 
only a few that address it among other issues of concern to 
women.  Finnish NGOs receive almost all of their funding from 
the GoF with few restrictions on their activity; however, 
Finnish NGOs in the past have been critical about the GoF's 
response to the problem.  This began changing in 2004-2005 
when NGOs were invited to participate in drafting the 
country's National Action Plan on TIP.  Relations have now 
considerably improved.  The Labor Ministry has formed a 
partnership with two NGOs to refer victims whenever possible 
from government-run shelters to NGO-run shelters.  NGO 
representatives are also participating in police training 
programs on victim identification.  Finn Church Aid, the 
Finnish Lutheran Church's assistance organization, has formed 
a particularly close collaborative relationship with the GoF. 
 
¶15.  (SBU)  G:  Finnish law enforcement authorities monitor 
immigration patterns and screen applicants at ports-of-entry 
for TIP victims.  Given the close geographic proximity of St. 
Petersburg to the Finnish border, Finnish consular officers 
face a difficult task in screening visa applicants.  Russian 
applicants with modest resources may still credibly claim 
they intend to make a short, inexpensive visit to Finland for 
shopping or to visit friends, making adjudication tricky.  In 
response, the MFA in late 2005 designed a training program to 
teach Finnish officers to better detect trafficking 
situations as well as how to follow up when TIP is suspected 
(rather than simply refuse the visa).  The program was 
developed in cooperation with the Frontier Guard. 
 
¶16.  (SBU)  H:  See para 10 above. 
 
¶17.  (SBU)  J:  Finland's National Action Plan was formally 
adopted in April 2005.  The interagency working group is 
responsible for its implementation.  The plan calls for a 
victim-centered approach to TIP.  NGOs were a part of the 
working group that drafted the plan.  The NAP has been widely 
disseminated in Finnish society and was kicked off with a 
press conference by Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja.  As part 
of the overall implementation process, each agency 
represented in the working group in late 2005 developed its 
own internal implementation plan for its areas of 
responsibility. 
 
Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers 
-------------------------------------------- 
¶18.  (SBU)  A:  Trafficking-in-persons for both sexual 
exploitation and forced labor is illegal.  The definition of 
trafficking used in the law mirrors that of the Palermo 
Protocol.  The maximum penalty for trafficking is up to 7 
years, allowing Finnish law enforcement authorities to use 
electronic surveillance techniques when investigating TIP 
cases.  Trafficking of minors is considered an aggravated 
offense, and penalties could be higher.  Related offenses 
such as human smuggling, kidnapping, pimping, pandering, and 
child rape can and have been used to prosecute traffickers. 
Finnish prosecutors have successfully prosecuted Finnish 
citizens who travelled abroad to have sex with minors 
(Thailand and Estonia).  These laws are adequate to cover the 
full scope of trafficking. 
 
¶19.  (SBU)  B:  See para 18 above. 
 
¶20.  (SBU)  C:  The maximum penalty for rape is 7 years, the 
same as that for trafficking.  An aggravated offense could 
carry a longer penalty. 
 
¶21.  (SBU)  D:  Prostitution is legal, but the sale and 
purchase of sex in public is illegal.  The law is interpreted 
in such a way that brothels or other clubs with sex on 
premises are prohibited.  There are no "red light" districts 
in Finland.  Pimping, pandering, and organized prostitution 
are illegal.  The laws are generally enforced in practice, 
and there are periodic raids on nightclubs where prostitutes 
are known to operate to enforce the prohibition on public 
commercial sex.  Most "Finnish" prostitution is facilitated 
through the internet and takes place in hotel rooms or 
private apartments.  Foreign prostitutes, chiefly Russian, 
meet their clients at nightclubs and casinos.  The GoF in 
late 2005 introduced legislation to criminalize prostitution 
along the Swedish model, but it is still unclear how soon 
such a law might be approved by Parliament owing to 
opposition by feminist organizations that support legalized 
prostitution. 
 
¶22.  (SBU)  E:  According to the Prosecutor-General's Office, 
there were three convictions during the reporting period for 
offenses related to trafficking.  In all three cases, 
prosecutors believed the essential elements of trafficking 
were present and initially sought trafficking convictions, 
but ultimately pursued related charges in order to obtain 
more punitive convictions quickly.  All three were "transit" 
cases, two involving Chinese nationals and one involving a 
Russian national.  The convicted traffickers are currently in 
prison in Finland.  Prosecutors also attempted to bring 
charges against two Russians who fled the country before 
arrests could be made.  The NBI reports that as of February, 
there were several ongoing investigations that could result 
in charges being brought against additional individuals in 
¶2006. 
 
¶23.  (SBU)  E, cont.:  Finnish prosecutors are eager to use 
new anti-TIP laws to prosecute traffickers, but admit that 
they lack the training and experience to do so effectively. 
Most trafficking cases in Finland involve individuals 
transiting through the country to elsewhere in Europe. 
Transit-trafficking cases are difficult to prove since the 
victims are intercepted in "mid-stream" and have not reached 
their final destination.  The GoF is taking steps to remedy 
this.  A training seminar for TIP prosecutors was held in 
Tampere in December, and another is scheduled for May.  The 
Embassy is also working with the Finns to increase their 
effectiveness.  Our Legatt will accompany three FBI profilers 
specializing in TIP to Finland in early April for training 
seminars with prosecutors and law enforcement personnel on 
victim identification and interviewing methods, and 
interrogatory techniques with trafficking suspects.  Our POL 
and PAS Sections are also working with the 
Prosecutor-General's Office to arrange a VOLVIS program in 
early fall putting Finnish prosecutors together with 
experienced American counterparts. 
¶24.  (SBU)  F:  Trafficking to and through Finland is 
believed to be controlled by large Russian and Chinese 
organized crime syndicates.  The organizers typically remain 
outside of Finland, although lower-level operatives may 
accompany victims.  Travel agencies and marriage brokers are 
not involved.  The government is not involved. 
 
¶25.  (SBU)  G:  Finland actively investigates trafficking. 
As part of its internal action plan, the National Bureau of 
Investigation formed a dedicated anti-trafficking unit. 
Finnish liaison officers with anti-trafficking responsibility 
are now stationed in Murmansk, Petrozavorsk, St. Petersburg, 
Moscow, Tallinn, The Hague, Lyon, Malaga, and as of April 
2006, Beijing.  Finland also participates in the "Nordic 
Cooperation Network," a network of Finnish, Swedish, Danish, 
Norwegian, and Icelandic law enforcement liaison officers 
scattered throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle-East. 
Maximum sentences for traffickers are sufficient (7 years) to 
allow law enforcement to use electronic surveillance 
techniques when investigating trafficking rings. 
 
¶26.  (SBU)  H:  See para 15 for a description of the MFA's 
training program for Finnish consular officers; and para 23 
for a description of Justice and Interior Ministry training 
programs for prosecutors and law enforcement personnel.  In 
addition, the NBI in December began an awareness and victim 
identification training program for police, and since April 
2005 approximately 400 Frontier Guards have cycled through a 
victim-identification training course designed by Major Ilkaa 
Herranen, a 2005 anti-trafficking IV participant.  Plans call 
for 1000 Frontier Guards to have completed the course by the 
end of 2006. 
 
¶27.  (SBU)  I:  The GoF cooperates with other governments in 
the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases. 
Finnish officials are currently involved in several regional 
investigations, and in 2004-2005 played a major role in 
breaking up a regional Baltic trafficking ring that led to 
successful prosecutions in Latvia (including a Finn, who also 
faces additional charges in Finland when he is released from 
jail in Latvia). 
 
¶28.  (SBU)  J:  Finland will extradite persons charged with 
trafficking to any country with which it has an extradition 
treaty.  Finland will extradite its own nationals on a case 
by case basis to other countries with which it has an 
extradition treaty, provided that the individual would not be 
subject to the death penalty if convicted of an offense. 
Finland has ratified the EU Arrest Warrant. 
 
¶29.  (SBU)  K:  Government officials are not involved in 
trafficking. 
 
¶30.  (SBU)  M:  Finland is not a source or destination 
country for child sex tourism.  At least two Finns have been 
prosecuted for having sex with minors abroad (Estonia and 
Thailand). 
 
¶31.  (SBU)  N:  Finland is a signatory to the listed ILO, 
CRC, and UN conventions. 
 
 
Protection and Assistance to Victims 
------------------------------------ 
¶32.  (SBU)  A:  Trafficking victims are taken to reception 
centers for refugees and asylum seekers operated by the Labor 
Ministry.  The system has a capacity for 2,539 persons 
country-wide, and operates at any point in time at 60%-80% 
capacity.  Two centers have been designated as "preferred" 
TIP shelters, one in Helsinki and another near the Russian 
border.  TIP victims are housed in separate units within the 
centers.  Finnish reception centers are open (residents can 
come and go), but visitors are screened by officials and not 
allowed to contact residents without their consent.  Victims 
receive legal counseling, medical and psychological services, 
and monthly stipends.  Recently, after urging from IOM and 
other NGOs, the GoF has revised its policy and is now 
encouraging victims to leave the reception centers as soon as 
possible for private NGO-run shelters.  There are several 
shelters for victims of domestic abuse that have expanded 
their services to include counseling and care for trafficking 
victims.  Through February, 8 of the 15 TIP victims 
identified during the past year were sheltered in a Labor 
Ministry-run reception center. 
 
¶33.  (SBU)  A, cont.:  Finnish officials admit that the 
current system could be improved.  The reception centers are 
clean and well-run, and medical services are adequate, but 
counseling services remain a work in progress.  Psychologists 
from Finland's national health system have experience with 
victims of domestic abuse, but little to no experience with 
trafficking victims.  The GoF plans to address this training 
shortfall this year by pooling resources with other Nordic 
countries to sponsor a seminar(s) for counselors working with 
victims.  The language barrier can also be a problem.  There 
are few Chinese or Thai speakers in Finland, and Asian TIP 
victims may have difficulty communicating with Finnish 
caregivers.  Finally, the open nature of the reception 
centers can be problematic.  Finnish officials do not want to 
"detain" TIP victims, but several presumed victims left 
reception centers shortly after arrival and "disappeared" 
into Finnish society; it is unclear whether they attempted to 
reconnect with the traffickers that brought them to Finland, 
left the country on their own, or stayed in Finland as 
illegal migrants.  Dozens of smuggled persons brought to 
reception centers have also "disappeared" over the past year. 
 
¶34.  (SBU)  B:  The GoF provides the majority of funding to 
Finnish NGOs for victim services.  The GoF also provides 
funding to IOM for work inside Finland and elsewhere. 
 
¶35.  (SBU)  C:  The GoF in early 2006 began to refer and 
transfer victims from government reception centers to NGO-run 
shelters whenever possible.  This is only done in cases where 
government and NGO officials believe it is safe and in the 
best interest of the victim.  The IOM Office in Helsinki told 
the Embassy that after some initial hesitation, the GoF 
adopted this policy as a "best practice" that is successful 
in many other countries.  Finnish hesitation stems from the 
country's welfare-state culture that emphasizes the state's 
role in providing health, social and protective services. 
 
¶36.  (SBU)  D:  The rights of TIP victims are now generally 
respected.  In the past, the police were quick to arrest and 
deport foreign prostitutes without screening to identify TIP 
victims.  Law enforcement officials now emphasize the 
screening process, and Finland intentionally adopted a 
victim-centered model to eliminate further trauma for 
possible TIP victims. 
 
¶37.  (SBU)  E:  The government encourages victims to assist 
in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking.  Police 
and prosecutors have an informal system in place to protect 
victims that cooperate with investigations; the Interior 
Ministry is currently working on a formal witness protection 
program. 
¶38.  (SBU)  F:  In addition to the open reception centers 
described in para 32, the GoF also uses "closed" centers to 
provide greater protection for persons deemed at-risk.  Seven 
of the 15 TIP victims identified during the reporting period 
were housed in these secure facilities, including all of the 
identified minors.  The same medical and psychological 
services described above are available to those in protective 
custody, but no outside contacts are allowed (other than 
medical, legal, and consular visits, etc.), and information 
about residents is protected.  Victims who testified at 
trials would be sheltered in such facilities.  Victims in 
protective custody are not allowed to leave the facility 
without supervision (if at all).  The GoF emphasizes that it 
uses protective custody arrangements only when absolutely 
necessary, and that any victims who choose to return to their 
country of origin will be allowed to do so as soon as 
arrangements can be made.  TIP victims are kept in separate 
units, and minors are kept in sex-segregated juvenile 
facilities apart from adults. 
 
¶39.  (SBU)  See paras 15,23, and 26 for a description of GoF 
training initiatives. 
 
¶40.  (SBU)  H:  There are no known cases of Finnish 
trafficking victims. 
 
¶41.  (SBU)  I:   Major NGOs addressing trafficking (in 
addition to other issues) include:  IMO, Finn Church Aid, 
League of Finnish Feminists, Pro-tukipiste, MonikaNaiset, the 
Refugee Advice Center, and the National Council of Women in 
Finland.  Several of these NGOs operate shelters that provide 
assistance and counseling to TIP victims.  Pro-tupikiste 
operates a phone hotline.  Some NGOs are also active in 
demand reduction efforts.  All Finnish NGOs receive the bulk 
of their funding from the GoF.  NGOs participated in drafting 
the National Action Plan and are regularly consulted by the 
GoF on TIP issues.  Most recently, the Labor Ministry has 
worked with NGOs to develop a referral system to get TIP 
victims out of government-run reception centers and into NGO 
shelters whenever possible.  NGOs will also participate in an 
April law enforcement seminar on victim identification. 
 
A Finnish Hero 
-------------- 
¶42.  (SBU)  Major Ilkaa Herranen of Finland's Frontier Guard 
has played an instrumental role in influencing Finland's 
proactive victim-centered approach to combating TIP.  There 
has been a real sea change in official and public attitudes 
toward trafficking since 2002 in Finland.  Many Finns tended 
to downplay the seriousness of the phenomenon, seeing TIP as 
a "foreign problem" that didn't occur in or affect Finland. 
Finnish officials--especially law enforcement 
officials--generally shared this perspective.  Herranen 
stepped in to help change this.  First, he educated himself, 
taking advantage of opportunities like EU conference and 
training seminars and an Embassy-funded IV program to 
increase his understanding of the problem.  Next, he 
patiently and persistently worked within the system to change 
the political culture of the law enforcement community. 
Herranen did this at considerable risk to his career; 
trafficking was seen as a "soft" issue in law enforcement 
circles, and some supervisors and colleagues scoffed at his 
initial attempts to raise TIP's profile.  Eventually his work 
paid off.  As more officials were influenced by his growing 
expertise, and as senior opinion leaders like President Tarja 
Halonen spoke out against TIP, attitudes changed.  Finnish 
law enforcement today is committed to combating the problem, 
and Herranen is a big part of the reason why. 
 
¶43.  (SBU)  Major Herranen has also influenced public 
attitudes toward trafficking.  Herranen has spoken at 
literally dozens of seminars, conferences, and smaller 
meetings, as well as appearing on television news coverage of 
trafficking.  Examples of his public outreach include remarks 
before the Orthodox and Lutheran Church hierarchies, before 
Parliament, at several NGO meetings including a roundtable of 
virtually all Finnish NGOs addressing women's issues, at 
several schools, and on a major television news magazine's 
expose of trafficking in the Nordic-Baltic region.  Shifting 
public opinion has enabled policymakers to secure the 
necessary resources to implement the National Action Plan. 
 
 
BEST PRACTICES 
-------------- 
¶44.  (SBU)  Finland's National Action Plan to combat 
trafficking was adopted in 2005.  An inter-agency working 
group co-chaired by the Labor and Interior Ministries was set 
up to oversee the NAP's implementation, providing horizontal 
integration to the process.  In addition, the working group 
required each ministry and agency to draft an "internal 
action plan" that mirrored the NAP's structure and style. 
Progress and problems related to the internal plans are 
regularly reported to the main working group.  This formal 
structural requirement--internal plans for all agencies with 
equity in the TIP process--has increased agency 
accountability and compliance, and enhanced the effectiveness 
of the national-level working group as a coordinating body. 
 
WARE