VZCZCXRO6421
PP RUEHAST
DE RUEHFR #4295/01 1721636
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 211636Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8850
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1092
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ALMATY 0187
RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 0134
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 0313

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 004295 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
EUR/WE FOR LARREA 
G/TIP FOR DONNELLY 
EUR/PGI FOR BUCKNEBERG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG FR
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE TO FRENCH GOVERNMENT ON 2006 TRAFFICKING 
IN PERSONS REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 85537 
 
PARIS 00004295  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The director of France's Anti-Trafficking 
Office, Jean-Michel Colombani, discussed with us on June 13 
the 2006 TIP report and vigorously defended France's 
commitment to combat trafficking in persons.  It was evident 
that Colombani found the report's narrative on France quite 
critical.  He characterized France as the European leader in 
the TIP fight and expressed amazement at the tier rankings of 
some other countries with which he had direct experience. 
While Colombani understood the requirement for "appreciable 
progress," he noted the difficulty of obtaining improving 
results against ever-more sophisticated criminal networks and 
argued that U.S. concerns about witness protection did not 
apply to the French system, where this was less necessary. He 
hinted that a tier-two rating for France might make officials 
such as himself less inclined to cooperate with the U.S. 
Embassy in the future. END SUMMARY 
 
¶2.  (U) On June 5, we informed Jean-Michel Colombani, the 
Director of France's Central Office for the Repression of 
Human Trafficking (OCRETH), of the 2006 release of the TIP 
report and on France's tier ranking and provided by fax a 
copy of the narrative on France.  On June 13, Deputy 
Political Counselor and poloff (TIP reporting officer) 
visited Colombani at OCRETH headquarters to discuss the 
report further and deliver reftel demarche. 
 
¶3. (U) France's anti-trafficking office, the Central Office 
for the Repression of Trafficking in Persons, known by its 
French acronym OCRETH, is a division of the Interior 
Ministry's Central Direction of Judiciary Police.  The office 
was created in 1958 in anticipation of France's 1960 
accession to the 1949 UN Convention for the Suppression of 
the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the 
Prostitution of Others. (NOTE:  Malka Marcovich, in her Guide 
to the 1949 Convention, notes that France is the only 
abolitionist state that created an OCRETH-like center in 
fulfillment of Articles 14 and 15 of the Convention, which 
encouraged States to establish centers to centralize 
information and investigations on trafficking in persons in 
oder to "facilitate the prevention and punishment of the 
offenses referred to in the Convention" and to be in contact 
with corresponding services in other states.  END NOTE) 
 
¶4. (SBU) Colombani clearly had taken on board the negative 
language in the narrative on France and welcomed the 
opportunity to respond.  (NOTE:  Colombani, who heads the 
operational police anti-trafficking unit, regularly receives 
poloff; his commitment to combatting trafficking is clear and 
genuine.  END NOTE)  He appeared dismayed at what he 
perceived as a negative characterization of France's ongoing 
efforts and expressed frustration with what he perceived as 
an unrealistic requirement for "appreciable progress."  For 
example, he argued that the fact that France dismantled fewer 
trafficking networks in 2005 than in 2004 -- after increasing 
success against trafficking networks in 2003 and 2004  -- 
only showed that by 2005, the network bosses had adapted 
their procedures to evade police investigatory techniques, 
rendering police investigations harder and longer.  It was a 
fact of life that the better the police got, the harder the 
traffickers worked, and the more difficult it was to obtain 
results, Colombani said.  He added that trafficking chiefs 
now tended to stay in "softer" neighboring countries, such as 
Germany, and pull the strings from there.  He also pointed to 
increased use of the internet by criminals to evade arrest 
and prosecution. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Colombani categorically rejected the notion that the 
lack of convictions in 2004 on the specific anti-trafficking 
statute of the French penal code meant that no traffickers 
were being convicted.  He explained that the French 
government added the anti-trafficking statute itself to the 
French penal code in 2003 to comply formally with France's 
obligations stemming from its 2002 ratification of the 
Palermo convention (the U.N. Convention Against Transnational 
Organized Crime).  While France inserted the anti-trafficking 
statute to comply with the Protocol's requirements, in fact 
French law already provided for stringent punishment of 
traffickers -- most of whom in France are trafficking for the 
commercial sex trade -- through its anti-pimping provisions. 
He emphasized that the anti-pimping statutes on which most 
traffickers are convicted are well-adapted to the situation 
in France, because the majority of trafficking victims in 
 
PARIS 00004295  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
France are sexually exploited (as opposed to domestic slaves 
or forced labor) and because police and prosecutors know the 
provisions well and have used them for years.  Colombani 
stressed that the penalties for convictions on these counts 
are severe and damaging to traffickers. 
 
¶6. (SBU) On the question of protection of victims, Colombani 
reminded us of the October 2005 circular that Interior 
Minister Nicolas Sarkozy issued to prefects, ordering them to 
disseminate residential permits more broadly to trafficking 
victims  -- i.e., a victim does not/not have to testify 
against his/her trafficker in order to receive a residence 
card.  He noted a new finance law that extends social 
security allocations to victims.  Colombani also pointed to 
France's May 22 signature of the Council of Europe Convention 
On Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, which will 
require all Convention signatories to provide, in appropriate 
cases, a residence permit that is not/not contingent on the 
victim's aiding authorities and to establish a 30-day 
reflection period in which a victim can decide whether s/he 
wants to cooperate with investigation/trial. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Colombani speculated that differences in the legal 
systems between France and the U.S. were leading the U.S. to 
overestimate the importance of victim protection in the 
context of witness protection.  He noted that the U.S. legal 
system, with its emphasis on testimony, creates a parallel 
need to protect witnesses.  This was not the case in France, 
he argued, since police and investigating judges worked 
independently of witnesses and are allowed to keep their 
testimony secret for much longer.  He concluded that, since 
witnesses were not put in danger, there was less need to 
protect them. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Holding before him a list of the 2006 Tier rankings 
during the discussion, Colombani appeared astounded by the 
relative assessments of some of the countries with which he 
has direct experience in the fight against trafficking.  He 
compared French activism with the passivity of several other 
European countries, citing the UK, Germany, and especially 
the Netherlands.  On one hand, he noted amazement that 
Germany, which has received numerous calls from activists to 
close down the sex village in Berlin during the World Cup, 
should be ranked Tier One, along with the Netherlands, which 
refused to cooperate with France on trafficking.  Pointing to 
Tier-Two Nigeria, he affirmed the importance of working with 
Nigeria, given because of the large number of Nigerian 
trafficking victims present in France, but said authorities 
there are so corrupt that he is unable to find a willing 
partner to work with France.  "You're telling me that France 
could easily be in Tier Two, with Nigeria?" he asked, 
incredulous. 
 
9.(U) Colombani was explicit that France views itself as the 
European leader on TIP.  He enumerated the activities that 
France undertakes to work with officials in other countries 
and to further pan-European efforts against trafficking. 
Colombani and his officers do extensive work with countries 
of origin, both bilaterally and through the AGIS program of 
the EU (a program in which legal practitioners, law 
enforcement officials and NGOs in EU member states provide 
training and share best practices in the realm of judiciary 
and police cooperation).  OCRETH officials have led several 
training sessions for Western Balkan states struggling to 
fight their trafficking problems; OCRETH has an officer 
posted in the French Embassy in Bulgaria to serve as a 
liaison with Bulgarian officials to combat the trafficking of 
Bulgarian nationals to France; three Bulgarian police 
officers came to work with OCRETH in 2005; in Bucharest, the 
French Embassy has a large cell that works closely with local 
police to address the trafficking issue; the OCRETH in Paris 
works with the Romanian police attache here; and the French 
MFA recently led a mission comprised of officials and NGOs to 
Romania to share best practices with their counterparts and 
to set up contact networks.  Colombani concluded that he 
and/or his deputy, Emile Lain, had traveled to numerous 
countries, including -- in addition to Romania, Bulgaria, and 
Albania, where they make multiple visits each year -- 
Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, and Lithuania. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Summing up, Colombani complained that, in many 
respects, France was being made a victim of its success by 
the U.S.  Legislation was complete, perhaps more complete 
than elsewhere.  The Interior and Justice Ministries, Police 
 
PARIS 00004295  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
and Associations were in regular contact -- he named an 
upcoming conference in October.  (NOTE:  The OCRETH will 
hold, along with the Fondation Scelles, this fall a national 
day of training, in which police, magistrates, NGO workers, 
health authorities and others from all around France will 
gather in order to exchange information, share best 
practices, and reinforce the message of assistance to 
victims. END NOTE) Traffickers were indeed prosecuted, if 
usually under anti-pimping laws.  But the job was also 
becoming harder. 
 
¶11. (SBU) COMMENT:  Colombani was more indignant at the 
characterization of France's efforts than relieved that 
France maintained its Tier-One ranking, as he clearly felt 
that French efforts were either misunderstood or 
unappreciated.  Finally he hinted that a drop for France into 
the second tier could have a negative effect on the 
willingness of some French officials in the trafficking 
domain -- whether at the local level, at the Justice 
Ministry, or elsewhere -- to respond to U.S. requests for 
information.   END COMMENT. 
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm 
 
STAPLETON