VZCZCXRO0391
PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHPS #0973/01 3200633
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 160633Z NOV 06
FM USOFFICE PRISTINA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6708
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHCH/AMEMBASSY CHISINAU 0065
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0922
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHFMISS/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFISS/CDR TF FALCON
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUFOANA/USNIC PRISTINA SR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000973 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR 
DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER, JUSTICE FOR 
OPDAT ACKER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2016 
TAGS: GTIP KJUS KCRM PGOV UNMIK YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REMAINS A PROBLEM, 
INTERNAL VICTIMS INCREASING 
 
 
Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Trafficking in persons (TIP) continues to 
plague Kosovo, but UNMIK and the Provisional Institutions of 
Self-Government (PISG) have taken some important steps to 
combat it, including undercover police operations, adoption 
of a two-year action plan to combat trafficking in human 
beings, and interviewing at-risk foreign females identified 
through Office of Foreign Registration records.  In October 
2006, the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) mounted three major 
anti-trafficking actions, resulting in 21 women being rescued 
and placed in shelters.  Unfortunately, those raids 
highlighted the complexity of TIP in Kosovo.  The women 
rescued in two of the raids later changed their stories, and 
the presiding judge ultimately allowed them to leave the 
shelters and go back to work, despite KPS objections.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
The Trafficking Problem in Kosovo 
 
¶2. (SBU)  Trafficking in persons remains a problem in Kosovo. 
 It is a source, transit and destination point for trafficked 
persons, and victims tend to be women and children trafficked 
internally or from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former 
Soviet Union into Kosovo, primarily for sexual exploitation, 
but also for domestic servitude or forced labor in bars and 
restaurants, and through Kosovo to Macedonia, Albania and 
Western Europe.  According to the International Organization 
of Migration (IOM), 45 percent of victims are recruited 
through job promises, 24 percent are kidnapped or forced to 
come to Kosovo, and 12 percent are given false promises of 
marriage. 
 
Trends 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Internal trafficking is a growing problem in 
Kosovo, and the number of internally trafficked women and 
girls slightly surpassed the number of foreign victims thus 
far in 2006.  (Note: The numbers are very close, so this may 
not be true by year-end.  End Note.)  According to IOM, young 
girls and women from rural areas are particularly at risk, as 
are those from urban areas with a high level of poverty, 
unemployment and illiteracy.  They also believe internally 
trafficked women and girls face worse conditions than foreign 
victims of trafficking (VOT). 
 
¶4. (SBU)  While there are still reports of VOTs being 
subjected to beatings, rape, denial of access to health care 
and confiscation of travel and identity documents, 
traffickers seem to be changing their tactics.  Anecdotal 
evidence suggests VOTs are being treated better so that they 
have less incentive to request assistance and that 
traffickers are shifting the commercial sex trade out of 
public bars and hotels and into private homes and escort 
services to better avoid detection. 
 
Anti-trafficking Laws 
 
¶5. (SBU)  UNMIK regulations criminalize TIP.  Conviction for 
trafficking is punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison, while 
engaging or attempting to engage in trafficking is punishable 
by 2 to 12 years in prison or up to 15 years if the victim is 
under 18.  Organizing a group to engage in trafficking is 
punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison, and facilitating 
trafficking through negligence is punishable by 6 months to 5 
years in prison.  The maximum sentence for clients of VOTs is 
up to 5 years if the victim is an adult and up to 10 years if 
she is under 18, but proving the client knew he was with a 
VOT is a challenge. 
 
Law Enforcement Efforts to Combat Trafficking 
 
¶6. (SBU) UNMIK's Trafficking in Human Beings Section and the 
Kosovo Police Service (KPS) Section for Trafficking in Human 
Beings (SITHB) worked together on TIP until May 2006, when 
 
PRISTINA 00000973  002 OF 003 
 
 
the competence was completely transferred to the SITHB. 
SITHB records indicate that from January through August 2006, 
they conducted 127 observations, including 21 secret 
operations, 11 of which were with local inspectors.  They 
also searched 946 premises suspected of being used for TIP 
and prostitution, and closed 20 of them.  They arrested 22 
people for trafficking, 3 for offering prostitution, 11 for 
prostitution, and 17 on trafficking-related charges, such as 
illegal weapons possession and counterfeiting.  They rescued 
37 VOTs, 27 of whom received needed assistance.  From January 
through October 2006, a total of 57 new cases were opened, 45 
were closed, and 384 remained under investigation. 
 
¶7. (C)  The prosecutor's office filed 34 cases for 
trafficking in persons, but only 4 were resolved as of the 
end of October 2006, resulting in 3 convictions.  Factors 
contributing to the low conviction rate included the lack of 
a witness protection program (although anonymity is provided 
during the trial through written testimony) and inadequate 
training for judicial personnel.  Zyle Feritaj (protect) of 
the KPS SITHB confided to poloff and RLA that judges and 
prosecutors need to be better educated to deal with TIP 
cases.  She was particularly concerned with cases in which 
judges ordered women sent to or released from shelters 
despite KPS SITHB objections.  She believed some VOTs were 
put back on the street, while suspected recruiters were put 
in shelters where they could prey on vulnerable women and 
girls. 
 
Other Efforts to Combat Trafficking and Assist Victims 
 
¶8. (SBU)  In addition to UNMIK, KPS SIHTB, and Kosovo judges 
and prosecutors, the border police, the OSCE, the Prime 
Minister's Advisory Office on Good Governance (AOGG), and 
ministries of health, education, interior, public services, 
justice, labor and social welfare are responsible for 
combating TIP in Kosovo.  NGOs and international 
organizations, especially IOM, handle protection and 
prevention-related anti-trafficking activities.  In May 2005, 
Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG) 
released a two-year action plan to combat trafficking that 
consolidated government anti-trafficking efforts and 
established a Counter-trafficking secretariat within the AOGG 
and a National Counter-trafficking Coordinator (NCC).  The 
action plan also assigned counter-trafficking activities to 
other governmental and non-governmental actors. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Where assistance to victims is concerned, 
international and local NGOS are the main actors.  Local 
NGOs, such as the Center to Protect Victims and Prevent 
Trafficking (PVPT) and Hope and Homes, operate shelters that 
provide medical care and psychological counseling services to 
victims in cooperation with the PISG, OSCE and the IOM.  An 
interim security facility also provides temporary shelter to 
victims while they consider whether to be repatriated or 
testify against their traffickers.  Police often refer 
victims to IOM through the OSCE regional offices, and the IOM 
assists them with repatriation. 
 
KPS Making Busts, But Judges Are An Obstacle 
 
¶10.  (C) Anecdotal evidence suggests the KPS SITHB may be 
more aggressively combating TIP, but that the judicial system 
is an obstacle.  SITBH efforts netted three busts in October 
2006, resulting in the rescue of 21 foreign VOTs.  On October 
3, SITHB rescued 7 Moldovan women, including a 17-year-old, 
and arrested three Kosovar Albanian men in Prizren on 
suspicion of trafficking.  The KPS took the women to a 
shelter, where they later claimed they were not victims. 
Despite KPS objections, the judge presiding over the case 
ordered their release from the shelter because they wanted to 
remain in Kosovo and go back to work.  On October 5, KPS 
SITHB officers raided a nightclub in suburban Pristina and 
arrested five Kosovar Albanian men and two Moldovan women on 
suspicion of trafficking.  They took in six other Moldovan 
 
PRISTINA 00000973  003 OF 003 
 
 
women as possible VOTs.  The next day, however, police 
arrested the six for concealing the act of human trafficking 
and recruiting other females for prostitution in cooperation 
with the nightclub's owners and workers.  All of the women 
later claimed they were VOTs and were sent to the Ministry of 
Justice shelter.  As in the Prizren case, when they changed 
their minds again and said they wanted to go back to work, 
the judge ordered their release from the shelter despite KPS 
objections.  On October 24, five Kosovar Albanians were 
arrested for trafficking following a KPS raid on a bar in 
Pristina, and six Moldovan women were identified as VOTs and 
sent to a shelter.  The SITHB Chief, Lieutenant Colonel 
Ramadan Ahmeti (protect), told poloff that the women appeared 
before a judge and gave a statement.  They will remain in a 
shelter until they can be repatriated.  (Note: In the first 
two cases mentioned above, the KPS SITHB used surveillance 
equipment donated by the U.S. Department of Justice in 
September 2006.  End Note.). 
 
¶11. (SBU) COMMENT:  Trafficking in persons remains a problem 
in Kosovo, and the rise in internal trafficking is of special 
concern.  Kosovo is taking steps to combat trafficking and 
assist victims, making particular strides in law enforcement 
and victims assistance, but this is a very complex issue.  As 
the cases above illustrate, VOTs are reluctant to come 
forward and often change their stories, most likely out of 
fear of their traffickers.  While the KPS SITHB's three 
police actions in October 2006 are a hopeful sign, the fact 
that judges released VOTs from shelters and placed suspected 
recruiters in shelters over KPS SITHB objections is 
worrisome.  USOP will continue to closely monitor and report 
on TIP issues in Kosovo.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶12. (SBU) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable in its 
entirety for release to U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari. 
KAIDANOW