VZCZCXYZ0002
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #0444/01 0611122
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 021122Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7533
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE PRIORITY 4501
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000444 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB DR
PGOV 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: PART 1, SEVENTH ANNUAL 
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT 
 
REF: STATE 202745 
 
¶1.  The following is Part 1 of Embassy's response to the 
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) questions raised in reftel. 
 
¶2.  2006 Trafficking in Persons Report for the Dominican 
Republic, Part 1 
 
¶I. OVERVIEW:  EXTENT OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS IN THE 
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE 
 
The Dominican Republic is a country of origin, transit and 
destination for trafficked men, women and children. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
-- Trafficking from the Dominican Republic: 
------------------------------------------- 
 
The Dominican Republic is a country of origin for women 
trafficked internationally to work as female prostitutes, 
cabaret dancers and domestic employees.  Dominican-born 
victims who work abroad generally do so in urban centers in 
wealthier countries.  Principal destination countries for 
Dominican-born victims of trafficking were in Europe, the 
Caribbean, and Latin America, and included Argentina, 
Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Curaao, Germany, Greece, 
Italy, the Netherlands, Panama, Spain, Surinam, St. Marten, 
and Switzerland.  Many trafficking victims travel using bona 
fide legal documents, including non-immigrant visas, that are 
often taken from them upon arrival. 
 
There were some reports that suggest Dominican women may have 
been trafficked across the border to Haiti to work in 
brothels catering to UN peacekeepers. 
 
There were no reports of children being trafficked outside of 
the country, although some children were smuggled via boat 
across the treacherous Mona Passage to Puerto Rico.  In 
addition, the Embassy has increasing evidence of smuggling of 
Dominican children to the United States using U.S. birth 
certificates. 
 
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated 
that 50,000 Dominican women worked in prostitution around the 
world. Of these women it estimated that one-third were 
victims of trafficking. Other national and international 
organizations have estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 
Dominican are victims of trafficking.  However, these 
estimates are unreliable.  The IOM's estimate, which is the 
one most commonly cited in the country, dates from the early 
1990s; the organization has not conducted a thorough study 
since then. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
-- Trafficking within the Dominican Republic: 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
Dominican-born victims, primarily women and children, are 
also trafficked within the country to conditions of forced 
labor and/or prostitution. 
 
Children are trafficked to conditions of forced labor, for 
example in organized begging rings.  Their movements are 
constantly monitored and they are not allowed the freedom to 
depart their environments. Many children are also trafficked 
to prostitution in the tourist centers; there were reports 
that some elements of the tourism industry facilitated their 
exploitation. Some Europeans marketed the Dominican Republic 
by suggesting that boys and girls could be found as sex 
partners.  The destinations most often suggested were Boca 
Chica, Puerto Plata, and Sosua. 
 
Women are trafficked into prostitution.  Very few prostitutes 
work in their areas of origin.  Surveys indicate women 
brought to sex tourism areas are usually deceived about the 
nature of work, the demands to be made of them, or the amount 
of money they will receive. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
-- Trafficking to the Dominican Republic: 
----------------------------------------- 
 
The Dominican Republic is also a country of destination for 
foreign men, women, and children who are victims of 
 
trafficking. 
 
The principal source country for individuals trafficked to 
the Dominican Republic is Haiti. The two countries share a 
long and porous land border, and both lack effective border 
controls. 
 
With the government's blessing, the Dominican sugar industry 
historically depended heavily on the cheap labor that 
trafficked Haitian workers provide.  They were housed in 
industry shantytowns, called "bateyes," where living and 
working conditions were extremely harsh.  Field guards 
patrolled the fields with guns and kept workers' clothes and 
documents in order to prevent them from leaving before the 
end of the harvest. 
 
There were some indications that this problem became less 
egregious this year. Factors such as the collapse of 
organized sugar harvesting on government-owned land and 
increasing mechanisation among private producers have reduced 
the industry's need for seasonal laborers. Under pressure 
from outside groups, private producers have implemented 
policy changes to improve working conditions and allow 
workers the freedom to leave their jobs.  Even so, employers 
continued to withhold a portion of wages to keep workers in 
the fields. 
 
There were reports that Haitian victims were trafficked into 
exploitative conditions elsewhere, including construction, 
organized begging rings, and other agricultural sectors. 
 
There were some reports that Haitian children were sent 
across the border to live with Dominican families who 
promised to feed and care for the children in exchange for 
some domestic servitude.  These exchanges were motivated by 
the dire economic situation in Haiti.  It is not unreasonable 
to assume that at least some of these children ended in 
conditions of exploitative labor, including prostitution, 
although there were no specific reports that this occurred. 
 
There were also several reports of men and women trafficked 
from Colombia and Venezuela for employment in exploitative 
labor and prostitution. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
-- An Analysis of the Dominican-born Victims: 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
Strong cultural pressures drive Dominicans to emigrate. 
Traffickers exploit this tendency with offers of false 
employment and a better future.  In some cases, victims knew 
they were being trafficked into prostitution, but went 
nonetheless. 
 
Dominican-born women 18-25 years of age who lived in rural 
communities were at the greatest risk of being trafficked to 
other countries.  Many victims were uneducated single mothers 
desperate to improve the living conditions of their children. 
 Traffickers frequently met women through friends and family; 
they promised some form of employment, obtained false or 
legitimate documents for the women, and often retained their 
passports after arrival in the destination country.  Many 
women were reportedly pushed by family members to travel in 
order to send money home. 
 
Persons of Haitian descent were particularly vulnerable to 
exploitation within the country.  There is a large community 
of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Dominican-born 
persons of Haitian descent who have been unable to obtain 
birth certificates or other forms of identity documentation. 
They are functionally stateless.  They generally reside in 
communities on sugar plantations known as "bateyes" (see 
above). 
 
The collapse of the Dominican sugar industry on 
government-owned land and increasing levels of mechanization 
among private producers have left thousands of persons of 
Haitian descent without work.  Lacking documentation, they 
have little possibility of participating in the formal labor 
sector and few opportunities to seek recourse in the event of 
mistreatment.  The Hermanas Adoratrices (Adoratrices Nuns), a 
religious organization that provides services to prostitutes, 
including many victims of trafficking, reports that most of 
those who visit their clinics are persons of Haitian descent 
 
who were born and raised in bateyes. 
 
There are no reliable estimates of the number of trafficking 
victims in the Dominican Republic. 
 
------------------------------- 
-- General Overview of Changes: 
------------------------------- 
 
The U.S. Coast Guard reports that during FY2006, the numbers 
of smuggling attempts across the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico 
and the overall numbers of illegal Dominican migrants both 
decreased. They attribute the change to joint operations 
between the U.S. Coast Guard and the Dominican Navy, improved 
inter-agency coordination, a greater willingness on the part 
of the Dominican Navy to interdict vessels involved in 
smuggling, and improving conditions in the Dominican economy. 
 
 
The Office of the Attorney General made significant progress 
in its efforts to investigate trafficking cases and to 
prosecute offenders.  It secured 11 convictions during the 
year under Trafficking Law 137-03.  The authorities 
prosecuted several high-ranking officials, including a city 
mayor and an assistant director of immigration, for 
involvement in trafficking organizations. 
 
Despite these achievements, there were continuing allegations 
that high-level officials facilitated and profited with 
impunity from trafficking and alien smuggling operations. 
 
With the notable exceptions of the Office of the Attorney 
General and the Dominican Navy, most agencies appeared to 
backslide in their commitment to fighting trafficking in 
persons.  Coordination efforts were severely lacking. 
Virtually no government funding was provided to prevention 
and protection programs.  Many of the most important 
implementing regulations pertaining to the 2003 law against 
trafficking were yet to be finalized. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
-- Limitations on Anti-Trafficking Efforts 
------------------------------------------ 
 
The government continued to claim that its resources for use 
against trafficking were limited, but choices made in the 
2006 and 2007 budgets suggested that its priorities were 
elsewhere, including in controversial infrastructure 
projects.  Most of the resources and training for 
anti-trafficking activities, especially those related to 
prevention and protection, come from outside donors. 
 
Haitians and their Dominican-born descendents remain deeply 
unpopular, and authorities were reluctant to provide basic 
services to them.  This reluctance extended to services 
associated with trafficking, even though the community of 
persons of Haitian descent was particular vulnerable to this 
type of exploitation, as noted above.  When asked by an 
Embassy political officer why the government provided no 
prevention or protection services to residents in bateyes, 
the Legal Advisor to the President on Gender Issues, who 
nominally leads inter-agency coordination on trafficking, 
stated that assisting batey residents was not the 
government's responsibility because they were Haitian.  The 
practical effect of this exclusion was unclear, since the 
government provides few such services anyway. 
 
Corruption remains a deep-rooted problem in the Dominican 
Republic.  A USAID-financed study carried out by a 
non-governmental organization documented the fact that from 
1983 to 2003, only one person was convicted on corruption 
charges.  The Fernandez administration has shown enthusiasm 
for bringing to trial on corruption charges officials from 
the previous political administration.  Cases involving 
current officials either were not pursued, or were dropped, 
as in the cases of Diandino Pea, Simon Lizardo and Haivanjoe 
Ng Cortias. All are current high-level officials in the 
administration of President Fernandez, and each was among 
those accused by the previous administration of mismanagement 
and malfeasance involving nearly RD 1.5 billion (USD $50 
million) in government funds for employment generation. 
 
Complicating this problem was a widespread attitude of 
tolerance in society towards at least some forms of 
 
corruption. In December results of a poll conducted by the 
Pontifical Catholic University showed that 82 percent of 
survey participants found corruption to be at least somewhat 
tolerable. More than 67 percent of respondents reported that 
they would suggest to their friends or family payment of a 
bribe in order to expedite an administrative process. 
 
Corruption and deeply rooted attitudes complicate the 
government's response to trafficking.  Many low- and 
mid-level officials are inclined to look the other way rather 
than help a victim, while others rely on corrupt practices to 
supplement their income.  The use of non-judicial sanctions 
(e.g., dismissal, transfer, etc.) against members of the 
military, policemen, and other lower-ranking officials 
engaged in bribe taking and other corrupt behavior provided 
insufficient dissuasion to check pervasive petty corruption. 
 
The Dominican justice system is under-resourced, a factor 
that significantly affects criminal prosecutions.  Moreover, 
prosecutors face challenges as they seek to bring complex 
trafficking cases to completion.  There is no integrated 
electronic record keeping.  Although the Justice Ministry 
(Ministerio Publico) began implementing a law to create a 
career civil service track for prosecutors, until the process 
is completed the majority of current prosecutors remain 
political appointees who are replaced during each transition 
in political administration.  This means that institutional 
memory is general lost from one administration to the next. 
 
Some prosecutors complained that no matter how well prepared 
their cases, in some instances they were unable to secure 
convictions or adequate sentences due to corruption and a 
lack of training on the part of judges. 
 
Inadequate training also affected law enforcement personnel 
in the Justice Ministry and in the newly established anti-TIP 
units of the General Directorate for Migration and the 
National Police. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
-- Governmental Monitoring of Trafficking 
----------------------------------------- 
 
The government is responsive to requests for information. 
Various agencies with anti-trafficking responsibilities work 
closely with Embassy counterparts.  For example, Dominican 
migration officers bring suspected illegal aliens intercepted 
at ports of entry/exit for interviews with U.S. consular 
fraud prevention investigators for verification of identity 
and documents.  This provides the U.S. Embassy consular 
section with important information for the creation of 
lookout entries in the Department's computer database 
regarding alien smuggling and fraud, when warranted. The 
Dominican Navy, through their offices for Naval Intelligence 
(M-2) and Naval Operations (M-3), works on a daily basis in 
coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and 
Board Patrol officials in the Dominican Republic and in 
Puerto Rico to prevent and interdict illegal migrant trips 
destined for Puerto Rico. 
 
Government agencies generally do not cooperate with each 
other on trafficking cases.  The mechanisms for doing so are 
not well established and some agencies are at times reluctant 
to share information. 
 
 
II. PREVENTION 
 
----------------------- 
-- The Relevant Actors: 
----------------------- 
 
The Government acknowledges that trafficking is a problem and 
has formed specialized anti-trafficking units in the Attorney 
General's office, the National Police, the Migration 
Directorate, and the Foreign Ministry.  Senior officials have 
spoken out about trafficking both publicly and in private 
communications. 
 
Although most anti-trafficking work is conducted by the 
Office of the Attorney General and the Dominican Navy, a 
number of other agencies have nominal roles in the fight 
against trafficking.  These include: 
 
-     Secretariat of Women 
-     Directorate of Migration 
-     Secretariat of Foreign Relations 
-     National Police 
-     Secretariat of Tourism 
-     Secretariat of Labor 
-     National Council for Children and Adolescents (CONANI) 
 
The interagency group Committee for the Protection of Migrant 
Women (CIPROM) is nominally the lead agency on trafficking 
issues; however, CIPROM functions with no budget, a fact that 
undermines its coordination efforts. CIPROM is chaired by the 
Secretariat of Women, and includes the Secretariat of Foreign 
 
SIPDIS 
Relations, the Secretariat of Labor, the Directorate of 
Migration, the Secretariat of Tourism, the National Police, 
the Attorney General, IOM, the National Hotel and Restaurant 
Association (ASONOHARES), several non-governmental 
organizations (NGOs) and representatives of international 
organizations.  CIPROM was created in 1999 and charged with 
developing plans and strengthening government programs and 
measures to protect migrant and trafficked women, especially 
those trafficked to other countries for sexual exploitation. 
 
CIPROM representatives said they hosted monthly interagency 
meetings involving high-level representatives from government 
agencies involved in trafficking.  Given the poor interagency 
coordination that exists on these issues, it is unclear what 
they actually discussed. 
 
The government has relationships with NGOs that work on 
trafficking.  NGOs and international organizations are 
included on CIPROM.  The Secretariat of Women is a key 
partner of the Center for Integral Orientation and 
Investigation (COIN), the primary NGO source of information 
on trafficking victims.  COIN and IOM cooperate with the 
Attorney General's office and the Migration Directorate in 
identifying trafficking rings. 
 
---------------------- 
-- Outreach Campaigns: 
---------------------- 
 
The government has supported some education campaigns 
targeted against trafficking and sexual exploitation, seeking 
to reach potential trafficking victims and to lower the 
demand for trafficking.  Most of the funds used in these 
efforts come from private sources.  The campaigns are 
sporadic, which reduces their impact. 
 
The Prevention Unit of the Department of Alien Smuggling and 
Trafficking in Persons in the Office of the Attorney General, 
in coordination with the Secretariats of Labor and Education, 
conducted outreach training at schools around the country. 
The courses warned children of the dangers of alien 
smuggling, commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking. 
They were given to an estimated 5,610 adolescents during the 
year. 
 
The Secretariat of Labor, Migration Directorate, CIPROM, and 
Secretary of Education all held seminars, chats, and 
 
SIPDIS 
town-hall meetings to educate communities about trafficking 
and the anti-trafficking laws and their implications.  These 
programs reached an estimated 250 private citizens during the 
year. None were residents of high-risk communities in 
bateyes. 
 
Authorities from various agencies involved in trafficking 
received training on the anti-trafficking laws from the 
USAID-supported NGO Foundation for Institution-Building and 
Justice (FINJUS).  Inter-agency representatives also received 
training to recognize the signs of trafficking from the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM). 
 
Two focused courses or "diplomados" on "Alien Smuggling and 
Trafficking in Persons" were carried out by FINJUS. A total 
of 104 key actors directly involved in anti-TIP operations 
were certified.  These included members of the Justice 
Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the Ministry of 
Gender, the General Directorate for Migration, and civil 
society organizations. The courses included the design of 
pedagogical materials, field visits and interviews with 
trafficking victims. 
 
------------------------- 
 
-- Child Labor Prevention 
------------------------- 
 
The International Labor Organization (ILO) continued its 
Program for the Eradication of Child Labor. With other 
international labor rights organizations, in collaboration 
with the Secretariat of Labor, the ILO continued programs to 
combat child labor.  These included programs to eliminate 
child labor in the tomato-producing province of Azua, in the 
coffee-growing province of San Jos de Ocoa, and in the 
agricultural province of Constanza, as well as a program to 
combat the commercial sexual exploitation of minors in 
popular tourist destinations.  However, the government did 
not provide the modest level of financial support it had 
previously committed to giving these programs. 
 
The National Steering Committee against Child Labor adopted a 
National Strategic Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child 
Labor, which include child prostitution. This plan set 
objectives, identified priorities, and assigned 
responsibilities so that exploitative labor can be 
efficiently tackled and the number of child laborers 
significantly reduced by 2016. 
 
The Ministries of Labor and Education continued to support 
the Combating Child Labor through Education program, which 
established several camps that hosted children and 
adolescents. 
 
------------------------- 
-- Border Control Efforts 
------------------------- 
 
The Armed Forces are nominally responsible for control of the 
borders; however, it is in practice relatively easy for 
traffickers to smuggle victims into, through, and out of the 
Dominican Republic.  The land border between the Dominican 
Republic and Haiti is more than 240 miles long and extremely 
porous.  Inadequate staffing, poor management, and corruption 
plague the nominal efforts that are in place to patrol it. 
In addition, yolas (small wooden boats) and other vessels can 
launch from almost anywhere along the 1000-mile-long coast 
that defines three sides of the country. 
 
The Armed Forces made an improved effort to deter illegal 
immigration and trafficking.  The Dominican Navy worked 
closely with the U.S. Coast Guard to prevent illegal voyages 
and to interdict illegal migrants.  It is known that some 
members of the Dominican Navy were complicit in allowing 
these trips to depart.  Between August 2006 and February 
2007, the Dominican Navy's records indicate that they found 
and destroyed 169 boats used for illegal migrant trips and 
apprehended 2113 illegal migrants, most of these prior to 
departure. Additionally, 91 captains and organizers were 
submitted to prosecution through the court system for their 
roles in the illegal trips.  During FY 2006, the U.S. Coast 
Guard intercepted more than 3,200 illegal migrants.  The 
Dominican Air Force sent personnel trained to identify 
illegal migration to several ports and airports as well as to 
the land border area. 
 
The government continued printing new passports with advanced 
anti-fraud features and gave investigation responsibility to 
an anti-fraud department in the Dominican Passport Office. 
 
-------------------------- 
-- National Plan of Action 
-------------------------- 
 
There was no unified, continuous strategy or national plan of 
action in place to combat trafficking in persons.  Budget 
constraints meant that agencies developed their own 
individual, sporadic programs when funding is available, and 
did not coordinate well with the interagency on their 
implementation. 
 
Thanks to technical assistance provided by USAID and FINJUS, 
the first draft of a National Anti-TIP Strategic Plan has 
been written. This national plan has not been implemented. 
Responsible officials have not undertaken the work needed to 
achieve legal clarity on institutional roles or agreement in 
terms of which institution should take the lead on 
implementation. 
 
Most local NGOs involved in combating trafficking have 
drafted their own short-term institutional plans, although 
adjustments on indicators and data collection are necessary, 
as well as more coordination between institutions to avoid 
duplication of efforts. FINJUS conducted a series of meetings 
and capacity-building workshops to strengthen civil society's 
capacity to lobby, advocate and monitor policy-making 
motions. These meetings have served as exercises in 
information-sharing and reflection on the topic, with, as yet 
no further tangible results. 
 
 
¶3.  Part 2 of this Report will follow as a separate cable. 
HERTELL