VZCZCXRO3742
PP RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJA #3238/01 3271032
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 231032Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7154
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHDT/AMEMBASSY DILI 0892
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 0140
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA 1338
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1163
RUEHWL/AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON 2055
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0555
RUEHTC/AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE 3358
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1061
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 2065
RUEHSW/AMEMBASSY BERN 0217
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1622
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH 0465
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 003238 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/RSP, EAP/MLS, G/TIP, DRL/PHD 
NSC FOR EPHU 
DOL FOR ILAB BSASSER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SMIG PHUM EAID ID
SUBJECT: TRAFFICKING -- MULTILATERAL STRATEGY MEETING 
UNITES DONORS, NGOS 
 
REF: JAKARTA 3146 
 
JAKARTA 00003238  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (U) SUMMARY:  Mission--at its initiative--recently hosted 
a trafficking-focused meeting of multilateral donors and 
NGOs.  The meeting--chaired by Dep Pol/C--addressed several 
recommendations made in the 2007 GAO evaluation of USG 
international human trafficking projects.  Meeting 
participants arrived at a consensus on how donors and their 
partners can better share information, collaborate on 
projects and jointly lobby the GOI.  Follow-up meetings have 
been scheduled on a monthly basis to address specific 
recommendations.  We hope to leverage this new grouping into 
our effort to further improve Indonesia's Tier Two standing 
after it was removed from the Watchlist earlier this year. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
MISSION INITIATIVE 
 
¶2.  (U) Mission has moved forward on an initiative to improve 
anti-trafficking efforts in Indonesia.  In response to the 
Government Accounting Offices's July 2007 recommendations for 
improved multilateral anti-trafficking collaboration on an 
international scale, Dep Pol/C (Labatt) organized an October 
30 meeting of multilateral donors and international NGO 
partners to discuss a coordinated strategy.  While several 
multilateral meetings have been held in the past in order to 
share information on child labor and anti-trafficking 
efforts, this was the first meeting to brainstorm overarching 
strategy and objectives in order to arrive at concrete means 
to better collaborate and share information.  The meeting 
resulted in an initial list of strategic priorities which Dep 
Pol/C subsequently disseminated to participants as the 
groundwork for future discussions.  Key participants in the 
meeting are mentioned below. 
 
KEY CONCERNS 
 
¶3.   (U) In a wide-ranging three-hour discussion among the 
more than 40 persons who attended the meeting, the group 
agreed on the following: 
 
a.  Lack of education and poverty breeds trafficking. 
b.  Debt bondage is a key element in facilitating trafficking. 
c.  Overlapping national plans of action on trafficking, 
child protection and related plans are competing for scarce 
resources and are not being effectively integrated. 
d.  The national Trafficking Plan of Action does not provide 
for good coordination among national agencies and with local 
governments; for example, budgeting and data sharing is 
fragmented.  Strong political will be needed in implementing 
the plan. 
e.   ASEAN potentially could be an effective forum to address 
regional trafficking issues. 
 
COOPERATION, ADVOCACY VITAL 
 
¶4.  (U) The group established the following strategic 
priorities: 
 
a.  Cooperation:  Increased information-sharing and project 
collaboration. 
b.  Advocacy:  A united multilateral front to lobby the GOI 
to increase its anti-trafficking budget, to take more 
responsibility for efforts now funded by international 
donors, to coordinate among government agencies and local 
levels of government, and to sign robust bilateral agreements 
to protect migrant workers. 
c.  Training and awareness:  Emphasize law enforcement 
training, raising skills of migrant workers, ridding of debt 
bondage, and implementing a sustainable national action plan. 
 
 
JAKARTA 00003238  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
FOLLOW-UP 
 
¶5.  (U) Follow-up meetings of the group have been scheduled 
by UNICEF, Save the Children (U.S.), the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) and Solidarity Center over 
the next several months to address the above issues in more 
detail, including via: 
 
a. Coordination of trafficking data collection and reporting. 
b. A second strategy meeting including countries not 
currently contributing to Indonesian anti-trafficking efforts 
(such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia) in order to demonstrate 
multilateral unity in addressing the issue. 
c. Coordination of efforts to lobby for effective 
implementation of the National Plan of Action. 
 
A UNITED FRONT 
 
¶6.  (U) The October 30 meeting was the first to invite 
sympathetic countries and groupings which so far have been 
only peripherally involved in anti-trafficking efforts and 
have never been included in multilateral discussions, 
including:  Japan, Canada, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland, 
the EU, Spain, and Germany.  (Note:  Australia, New Zealand 
and France also attended, but were already very active donor 
participants.)  Nearly all these countries sent 
representatives to the meeting.  Participants made solid 
contributions and appeared to gain a great deal from the 
discussion.  For example, a Japanese diplomat said Japan is 
taking trafficking very seriously, and is assisting IOM in 
returning and rehabilitating victims.  The EU is addressing 
the issue through poverty alleviation.  The Spanish 
ambassador said Spain is funding labor projects through 
ASEAN.  The French are working very closely with the USDOJ 
and others on law enforcement training (see reftel reviewing 
a recent anti-trafficking event which the U.S. and Indonesia 
hosted in Bali). 
 
¶7.  (U) Sally Neumann of the Office to Monitor and Combat 
Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP)--who was on a visit to 
Indonesia--also participated in the meeting.  She welcomed 
the initiative, stressing the importance of close 
multilateral cooperation. 
 
¶8.  (U) It was obvious from the exchange among the donors and 
NGOs that much more can be accomplished through closer 
collaboration.  A multilateral effort to lobby the GOI will 
also be much more powerful and will take the USG out of the 
position of being the only strong voice calling for stronger 
political action.  Future meetings might also include 
representatives from key Indonesian government agencies once 
the multilateral group has established concrete objectives 
and a way forward.  We hope to leverage this new grouping 
into our effort to further improve Indonesia's Tier Two 
standing after it was removed from the Watchlist earlier this 
year. 
HEFFERN