VZCZCXRO4087
PP RUEHLMC
DE RUEHMU #1057/01 2321722
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 191722Z AUG 08
FM AMEMBASSY MANAGUA
TO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3041
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 5440
RUEHSN/AMEMBASSY SAN SALVADOR 5048
INFO RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MANAGUA 001057 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PRM, SDENTZEL 
DEPT FOR GTIP MFORSTROM 
DEPT FOR WHA/CEN SJUSTICE & WHA/PPC SMILLER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM ELAB KCRM KWMN SMIG PREF NU
SUBJECT: NICARAGUA: IOM TIP CONFERENCE UNDERSCORES NEED TO 
STRENGTHEN REGIONAL COOPERATION 
 
SUMMARY 
- - - - 

 ¶1. (SBU) The International Organization for Migration (IOM) 
convened a regional workshop with funding from the Department 
of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration 
(PRM) July 22 to 23 focusing on strengthening regional 
cooperation for the recovery and reintegration of victims of 
human trafficking.  Fifty participants from all of Central 
America, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Canada 
representing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), 
government, civil society, and international organizations 
attended the two-day session in Managua.  The participants 
agreed that all sectors of society-- including the state, 
family, and community, as well as international 
organizations, needed to play a part to "close the circle" on 
human trafficking, and urged greater regional coordination to 
improve victims' assistance.  Lack of funding and training 
for reintegration programs, inadequate shelters, security, 
and feedback channels for survivors, and community 
stigmatization of sexually trafficked victims were among the 
top challenges participants identified.  The Nicaraguan Vice 
Minister of Government gave opening remarks highlighting 
Nicaragua's vulnerability to sexual exploitation of children 
and trafficking persons, and pledged his government's 
commitment to combat this crime.  END SUMMARY 
 
GON Expresses Concern 
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¶2.  (U) Emboffs attended the IOM's first regional conference 
on "Strengthening Regional Cooperation for the Reinsertion of 
Victims of Human Trafficking" held July 22 to 23 in Managua 
and had the opportunity to exchange perspectives with a 
variety of governmental and NGO representatives from Central 
America, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Canada, and convey 
the U.S. commitment to victims' assistance, protection, and 
reintegration.  In his opening remarks,  Nicaraguan Vice 
Minister of Government Carlos Najar highlighted the GON's 
restructuring of the National Coalition against Trafficking 
in Persons as evidence of its commitment to fighting the 
scourge of human trafficking.  Noting that 46 percent of the 
female population in Nicaragua was under the age of 18, and 
that 10 percent of Nicaraguan children do not live with their 
parents, he observed that Nicaragua had reason to be 
concerned about the risk of human trafficking.  Najar further 
acknowledged that many children born into poverty were 
consequently often forced to work in the informal sectors at 
a subsistence level.  The lack of opportunity combined with 
porous borders, the increase in regional trade, and the rapid 
spread of communications technology had created conditions 
conducive to the recruitment of children and adolescents into 
sexual exploitation and trafficking in persons.  Najar 
emphasized that the GON had stepped up efforts to train and 
sensitize public officials on the issue, as well as made 
progress updating the geographic map on TIP routes, training 
neighborhood leaders, and launching an "historic" meeting 
last fall for national migration officials. He also explained 
that a GON top priority was to provide training on the 
implementation of the protocol for the repatriation of 
children and adolescents. 
 
IOM Highlights Results of Chinandega Project 
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¶3. (SBU) Citing results of their programs in Nicaragua and 
other countries in the region, the IOM panelists emphasized 
the need to establish a holistic approach to assist 
trafficking victims in the areas of life skills training, 
building self-esteem, and increasing community education and 
public awareness.  They underscored the importance of helping 
remove the cultural stigma of being trafficked and enable 
survivors to reconstruct their lives.  Workshop panelists 
also voiced concern that many programs in place to assist 
trafficking survivors were not sustainable over the long term 
and that the problem of revictimization was pervasive in most 
countries represented.  IOM representative Brenda De Trinidad 
shared results of the Nicaraguan-based Chinandega project 
(which receives PRM funding), including testimonies of female 
trafficking survivors.  All had suffered serious health 
problems--physical and psychological--some were suicidal 
before their intervention, and several girls had become 
pregnant during their ordeal of exploitation.  IOM reported 
that most victims receiving reintegration assistance in their 
programs were reluctant to prosecute the cases out of fear of 
retribution and lack of faith in the justice system.  She 
asserted that while the main focus of victim assistance in 
the region was on children, more needed to be done to address 
attention for adults, pointing out that many victims were 14 
or 15 when first trafficked and were now adults. De Trinidad 
urged the need to continue funding the Chinandega project, 
stressing the vulnerability of that area to human trafficking. 
 
Participants Cite Common Challenges and Limitations 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
4,  (U)  The conference participants, nearly all female 
professionals with direct experience assisting trafficking 
victims, raised a number of concerns and limitations their 
countries share vis-a-vis reintegration and providing 
attention and services to victims. During the opening 
session, they discussed the need to arrive at a common 
language to more effectively and uniformly address the TIP 
problem and clarify the distinctions between human 
trafficking and illegal migration.  A number noted that 
because of the shame and stigmatization of being sexually 
trafficked, victims often believe they are responsible for 
the exploitation and are more resistant to seeking and 
receiving help.  Victims also worry about the consequences of 
being deported and abused by law enforcement authorities. 
 
¶5.  (U)  Countries throughout the region face similar 
obstacles in providing victims' assistance, including the 
lack of qualified personnel to work with TIP survivors during 
the process of identification and reinsertion; the lack of 
shelters equipped to handle the specific needs of TIP 
victims; and problematic family circumstances, especially 
intrafamily violence-- a main obstacle to successful 
reintegration and long-term recovery.  Other shared 
challenges included impunity for traffickers and sexual 
predators, the lack of protocols to cover the protection and 
reinsertion of victims or absence of compliance with existing 
ones, and inadequate security and protection for victims and 
their care providers.  They also observed that neither 
government budgets nor international cooperation assistance 
provided sufficient funding on behalf of victims, and 
complained that public policies did not adequately address 
the issue. 
 
Recommendations to Improve Attention to TIP Victims 
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¶6.  (U) On the second day of the workshop, each country 
delegation delivered a short presentation on their strengths, 
areas for improvement, and ideas on regional cooperation for 
reintegration of trafficking victims.  The participants 
arrived at a number of common recommendations to improve the 
focus on reinsertion of TIP victims at both the national and 
regional levels. At the national level, they concurred that 
reinsertion programs needed to be backed by public policies 
that incorporate gender, human rights, and the protection of 
children's rights.  They advised that national governments 
strengthen their operational capacity to develop projects 
specifically designed to assist victims by creating synergy 
between financial and human resources, better training and 
coordination of officials, and to take responsibility to 
ensure the long-term sustainability of these programs.  They 
also urged that governments more seriously address the need 
to find alternatives to place returned victims in appropriate 
environments especially when the victims are stigmatized or 
rejected by their own families. 
 
¶7.  (U) As participants from virtually all countries 
represented lamented the lack of proper shelters, the need to 
develop more specialized shelters with the capacity to 
provide integral attention and adequate security emerged as a 
top priority.  They also wanted governments to establish a 
mechanism to enable better monitoring and follow-up to 
reintegration cases and victim feedback channels, and urged 
greater training and sensitization of migration personnel to 
identify and provide assistance to victims.  Better 
enforcement of existing protocols governing the repatriation 
of children and adolescents and greater efforts to prevent 
the revictimization and stigmatization were also deemed 
priorities at the national level.  A Mexican participant 
lamented that child trafficking victims often turned into 
traffickers themselves, and stressed the need for civil 
society to play a role in helping to change this 
self-destructive mindset. One speaker from El Salvador 
advised that since child victims had lost part of their 
childhood as a result of being trafficking, their recovery 
and treatment needed to include recreational programs and 
creative programs in addition to education and life skills. 
 
¶8.  (U) In terms of strengthening a regional approach, the 
consensus was that countries needed to have better 
coordination to protect the physical integrity of victims 
during the repatriation process, develop a common database, 
improve information gathering and sharing--including 
information to provide attention to victims, and provide 
temporary shelters to protect survivors.  Workshop 
participants suggested the establishment of a regional fund 
devoted to the recovery and reinsertion of TIP survivors, and 
recommended that the topic of human trafficking be addressed 
at the highest levels of government.  They stressed that 
human trafficking be incorporated into the agendas of 
regional fora such as the Central American Security 
Commission, the Central American Integration System (SICA), 
and the First Ladies Forum, among others. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Participants welcomed Post's recommendations to 
strengthen regional collaboration as well as ideas for 
domestic practices covering victims reintegration.  They 
supported the creation of non-discriminatory shelters, 
increased long term sustainability and security of victims, 
ending corruption, efforts to expedite the prosecution of 
traffickers via regionally standardized penalties and law 
enforcement cooperation, and the creation of a regional 
manual on best practices. Given the positive response to this 
workshop, participants encouraged more regular workshops to 
better educate regional actors and further standardize 
reintegration techniques. 
 
SANDERS