R 171030Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 8905

UNCLAS COLOMBO 001034 
 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP (GAYATRI PATEL) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM SMIG CE
SUBJECT: TIP INTERIM ASSESSMENT FOR SRI LANKA 
 
REF: STATE 109260 
 
¶1. Post assesses that the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) has taken 
many positive steps to address Sri Lanka's trafficking problem. 
These efforts have mainly focused on the foreign employment of Sri 
Lankans, building awareness of trafficking, and increasing 
interagency coordination to counter trafficking.  Nevertheless, the 
GSL does face a host of problems which constrain its ability to 
fully address all of its deficiencies in the area of trafficking. 
Specifically, Sri Lanka has an extremely inefficient legal system 
and faces both serious resource constraints and a lack of awareness 
among government officials and the public of the dangers of 
trafficking. 
 
 
Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions 
¶2. There have been no convictions by the GSL under its 2006 
Amendment to its penal code, which defined trafficking as a crime 
for the first time.  However, the lack of convictions should not be 
viewed as a lack of commitment on the part of the GSL to combat 
trafficking. Instead, it's reflection of an antiquated and extremely 
inefficient legal system.  On average, a case takes approximately 
two years between an arrest and indictment.  A conviction can take 
two or three times as long to achieve.  In addition, there is a 
serious lack of awareness among law enforcement personnel and the 
judiciary of the trafficking problem.  As a result, police are not 
adequately trained in how to investigate trafficking crimes nor are 
they trained in proper evidence collection.  This applies, however, 
to all crimes, not just trafficking offences.  Overall, the 
conviction rate in Sri Lanka is only 4%.  An example of the slowness 
of the Sri Lankan justice system is the case of H. Amaradasa.  He 
was a music teacher in Galle and was arrested in 1996 for child 
abuse.  He used his position as a teacher to transport 8-10 boys to 
another city in the south for sexual exploitation by foreigners.  He 
was convicted, but not until 2001. He was sentenced to 104 years in 
prison. 
 
¶3. National Child Protective Authority (NCPA): There have been 13 
arrests in 2008 for underage recruitment of girls to work as 
domestics in the Middle East according to the NCPA.  In addition, 
there are three other cases pending in the courts which are being 
prosecuted in conjunction with the NCPA, which is tasked with 
handling all offenses related to the mistreatment of children, 
including non-trafficking cases.  The first case dates back to 2002 
and is expected to result in a conviction by the end of 2008. 
 
¶4. Foreign Employment Bureau (FEB): There have been 22 cases so far 
this year prosecuted by the FEB against businesses operating without 
a valid license.  Of these, three have been settled with fines of 
25,000 rupees ($250).  The other 19 cases are still pending.  In 
addition, the FEB has 12 police officers assigned to its 
Investigations Unit, which has recently been conducting an average 
of three raids a week on bogus recruitment agencies. 
 
¶5. We are unable to obtain a total number of investigations launched 
in 2008 from the police or a total number of trafficking cases 
prosecuted in 2008 from the Attorney General's office because they 
do not have computerized records to track offenses and trafficking 
crimes are not disaggregated from other criminal violations. 
However, there do appear to be cases which might be considered 
trafficking, but as of the time of this report, the GSL has not been 
able to provide Post with this data.  We are therefore unable to 
assess whether the GSL has increased the overall number of 
investigations and prosecutions from 2007 to 2008.  The IOM, with 
assistance of British High Commission, has created a database for 
use by the GSL, which should address this situation in the coming 
years. 
 
 
Identification and Protection of Trafficking Victims 
¶6. The GSL has made concerted efforts at building awareness of the 
trafficking problem among government officials and the general 
public.  While the initial impetus for these efforts was the G/TIP 
and USAID grants to the International Organization for Migration 
(IOM), since that time the GSL has continued to build on this work. 
Most recently the Sri Lankan Police added a trafficking training 
module (drafted with IOM support) to be taught to all police 
recruits during their basic training at the national police college 
and to the police's other two higher level training institutes.  In 
addition, the FEB has sought to supplement its meager 12 man 
enforcement/investigation unit by convening a nationwide meeting of 
police in Colombo.  Approximately 500 police attended this session, 
one mid-level officer rom each police station in the country.  The 
aimwas to build awareness of trafficking and to leverge the 
resources of local law enforcement to enhnce the ability of the FEB 
to identify and take action against traffickers.  This will be 
followed up by several regional meetings held throughout the country 
starting in December 2008.  For the general public, the GSL launched 
a public awareness campaign in October 2008 which sought to inform 
the public of the dangers of using illegal recruitment agencies. 
 
 
Financial or in-kind Assistance for Trafficking Victims 
¶7. Assistance to trafficking victims has two sources within the GSL: 
the FEB and the NCPA.  The FEB collects fees from registered workers 
who are going abroad.  These fees are used to run shelters abroad, 
as well as domestically at Bandaranaike International Airport; to 
provide training to workers before they depart; and to provide other 
assistance to overseas Sri Lankan workers, such as repatriation 
services, even for those who worked abroad without registering with 
the FEB.  The NCPA runs five schools certified to rehabilitate 
children trafficked for sex work.  The schools offer counseling and 
vocational training to victims. 
 
 
Encouragement of Victim Participation in Investigations 
¶8. According to the GSL, victims are afforded immunity if they agree 
to testify against their trafficker.  In addition, for children, 
recorded testimony is now admissible in courts.  The child would 
still need to appear for cross examination, but this does help 
address part of the GSL's problem with the collection of evidence. 
However, according to officials in the NCPA, the real problem is how 
to encourage victims to assist in investigations against traffickers 
because many times the trafficking is done with the full knowledge 
and consent of family members.  As a result, the police have 
difficulty convincing people to speak out or provide information to 
arrest traffickers.  If the names of the traffickers are known and 
provided to police, the facilitators have usually only told the 
family their first name and have not provided any contact details. 
The result is that often the police simply don't have enough 
information to go after the traffickers. 
 
 
Providing Sri Lankan Migrant Workers Information on Their Rights and 
Resources in Destination Countries 
¶9. Providing public awareness to workers traveling abroad is an area 
in which the FEB has excelled.  The FEB printed booklets in November 
2008 in Sinhala and Tamil advising workers headed to the Middle East 
of their rights and responsibilities.  In addition, all foreign 
employment contracts must be signed by the FEB, the worker, and the 
recruitment agent in the presence of an FEB officer.  This procedure 
allows the FEB officer to ensure that the worker understands the 
terms of the contract and permits closer scrutiny of agents and 
subagents.  The FEB also requires training prior to departing for 
foreign employment. 
 
Other Developments 
¶10. National Policy on Migration: A National Policy on Migration was 
presented to the Sri Lankan President on November 8, 2008 by the 
Ministry of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare.  The policy 
was the result of a GSL interagency process with input from the 
International Organization for Migration.  Its stated goal is to 
develop a long-term vision for the role of labor migration in the 
economy; to enhance the benefits of labor migration on the economy, 
society, the migrant workers and their families and to minimize its 
negative impacts; and to work towards the fulfillment and protection 
of all human and labor rights of migrant workers.  The national 
policy aims to promote employment opportunities for Sri Lankans 
through the institution of policies, laws, regulations, services and 
facilities for migrant workers and their families. Special emphasis 
is laid on the development of skills as an effective means of 
protection for migrant workers and their families.  The policy has 
three sections: 1) governance of the migration process; 2) 
protection and empowerment of migrant workers and their families; 
and, 3) linking migration and development processes. Each of the 
sections has a detailed list of the challenges and policy responses 
and an action plan for addressing them.  Post believes that this 
policy is an important step for the GSL to take in order to 
systematically address its deficiencies in the trafficking as it 
relates to migrant workers. 
 
¶11. Memorandums of Understanding: MOUs have been signed with 
Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Qatar, South Korea, and the United Arab 
Emirates.  They are focused on protecting the rights of Sri Lankan 
workers abroad in these countries. 
 
BLAKE