VZCZCXRO8708
PP RUEHPW
DE RUEHBUL #3036/01 3291013
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 241013Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6200
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KABUL 003036 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, GTIP, DRL, INL 
NSC FOR JWOOD 
OSD FOR MCGRAW 
CG CJTF-101, POLAD, JICCENT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV KDEM KTIP AF
SUBJECT: DISCUSSIONS ON TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS LAW AND 
IMPLEMENTATION 
 
KABUL 00003036  001.3 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Afghan officials appear eager to implement 
the country's new anti-trafficking law, but the level of 
conceptual clarity on the definition of trafficking differed 
among government officials. Judicial delay, corruption, and 
weak coordination remain obstacles to effectively punishing 
trafficking offenses. The government has made some nascent 
progress and has already undertaken several important 
positive steps to protect victims, including increased 
coordination between police and women's shelters, active 
monthly prison monitoring by the Afghan Independent Human 
Rights Commission (AIHRC) and the Ministry of Women's Affairs 
(MOWA), and a new referral center for victims staffed by the 
Ministry of Interior (MOI) and MOWA and supported by UNIFEM. 
 
¶2. (SBU) G/TIP Officer Gayatri Patel discussed Afghanistan's 
new trafficking in persons law and plans for its 
implementation during her October 7-10 visit to Kabul.  Patel 
met with officials from MOI, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), 
and MOWA.  She also met with representatives from AIHRC, 
UNIFEM, UNICEF, and the International Organization on 
Migration (IOM) who provided further information about 
trafficking in persons and the GoIRA's efforts to implement a 
new anti-trafficking law and protect victims. 
 
Afghanistan's Anti-TIP Law 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Afghanistan's law was enacted by presidential decree 
in July.  The law provides for protection of victims -- 
prohibiting the prosecution of trafficking victims and 
allowing foreign victims to legally remain in Afghanistan for 
at least six months.  Second, it establishes a high 
commission for countering human trafficking, headed by the 
MOJ and composed of representatives from the Attorney 
General's Office, MOI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), 
Ministry of Education, Ministry of Religious Affairs, MOWA, 
Ministry of Public Health, AIHRC, and several other 
organizations. This commission is particularly important, 
IOM's Nigina Nomadjnova stressed, because it establishes a 
formal mechanism for government coordination in efforts to 
protect victims, prevent trafficking, and prosecute 
traffickers.  In the past it was necessary to search out the 
appropriate institutional partners for each situation - a 
time-consuming and often ineffective process. 
 
GoIRA Officials' Reaction to the Anti-TIP Law 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Nazir Hakimi, MOI Chief of Detection for Organized 
Crime, said distinguishing between human trafficking and 
kidnapping is a new concept for the Afghanistan law 
enforcement community.  He and other MOI officials present 
during the meeting, however, were able to articulate the 
difference between kidnapping and trafficking and discuss in 
detail provisions of the new law including those for 
protecting victims. 
 
¶5. (SBU) MOJ Deputy Minister Qader Adalat described the 
process of proposing and drafting the law with the assistance 
of international advisors.  MOWA's Legal Director Fawzia 
Hamini said that although the anti-trafficking law is new, 
all implementing government agencies are aware that it is in 
force and are making the necessary preparations to implement 
it.  During an IOM-organized regional TIP conference held in 
Kabul on October 12-13, high level officials from MOI, MOJ, 
MFA, the Attorney General's Office, and MOWA also expressed 
strong support for the new law and a government-wide anti-TIP 
effort. 
 
Trafficking Patterns in Afghanistan 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) MOI officials reported of trafficking incidents in 
which brokers lured third country nationals to Afghanistan 
under the pretense of high-paying employment opportunities in 
the reconstruction effort; instead, the brokers forced the 
people into labor or sex work without pay.  MOI reported on 
other alleged cases where parents sent their sons with people 
who promised to deliver them to good schools in Pakistan when 
in reality they were sent to paramilitary training camps. 
Finally, officials reported brokers increasingly used 
internet sites to attract women and girls, promised marriage 
to a wealthy husband, provided the women with forged travel 
documents and then sold the victims to a trafficker. UNIFEM 
and others noted that some Afghan men prostitute their wives 
against their will. Further details and confirmation of these 
 
KABUL 00003036  002.3 OF 003 
 
 
incidents were not available. 
 
¶7. (SBU) MOWA's legal department assisted four victims of 
trafficking in the last six months, including a girl sold in 
Khost Province and an 18 year-old woman sent from Afghanistan 
to Lahore and back to Afghanistan under the influence of 
drugs and alcohol, Hamini said.  Noriko Izumi, UNICEF, argued 
that much trafficking in persons organizational attention is 
paid to situations that likely are not trafficking - for 
example, deportations of economic migrants from Iran. She 
believes too little attention is paid to situations that 
likely are trafficking such as some forced marriages. 
 
¶8. (SBU) MOI reported that during the last six months its 
officers investigated 173 kidnapping cases, some of which 
involved multiple victims.  Of that total, 26 cases had a 
political motivation, 33 had a financial motivation, and in 
the remaining cases the motive was unclear.  Information was 
not available on how many of those cases involved 
trafficking. 
 
Government Efforts: Protection and Prevention 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) MOWA and civil society-funded shelters have a 
memorandum of understanding under which police refer cases to 
MOWA, which in turn refers women, including trafficking 
victims, to an appropriate facility.  MOWA also supports the 
shelters by introducing potential donors to the NGOs that run 
the shelters.  MOWA staff visit prisons several times a month 
to investigate why women and girls there are in custody, to 
ensure that they are not there because they are victims of 
sex crimes and/or trafficking. 
 
¶10. (SBU) AIHRC, however, reported problems regarding 
security of TIP victims in ad hoc shelters.  AIHRC noted that 
these shelters sometimes do not accept victims in cases that 
are too sensitive, and shelter managers sometimes face 
threats from the community and government leaders, 
particularly when assisting in cases that involve honor 
issues.  In some cases, shelters will give women back to 
their families or to the police, leaving them vulnerable to 
further abuse. 
 
UNIFEM 
------ 
 
¶11. (SBU) Dr. Anou Borrey, UNIFEM, said the above memorandum 
of understanding has led to increased cooperation between 
MOWA, MOI, and the shelters.  The launch of a referral center 
in Jalalabad (operated by MOI with support from MOWA and 
UNIFEM) has led to a sharp drop in the number of arbitrary 
detentions of women.  Some of these women were trafficked to 
Pakistan for forced marriage and escaped back to Afghanistan. 
 Four MOI employees investigate the cases and four MOWA staff 
work as paralegals to support the women.  A committee with 
representatives from the AIHRC, NGOs, UNAMA, MOJ, the 
Attorney General's Office, the Supreme Court, Ministry of the 
Youth, and Ministry of the Hajj - advise the referral center. 
 Dr. Borrey said this cooperation stopped the arrests of 
women seeking social services.  Another referral center 
opened October 9 in Bamyan and plans are set for a third to 
open in Jowzjan Province later this year. 
 
IOM 
--- 
 
¶12. (SBU) IOM with the cooperation of MOI has conducted 
training focused on trafficking issues for 1000 police 
throughout the country in 2008.  Nomadjnova has already 
observed an improvement in how law enforcement officials 
treat victims.  MOJ and MOI requested training on 
implementation of the new anti-trafficking law.  IOM will 
start this training in January through a G/TIP grant.  MOI 
officials also plan to work with Ministry of Education 
officials to develop a program to raise awareness among 
teachers and students about human trafficking.  They have 
already stationed staff at airports and border crossings 
specifically to combat trafficking.  Nomadjnova said the 
biggest challenge to TIP work is poor coordination among law 
enforcement entities, but the new commission proposed in the 
anti-TIP law should improve this situation. 
 
AIHRC 
----- 
 
 
KABUL 00003036  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶13. (SBU) AIHRC discussed its efforts to monitor prisons in 
order to prevent victims of human trafficking from being 
detained.  Corruption, judicial delay, and lack of resources 
are factors that inhibit proper identification of trafficking 
victims and chances of successfully prosecuting traffickers. 
 
¶14. (U) Ms. Patel cleared on this message. 
 
WOOD