VZCZCXYZ0029
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHC #3170 3542246
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 192237Z DEC 08
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN PRIORITY 0000

UNCLAS STATE 133170 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM KWMN KTIP PHUM PREL SMIG DA
SUBJECT: DENMARK: TIP ACTION GUIDE TO COMBAT TIP 
(2008-2009) 
 
REF: 12-16-2008 WHEELER-MOZDZIERZ EMAIL OF FINAL 
     ELECTRONIC VERSION 
 
 ¶1.  This is an action request (see para 5). 
 
¶2.  The 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report rates countries as 
Tier 1 when host governments are fully meeting the minimum 
standards to combat trafficking in persons (TIP) as defined 
by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).  Remaining 
on Tier 1, however, is not guaranteed; governments must 
continue to demonstrate appreciable progress and continued 
full compliance with the minimum standards.  All countries 
will be reassessed annually to determine whether they 
evidence satisfaction of all of the minimum standards. Tier 1 
countries are subject to slipping to Tier 2 if they do not 
fully comply with the minimum standards, but do continue to 
show significant efforts. 
 
¶3.  Please keep in mind the TIP Report measures host 
government efforts.  To be useful for tier placement 
purposes, there should be a concrete role or tangible 
value-added by a host government in activities by NGOs, 
international organizations, or posts. 
 
¶4.  The following explains steps the government needs to take 
in order to continue to fully comply with the Minimum 
Standards for the elimination of trafficking, and therefore 
qualify for a continued Tier 1 ranking, and offers 
suggestions to address specific areas of concern highlighted 
in the 2008 TIP Report.  Legal standards are excerpted from 
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended. 
Implementation Principles are excerpted from guidance issued 
in 07 State 150188 (October 29, 2007) and are not specific to 
any country or region. Country specific points are not 
exhaustive, but offer steps and possible ways to address 
specific areas of concern.  The Department assesses 
government efforts each year.  All governments must show 
concrete evidence of serious and sustained efforts in 
eliminating severe forms of trafficking from the previous 
year.  Tier ranking determinations will be based on the 
government,s efforts to comply with the Minimum Standards to 
Combat TIP during the April 2008 - March 2009 reporting 
period. 
 
¶5.  Begin action request:  At post,s discretion, post may 
draw upon the below to explain the areas of specific concern 
noted in the TIP Report and suggested areas to continue to 
fully comply with the minimum standards (and thus continued 
Tier 1 placement).  Post may offer and/or follow up on the 
steps below as possible ways to address specific areas of 
concern highlighted in the 2008 TIP Report.  While the list 
is not exhaustive, it should focus the host government on 
potential deficiencies in meeting the minimum standards and 
examples of ways to overcome them.  As every year, the 
Department will weigh the government,s level of support and 
participation in reported activities, as well as the efficacy 
and sustainability of government actions, in light of its 
resources and capabilities. 
 
Begin Action Guide and internal numbering. 
 
¶1. Legal Framework: The government should criminally prohibit 
TIP and punish such acts. 
 
(A) For TIP crimes, punishment should be prescribed that is 
commensurate with that for grave crimes, such as forcible 
sexual assault. 
 
(B) For TIP crimes, punishment should be prescribed that is 
sufficiently stringent to deter and that adequately reflects 
the heinous nature of the offense. 
 
Implementation Guideline: At minimum, governments must 
criminalize and prescribe penalties for all forms of 
trafficking relevant in the country, including forced labor. 
This must include the elements of "severe forms of 
trafficking in persons" -- force, fraud, and coercion. 
Although desirable, this need not be accomplished through a 
comprehensive law, so long as relevant elements of 
trafficking, specifically including fraud/deception and 
coercion along with force, are covered by the country's laws. 
 Sanctions for sex trafficking should be on par with rape. 
The prescribed penalties for sex trafficking crimes or 
trafficking involving rape, kidnapping or death should be 
substantially similar to those for rape, taking into account 
the full range of sentences available.  Consistent with the 
UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, criminal 
penalties to meet this standard should include a maximum of 
at least four years deprivation of liberty, or a more severe 
penalty. 
 
Progress:  As reported in 2008, the government,s efforts 
were consistent with this criterion. 
 
Positive results that should be maintained during the 
2008-2009 reporting period: 
 
-- Denmark prohibits trafficking for both sexual exploitation 
and forced labor through Section 262 of its criminal code, 
although prosecutors often use a procurement law to prosecute 
traffickers. Punishments prescribed for trafficking under 
Section 262 extend up to eight years, imprisonment, which 
are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties 
prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. 
 
¶2. Prosecution and other Law Enforcement Efforts:  The 
government should show serious and sustained efforts to 
combat TIP by vigorously investigating and prosecuting TIP 
acts, and convicting and sentencing persons responsible for 
such acts. 
 
(A) The government must provide data regarding 
investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences, 
consistent with its capacity to do so, or it shall be 
presumed not to have vigorously investigated, prosecuted, 
convicted or sentenced such acts. 
 
Implementation Guideline: All governments, consistent with 
their capacity to do so, are required to submit full 
comprehensive data on trafficking enforcement actions, 
including length of sentences actually imposed on convicted 
traffickers, as evidence of their vigorous law enforcement 
efforts.  Imposed sentences should involve significant jail 
time, with a majority of cases resulting in sentences on the 
order of one year imprisonment or more, but taking into 
account the severity of an individual's involvement in 
trafficking, imposed sentences for other grave crimes, and 
the judiciary's right to hand down  punishments consistent 
with that country's laws. Convictions obtained under other 
criminal laws and statutes can be counted as trafficking if 
the government verifies that they involve trafficking 
offenses. 
 
Progress:  As reported in 2008, the government,s efforts 
were consistent with this criterion. 
 
Positive results that should be maintained during the 
2008-2009 reporting period: 
-- The Government of Denmark demonstrated increased law 
enforcement efforts over the reporting period. Police 
conducted a total of 34 trafficking investigations during the 
reporting period. Authorities prosecuted 52 trafficking 
cases. Courts convicted 31 trafficking offenders in 2007, 
including 10 under the anti-trafficking statute and 21 under 
the procurement law. All 33 convicted traffickers served some 
time in prison; no convicted traffickers received suspended 
sentences in 2007. Sentences for trafficking convictions 
ranged from two to six years, imprisonment; sentences for 
traffickers convicted under the procurement law ranged from 
six months, to three years, imprisonment. The National 
Police have a trafficking coordinator stationed in each 
police district to improve the trafficking knowledge of local 
police districts. In September 2007, the National Police 
provided a trafficking reference manual to local districts. 
¶3. Victim Protection and Assistance:  The government should 
demonstrate serious and sustained efforts to combat TIP by 
protecting TIP victims and encouraging their assistance in 
the investigation and prosecution of their traffickers. 
Protection should include: 
 
(A) provisions for legal alternatives to victims, removal to 
countries in which they would face retribution or hardship. 
 
(B) ensuring that victims are not inappropriately 
incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized solely for 
unlawful acts that were committed as a direct result of being 
trafficked. 
 
Implementation Guideline: Critical factors considered in 
whether a country fully satisfies this part of the minimum 
standards are: (1) Formal, systematic screening procedures 
that proactively identify victims and guide law enforcement 
and other front line responders in the process of victim 
identification.  (2) Shelter, health care, and counseling 
should be available to victims, allowing them to recount 
their trafficking experience to trained social counselors and 
law enforcement at a pace with minimal pressure.  Shelter and 
care may be provided in cooperation with NGOs, but part of 
the government,s responsibility includes funding and 
referral to NGOs providing services; to the best extent 
possible, trafficking victims should not be held in 
immigration detention centers, or other detention facilities. 
 Factors also considered and strongly recommended for 
favorable placement are: (1) Victim/witness protection, 
rights and confidentiality; i.e., governments should ensure 
that victims are provided with legal and other assistance and 
that, consistent with its domestic law, proceedings are not 
prejudicial to victims' rights, dignity or psychological 
well-being; and that victims are provided information in a 
language they understand.  (2) Source and destination 
countries share responsibility in ensuring the safe, humane 
and, to the extent possible, voluntary 
repatriation/reintegration for victims.  At a minimum, 
destination countries should contact a competent governmental 
body, NGO or IO in relevant source country to ensure that 
trafficked persons who return to their country of origin are 
provided with assistance and support necessary to their 
well-being. Trafficking victims should not be subjected to 
deportations or forced returns without safeguards or other 
measures to reduce the risk of hardship, retribution, or 
re-trafficking. 
 
Progress:  As reported in 2008, the government,s efforts 
were consistent with this criterion. 
 
Positive results that should be maintained during the 
2008-2009 reporting period: 
 
-- Denmark took further steps to improve its assistance and 
protection for victims of trafficking. In 2007, the 
government opened the National Anti-Trafficking Center to 
monitor and coordinate victim assistance nationwide. During 
the reporting period, 148 victims received social, medical, 
and rehabilitative assistance from the government, including 
40 victims who were sheltered at the Center. In addition, the 
government continued to fund regional NGOs in Denmark that 
provide victim outreach and identification, rehabilitative 
counseling, shelter, and public awareness. Denmark also 
provided approximately $2 million for various victim 
assistance, prevention, and law enforcement anti-trafficking 
projects in Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Romania 
in 2007. Danish police employ formal procedures for victim 
identification among vulnerable populations, such as women in 
prostitution; during brothel inspections, Danish social 
workers and the police anthropologist interview women to help 
police identify potential victims of trafficking. Police 
encouraged victims to participate in trafficking 
investigations; three foreign victims assisted authorities in 
a trafficking investigation in 2007. Two trafficking victims 
obtained refugee status to remain in Denmark and serve as 
witnesses in their trafficking cases. In source countries 
with limited social services, such as Nigeria, Denmark sent 
government officials to improve cooperation with NGOs and 
government agencies as well as check the quality of follow-up 
services for victims repatriated from Denmark. 
 
Recommended measures to demonstrate continued progress and 
strengthen the government,s efforts: 
 
-- Some victims faced detention and deportation for 
immigration violations.  The government should consider 
whether additional measures are necessary to ensure that 
foreign victims of trafficking are provided with legal 
alternatives to deportation to countries where they may face 
retribution or hardship upon return to their countries of 
origin. 
 
-- Consider granting temporary residency and work permits to 
identified trafficking victims for humanitarian reasons and 
in order to increase their participation in trafficking 
investigations. 
 
-- Continue to work closely with source countries to ensure 
safe victim repatriation and access to adequate care after 
repatriation. 
 
¶4. Prevention:  The government should demonstrate serious and 
sustained efforts to combat TIP by adopting measures to 
prevent TIP.  Measures such as: 
 
(A) steps to inform and educate the public, including 
potential victims, about the causes and consequences of TIP, 
 
(B) measures to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and 
for participation in international sex tourism by nationals 
of the country, 
 
(C) measures to ensure that its nationals who are deployed 
abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other similar mission do 
not engage in or facilitate severe forms of trafficking in 
persons or exploit victims of such trafficking, 
 
(D) measures to prevent the use of forced labor or child 
labor in violation of international standards. 
 
Implementation Guideline: The government should provide/fund 
a hotline or similar mechanism that offers victims and 
potential victims assistance/information about TIP.  Per the 
new amendments to the Minimum Standards, starting with the 
April 2007- March 2008 reporting period to be covered in the 
2008 TIP Report, countries should, for example where 
applicable: (1) Reduce demand for commercial sex acts: 
Implement or support some form of visible awareness campaign 
that educates the clients of the sex trade (and potential sex 
trafficking victims) if the country has a significant sex 
trafficking problem, or a campaign that targets those who 
form the demand for victims of forced labor about the nature 
of the relevant form of TIP.  Nations with legalized 
prostitution should make additional efforts to proactively 
identify TIP victims among those in prostitution in the 
legalized sex trade. This includes the systematic and 
sensitive screening of persons in the legalized sex trade. 
(2) Address child sex tourism: Countries that have a 
significant number of nationals traveling abroad as child sex 
tourists should undertake an awareness campaign that targets 
tourists traveling to known child sex tourism destinations. 
(3) Address trafficking and exploitation committed by 
multinational peacekeepers:  Governments with more than 100 
troops on peacekeeping or other similar missions abroad 
should provide anti-TIP training for these troops (directly 
or through multilateral efforts), and should investigate and, 
if appropriate, prosecute any allegations of trafficking 
crimes or crimes of facilitating trafficking or exploiting 
trafficking victims committed by these troops abroad and 
referred to it by the UN or another competent organization. 
 
Progress:  As reported in 2008, the government,s efforts 
were consistent with this criterion. 
 
Positive results that should be maintained and/or exceeded 
during the 2008-2009 reporting period: 
 
-- Denmark demonstrated progress in its trafficking 
prevention efforts. In 2007, the government increased the 
annual budget for its national anti-trafficking action plan 
to $16 million. The Danish government continued a nationwide 
information campaign that focused on domestic demand 
reduction for commercial sex acts. The campaign received a 
budget increase to approximately $300,000 in 2007; outreach 
included television and film public service advertisements, 
billboards, fliers, and leaflets. The government continued to 
adequately monitor its borders. 
 
-- During the reporting period, Denmark amended its child 
sexual abuse laws to allow for the extraterritorial 
prosecution of Danish nationals who commit acts of child sex 
tourism abroad; in January 2008, the government funded a 
public service campaign alerting Danish nationals about the 
new law prohibiting sexual abuse of children overseas. 
 
¶5. Corruption and Official Complicity:  The government should 
vigorously investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence 
public officials who participate in or facilitate TIP, and 
take all appropriate measures against officials who condone 
such trafficking. 
 
(A) This should include nationals of the country who are 
deployed abroad as part of a peacekeeping or other similar 
mission who engage in or facilitate severe forms of 
trafficking in persons or exploit victims of such trafficking. 
 
(B) The government must provide data regarding such 
investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences, or 
it shall be presumed not to have vigorously investigated, 
prosecuted, convicted, or sentenced such acts. 
 
Implementation Principle: Governments, consistent with their 
capacity to do so, must provide full comprehensive data on 
actions taken against TIP related complicity.  Information on 
general government corruption does 
not satisfy this minimum standard, except in cases in which 
specific cases of complicity are not reported by the 
government or known to the USG, but where there is a 
reasonable probability of such complicity within the wider 
context of generalized corruption in that country. 
 
Progress:  There were no specific cases of complicity 
reported by the government in the 2008 TIP Report. 
 
Recommended measures to demonstrate progress and strengthen 
the government,s efforts: 
 
-- Continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute 
trafficking-related corruption at all levels of law 
enforcement.  Share comprehensive data on investigations, 
prosecutions, and convictions of complicit officials, and the 
lengths of sentences imposed on those convicted, if specific 
cases of complicity have occurred. 
 
End Action Guide and internal numbering. 
 
¶6.  The Department appreciates Post,s continued efforts to 
address trafficking in persons issues. 
RICE