VZCZCXRO7474
PP RUEHIK
DE RUEHTA #0158/01 0361014
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 051014Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7357
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE 2429
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1789
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2495
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 1405
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFAAA/DIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC 1986
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC 1834
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEHAST/AMCONSUL ALMATY 2258
RUEAWJL/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC 0072

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ASTANA 000158 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL/AAE, G/TIP, SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ELAB SMIG SOCI KCRM KTIP UZ KZ
SUBJECT:  KAZAKHSTAN:  MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AND AN NGO JOIN FORCES TO 
OFFER TIP VICTIM PROTECTION IN ASTANA 
 
ASTANA 00000158  001.3 OF 004 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but Unclassified.  Not for public internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  Prior to a February 3 press conference to 
discuss joint Kazakshtan-U.S. efforts to combat 
trafficking-in-persons (TIP), Charge and INL Officer visited the 
newly-opened, government-funded TIP shelter operated by local NGO 
Korgau-Astana.  The shelter differs greatly from the 
privately-funded Almaty TIP shelter that INL Officer visited in 
December 2009, although each shelter has its own strengths and 
weaknesses.  Victims need services in both of Kazakhstan's two major 
cities.  The Astana shelter offers a promising new avenue of 
cooperation between NGOs and the national government on anti-TIP 
efforts.  END SUMMARY. 
 
THE FUTURE OF GOVERNMENT-FUNDED SHELTERS 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The Astana shelter was opened in September 2009 by local 
NGO Korgau-Astana, with funding from a Ministry of Justice (MOJ) 
three-year grant, which provides for both the development of a TIP 
shelter network and a pilot shelter in Astana.  The government plans 
to open similar shelters in other regions of Kazakhstan as soon as 
shelter standards are developed. 
 
¶4.  (U) INL Officer has met on several occasions with the Anna Ryl, 
the Director of Korgau-Astana Director, and the NGO's attorney Olga 
Ryl, who is also the Director of the NGO Pravo and Anna's mother. 
Korgau-Astana was the only applicant from Astana for the MOJ grant, 
though the tender was announced twice.  The first tender received 
applications from only two NGOs in Karaganda.  Korgau-Astana has 
strong connections in the government through Olga Ryl, a former 
police officer who worked in counter-narcotics divisions throughout 
most of her 30-year-career.  She helped draft the current 
counter-narcotics law and established the first government drug 
rehabilitation centers in Kazakhstan. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The MOJ grant includes the development of standards for 
shelters for all victims of violence, including TIP victims, 
throughout Kazakhstan.  The government expects the Astana shelter to 
be a model facility and is pinning its hopes on Olga Ryl to help 
develop the necessary legal standards based on her experience 
drafting legislation for drug rehabilitation centers. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Although pleased by the government's efforts overall, some 
local NGO representatives who asked not to be identified wondered 
how a newly-formed NGO was able to receive an MOJ grant, and doubted 
that Korgau-Astana has relevant TIP experience.  In fact, one NGO 
network with no previous members in Astana refused to accept 
Korgau-Astana's membership.  The president of that network and a 
member complained to INL Officer that the government does not 
appropriately vet grant applications and only looks for the cheapest 
alternatives with no consideration of an NGO's experience or the 
quality of the service for recipients. 
 
ASTANA TIP SHELTER 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The Astana shelter is a house located in a quiet, 
working-class residential section of Astana.  It has a modern 
kitchen, one bathroom, a large living room with a small office, two 
bedrooms with four beds each, and a bedroom for two.  The director, 
a psychologist, a social worker, an attorney, a victim advocate, an 
accountant, and two guards work in the shelter.  One additional 
employee answers the shelter's hotline. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) During its first five months, the shelter's hotline 
(telephone number +7 7172 509 509) received 112 phone calls, 43 of 
which involved trafficking in persons.  The Astana shelter has 
assisted 24 trafficking victims since its establishment; victims 
typically stay in the shelter for two to three months.  Victims have 
been sent to the shelter by the police and by churches, and some are 
identified through the shelter's hotline or found in the street by 
social workers. 
 
 
ASTANA 00000158  002.3 OF 004 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Shelter personnel also work to combat trafficking.  For 
example, during a victim's stay in the shelter, employees collect 
information about traffickers, pimps, and the locations of brothels. 
 Employees have identified 167 apartments used as brothels and 
determined that an individual pimp earns approximately $200,000 a 
year.  This information has been placed into a database, which the 
NGO plans to give to police officials.  However, the NGO is 
carefully looking for a trustworthy interlocutor among the police. 
The NGO has not yet revealed the location of the shelter even to 
local police and sends a driver to pick up victims identified by law 
enforcement authorities. 
 
AFTER THE NIGHTMARE, AN URGE TO LIVE 
 
¶10.  (SBU) At the time of the Charge's visit, two young women were 
in the shelter: 
 
-- A 17-year-old with a 5-day-old infant, who had lived in Astana 
with her grandmother until she turned 15.  Because of difficulties 
with her parents, she had lived with her grandmother.  After her 
grandmother's death, she briefly returned to her parents' house for 
a while.  She ran away from home and met a young man who turned out 
to be a pimp.  She worked for him for almost a year.  She reported 
that pimps used rented apartments and changed locations every three 
days.  She got pregnant at the age of 16, but was forced to work 
until her eighth month of pregnancy.  She went into premature labor 
because of the burden of five to seven clients a day at which point 
the boyfriend/pimp threw her out of the apartment.  A social worker 
found her in the street and took her to a hospital.  The pimp found 
her and attempted to discharge her, but the doctors kept her in the 
hospital.  The baby was born without observable health problems. 
 
-- A 21-year-old-girl from Shymkent was trafficked by her boyfriend 
while she was attending a university in Almaty.  The boyfriend was 
attending the same university, but worked as a pimp in the evening. 
He first sold her to his friends, but was later sold four times to 
different pimps.  During an armed altercation between pimps, she and 
another girl jumped out of a window to escape and broke her leg. 
When shelter personnel attempted to return her to her family in 
Shymkent, they refused to accept her because she had been a 
prostitute.  Her sisters refuse to speak to her and do not allow her 
to communicate with her parents. She is recovering at the shelter 
and plans to resume her education. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Shelter personnel also shared the story of an Uzbek girl 
who escaped from the same brothel as the 21 year old victim.  She 
arrived at the shelter, desperately ill and emaciated; she weighed 
only 70 pounds.  Doctors believed that, had she not escaped, she 
would have succumbed to her illness.  At the age of 15 she was 
forced to marry a 30-year-old from her village.  Her uncle and his 
friends raped her and sold her to a pimp.  She was locked in 
apartments for two years until her escape.  The girl had been 
willing to risk escape because she feared that she would soon die 
anyway.  Shelter personnel found the girl's brother, who was willing 
to accept her.  However, the night before she was to leave the 
shelter, she used manicure scissors to destroy her new clothes in 
the hope that she would not have to leave the shelter.  She received 
psychological treatment before they attempted to send her home 
again. 
 
ALMATY TIP SHELTER OFFERS VOCATIONAL TRAINING 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Local NGO Rodnik has operated a TIP shelter in Almaty 
since 2005.  Originally, the shelter was funded through a USAID 
grant to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) which 
expired in March 2008.  The shelter has a director, a coordinator, a 
psychologist, and three social workers.  The shelter is in a 
one-bedroom apartment, but can accommodate as many as six victims. 
The shelter provides medical, psychological, legal assistance and 
vocational training to victims of trafficking.  Currently the 
shelter receives limited funding from the Embassy of the Netherlands 
through IOM to pay for utilities, food, and clothing.  Salaries are 
 
ASTANA 00000158  003.3 OF 004 
 
 
funded by a local government social program, which has to be 
approved annually. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) INL Officer and INL/AAE Desk Officer visited the Almaty 
shelter in December 2009.  At that time, there was one victim in the 
shelter who was to be reunited with her family.  The shelter had no 
additional security and was on the first floor of the building.  The 
neighbors were aware of the shelter's presence in the building and 
not only accepted, but protected it.    The presence of the shelter 
was only revealed to the neighbors after they had mistaken it for a 
brothel and called the police. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Rodnik has made agreements with vocational training 
schools, such as cooking, hairdressing, and manicuring schools, to 
provide free training for victims.  Victims also make crafts, which 
the NGO hopes to begin selling to support the shelter. 
 
¶15.  (SBU) Because it is in the south, the Almaty shelter receives 
many victims from Uzbekistan and has connections through IOM with an 
NGO in Tashkent.  The NGO in Tashkent accepts victims who are 
deported or choose to return to Uzbekistan.  The NGO does not track 
victims after they have left the shelter, because many victims do 
not want to be reminded of what happened to them.  However, some 
victims do stay in touch with the NGO. 
 
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ASTANA AND ALMATY 
 
¶16.  (SBU) There are many differences between the shelters in Astana 
and Almaty, including their age, location, funding streams and 
management philosophy.  For example, the location of the Almaty 
shelter is well known to local police while Korgau-Astana keeps its 
location hidden from law enforcement.  Korgau-Astana has plans to 
expand its serves, but at the moment provides primarily emergency 
assistance Korgau-Astana hopes to develop a two-tier shelter program 
in which victims are first housed in a secure shelter at on arrival 
and, when ready, move to a more open shelter that provides 
vocational training and rehabilitation.  Rodnik provides vocational 
training and rehabilitation in a single shelter.  Rodnik does not 
provide separate beds to its victims, but provides convertible 
furniture.  The director of the Almaty shelter believes that victims 
must be kept active and that providing separate beds would encourage 
victims to attempt to escape their problems by sleeping for long 
periods.  Both shelters rely heavily on international or government 
funding and cooperate closely with the U.S. government. 
 
PRESS CONFERENCE 
 
¶17.  (U) On February 3, the Charge invited senior officials from the 
Ministries of Justice and Interior and representatives from 
Korgau-Astana to participate in a press conference at the Embassy in 
recognition of National Freedom Day.  Speakers at the press 
conference discussed joint Kazakhstan-U.S. programs to combat 
trafficking-in-persons, protect victims, and prevent at-risk groups 
from being victimized by traffickers. 
 
¶18.  (U) In his remarks at the press conference, Vice-Minister of 
Justice Marat Bekatayev noted that that the Astana TIP Shelter was 
funded by the government as a pilot shelter, and said that a network 
of TIP shelters will be established throughout Kazakhstan in the 
future.  Sultan Kusetov, Chairman of the Ministry of Interior's 
Criminal Police Committee, reported that in 2009, police cracked 
down on TIP as they initiated 58 cases of human trafficking, 
including 20 cases of trafficking in persons, 16 cases of 
trafficking in minors, eight cases of kidnapping for the purpose of 
exploitation, seven cases of false imprisonment for the purpose of 
exploitation, and seven cases of forcing another into prostitution. 
The police also initiated 212 cases of pimping and maintaining 
brothels. 
 
¶19.  (SBU) COMMENT:  INL has worked closely with Kazakhstan to 
promote victim assistance through study trips to Italy and 
Vladivostok, Russia, where delegations examined the establishment 
 
ASTANA 00000158  004.3 OF 004 
 
 
and operation of government-funded shelters.  The Ministry of 
Justice's funding of the Korgau-Astana NGO is a direct result of 
that effort.  With a shelter established in Astana, INL plans to 
work with the government and shelter personnel to provide management 
training in shelter operation and legislation development.  Once 
similar shelters are opened throughout Kazakhstan, INL will provide 
regional training seminars.  Although some NGOs have doubts about 
Korgau-Astana, INL believes it fills an important need and 
represents a promising step towards more cooperation between the 
national government and NGOs in victim protection.  We will continue 
to encourage the anti-TIP NGOs to accept multiple models as 
effective and work together and learn from each other's experiences. 
 END COMMENT. 
 
SPRATLEN