US embassy cable - 04ROME4719

UNCLAS  ROME 004719 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PREF, IT 
SUBJECT:  ITALY:  TIP UPDATE 
 
REF: (a) STATE 240192 (b) ROME 4454 
 
1. (U) Summary.  Laborcouns delivered ref a points on TIP 
benchmarks for 2005 to representatives of the Ministries of 
Justice, Interior and Equal Opportunity, stressing the 
importance of Washington's interest in improved statistics 
and expanded victims' assistance and public awareness 
campaigns.  For the first time, Italy has provided national 
statistics on trafficking, hatrevealing a significant 
increase in arrests and prosecutions in 2003.  The 
Ministries of Justice and Interior and NGOs have requested 
programs to better coordinate TIP activities with the U.S. 
Anti-TIP programs continue at the regional and international 
level.  End summary. 
 
Finally:  National Statistics 
-------------------------------- 
 
2.  (U) We are pleased to report that the Ministry of 
Justice has responded to our 2004 requests to develop a 
national monitoring system for trafficking arrests and 
prosecutions.  In November, the Ministry's Director of 
Statistics, Fausto De Santis, provided national statistics 
for the first time on arrests and prosecutions for 2002 and 
2003, and he promised annual reports from now on.  The data 
reflects input from 85 percent of judiciary offices across 
the country-this covers all major cities and towns-and 
refers to both the older laws against slavery and child 
prostitution and the new 2003 anti-trafficking law. 
 
3.  (U) The numbers reveal a striking increase in the number 
of persons investigated and persons arrested, a strong 
indication that the police are taking trafficking more 
seriously.  The number of persons investigated for 
trafficking increased from 1,307 in 2002 to 2,231 in 2003, 
and arrests increased from 209 to 328 respectively. 
 
4.  (U) The slow pace of the Italian judicial system creates 
extensive delays between arrests and convictions.  The 
Ministry of Justice reports on the number of court rulings 
acted upon; one case can include more than one person 
charged with multiple crimes.  Between 2002 and 2003, the 
number of lower court rulings decreased from 83 to 59 (70 
percent of which were convictions); this probably reflects a 
lower level of arrests in previous years.  The number of 
appeals increased from 41 to 51, but in a sign the courts 
were also cracking down on trafficking, appeals were denied 
in 94 percent of cases.  Because some court cases were filed 
under the old laws, it will take some time for statistics to 
fully reflect a commitment to enforcing the 2003 law. 
 
5.  (U) De Santis agreed on the need for a common EU-wide 
methodology for collecting statistics on trafficking and 
said he would in the next few months attend a technical 
conference in Brussels in charge of collecting EU-wide 
judiciary statistics.  He would welcome efforts to share 
collection methodology with the U.S., either through a visit 
(he would be an ideal IV candidate for a TIP program in 
2005) or a DVC. 
 
6.  (SBU) Laborcouns met with Prefetto Anna Maria D'Ascenzo, 
Head of the Department for Civil Liberties and Immigration, 
Ministry of Interior, and her TIP staff December 2.   MOI 
TIP staff expressed the view that the 2004 trend would show 
that the stiffer penalties in the 2003 law were deterring 
traffickers from working in Italy.  However, final 
statistics for 2004 are not yet available.  Mario De Ioris 
and Alessandra Barberi at the Ministry of Equal Opportunity 
praised the new law but were less optimistic that it had 
already deterred traffickers.  They view trafficking as a 
more nuanced problem that varied from location to location, 
depending on the nationalities of the traffickers involved. 
They hoped that new efforts to coordinate activities among 
the Ministries of Interior, Justice and Equal 
Opportunity-especially with anti-mafia units-would yield 
better results in the future. 
 
Immigration 
----------- 
 
7.  (SBU) Interior officials insisted that they were 
rigorous in screening refugee and illegal immigrant arrivals 
to identify and assist potential trafficking victims with 
repatriation or integration.  The Ministries of Interior, 
Equal Opportunity and Social Affairs carry out integration 
programs for immigrants, and the challenge of integrating an 
increasing number of immigrants (legal and illegal) of 
different races and religions into Italian society has 
become a topic of great debate.  (Note:  Interestingly, the 
Minister of Interior is leading a not entirely popular 
 
effort to extend government benefits enjoyed by Catholic and 
other churches and Jews to the Italian-Muslim community in 
an effort to improve integration.) 
 
8.  (SBU) The Italian/German proposal to create EU- 
sanctioned immigration processing centers outside of Europe 
(in Libya) met strong criticism in Brussels and was not 
approved.  However, Italy's successful bilateral programs 
with Albania and Romania proved to them that pro-active 
outreach with border control and immigration training 
assistance significantly cut illegal immigrant flows from 
these countries.  D'Ascenzo indicated that Italy will 
continue similar efforts with Libya, although she admitted 
that it would be difficult to ensure proper TIP or asylum 
screening of immigrants if Libyan officials conducted the 
interviews in detention camps outside of Italy.  Equal 
Opportunity officials agreed that the dramatic increase in 
illegal immigration this year would inevitably increase 
cases of trafficking, but they have no way to calculate the 
linkage because the illegal immigrant influx is both new and 
undocumented. 
 
Awareness Campaigns and Victims' Assistance 
------------------------------------------- 
 
9.  (U) The Ministry of Equal Opportunities has undertaken 
several awareness campaigns against trafficking in 2004 and 
plans several more.  These include printing and distributing 
bus tickets with TIP hotline information, posters for 
hospitals, bus/train stations and airports, and pamphlets to 
be distributed by both government office and NGOs.   They 
have printed and distributed a booklet outlining the 
provisions of the 2003 anti-trafficking law and participated 
in training programs for magistrates and policemen.  Both 
Interior and Equal Opportunities officials believe that the 
police would benefit from more training and information 
sharing on trafficking methods and prevention techniques. 
Interior asked if we could arrange a best practices exchange 
with Washington on these issues.  The Embassy and G-TIP are 
also arranging a DVC in January with local NGOs and Equal 
Opportunity officials on best practices for victims' 
assistance programs. 
 
10.  (SBU) Neither Interior nor Equal Opportunity officials 
expected significant changes in the numbers of victims re- 
integrated through victims' assistance programs.  Barberi 
explained the challenges of treating victims of different 
backgrounds.  Nigerians, who make up most of Italy's foreign 
prostitutes, frequently cannot even read and thus require 
extensive training to be integrated into the labor force. 
Albanians or other East Europeans, who come for job 
opportunities, are better placed to transition from 
prostitution or other forms of forced labor.  Thus, managing 
the programs to integrate victims is a real challenge, 
especially with frozen budgets. 
 
Pending Legislation 
------------------- 
 
11.  (U) There are 17 different bills pending in the 
Parliament that propose to change Italy's laws on 
prostitution.  A measure supported by the Council of 
Ministers has been debated in the Chamber of Deputies 
Justice Committee-a proposal to make street prostitution 
illegal but allow it to continue in apartments.  D'Ascenzo 
indicated that the Ministry of Interior was less than 
enthusiastic about the proposal, but that she did not expect 
it to be approved. De Ioris at Equal Opportunity noted that 
the bill was quite controversial and was opposed by the 
Catholic Church and NGOs that deal with trafficking. 
However, he also pointed out that the draft law would for 
the first time criminalize prostitution (on the streets) and 
increase penalties for clients of child prostitutes. 
Laborcouns explained to both that the U.S. supports efforts 
to outlaw prostitution altogether and would view passage of 
legislation to regulate prostitution as a negative 
development. 
 
Regional and International Programs 
----------------------------------- 
 
12.  (U) In addition to TIP programs organized and financed 
at the national level, there are ongoing municipal projects. 
In 2002 the municipality of Rome funded a program of 
assistance for victims of sex trafficking that included 
counseling and disease prevention for prostitutes as well as 
support, social integration and voluntary repatriation 
programs for victims of tQafficking.  Five different teams 
worked on the roads, in police stations and in differin 
neighborhoods to implement the program.  In 2003, workers 
 
contacted approximately 6,000 prostitutes, sheltered 76 
victims of trafficking and implemented twelve projects to 
integrate victims into the labor market. 
 
13.  (U) Italy continued its international efforts to 
protect exploited children during a November conference in 
Freetown, Sierra Leone.  Sponsored by the MFA and the World 
Food Program, the conference focused on development 
strategies to assist children who were the victims of war, 
forced labor, sexual exploitation and trafficking.  High- 
level Italian participants, including the President of the 
Senate and Chamber of Deputies, parliamentarians and 
representatives of the Prime Minister's office participated 
with EU and UN officials and NGOs who work on child programs 
in Africa that are funded by the Italian Government. 
 
 SKODON 
 
 
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 2004ROME04719 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED