US embassy cable - 05HELSINKI274

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 HELSINKI 000274 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL/G/TIP AND EUR/NB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, KCRM, KFRD, KWMN, ELAB, ASEC, PREF, PREL, SMIG, FI, Trafficking-In-Persons 
SUBJECT: CORRECTED COPY - SEE PARAGRAPH 2 -- FINLAND: 2005 
TRAFFICKING-IN-PERSONS UPDATE 
 
REF: HELSINKI 00273 
 
1. (U)  The Finnish Government is set to release its new 
National Action Plan for combating trafficking-in-persons 
sometime next week or the following week.  The Plan will 
detail new GoF measures to develop a victim-centered approach 
to trafficking, a significant break with previous GoF policy. 
 Post hoped to have a copy of the National Action Plan before 
submitting this update; however, as the March 1 deadline for 
submission of TIP updates had already passed, we believe it 
best to submit the update as is with the caveats that: 1) 
some information, particularly as regards protection, may be 
inaccurate or incomplete given the pending release of the new 
Action Plan, and 2)  Post's entire Justice and Home Affairs 
Committee has not reviewed the update. Post will submit a 
supplemental report as soon as the National Action Plan is 
available. 
 
2. (U)  Embassy point-of-contact for trafficking-related 
issues is Political Officer David Schlaefer; phone 
358-9-6162-5482, fax 358-9-6162-5766. 
 
Hours spent on preparation: 
 
Political Officer (FS-02): 60 
Political Assistant (LES): 10 
Regional Security Assistant (LES): 4 
Total Hours: 74 
 
3. (U)  The following TIP update for Finland is keyed to the 
checklist in reftel paragraphs 18,19,20, and 21. 
 
(18.)  Overview 
 
A:  Finland is not a country of origin for trafficked 
persons.  It is a destination and transit country for 
trafficked women and girls.  Police and NGO's estimate that 
between 6000 to 8000 woman and girls enter Finland to engage 
in prostitution each year;  a significant portion of these 
are probably trafficking victims brought into the country by 
foreign organized crime syndicates.  These estimates are 
based on information collected by Finnish officials at 
ports-of-entry and by NGOs working with foreign prostitutes. 
However, are no official statistics compiled as regards 
trafficking victims, and the actual number of trafficked 
persons in Finland could be greater or lesser than the 
6000-8000 range commonly cited by officials and NGOs alike. 
Since the women and girls typically remain in Finland for 
short periods, the 6000-8000 range refers to total entries 
per year.  the actual number of trafficked women in Finland 
at any moment is probably much lower.  There are no figures 
available for how many women are trafficked through Finland 
to other countries. 
 
Most of the trafficked women are Russian or Estonian, 
although smaller numbers of Latvian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, 
and Belarussian women have been detected in Finland. 
Beginning in 2004, Asian women of varying nationalities were 
also reported as having been trafficked to and through 
Finland.  Finnish police believe that many of these are being 
transited through the country by Chinese crime syndicates 
(snakehead gangs).  Russian and Estonian women brought into 
Finland by organized crime syndicates typically remain in the 
country for several weeks before returning to their country 
of origin;  they may enter Finland multiple times each year. 
Organizers and leaders of these crime syndicates operate 
outside of Finland's borders and beyond the reach of its law 
enforcement.  However, these organizations maintain 
lower-level members inside Finland to coordinate local 
operations;  such persons may be foreign nationals or Finns. 
 
B:  Most women and girls trafficked to and through Finland 
come from Russia and Estonia.  The EU's Schengen Treaty, 
which allows travellers already within EU borders to travel 
to any other EU country virtually without inspection, 
facilitates the use of Finland as a transit point for women 
from Russia and the Baltic countries.  Economic coercion and 
exploitation of poor women seems to play more of a role in 
trafficking through Finland than physical coercion or 
deception. However, the latter does occur.  A documentary on 
Finnish television on February 2005 carried an interview with 
a Latvian minor who said that she had been deceived into 
coming to Finland by being promised a job picking 
strawberries.  Once inside the country, she had been forced 
to work in a brothel.  The criminal syndicate (based in 
Latvia and Estonia) that trafficked her into Finland used 
threats against her family to coerce the young woman into 
returning to Finland several times to work as a prostitute. 
Women and girls who are trafficked through Finland to other 
countries typically obtain legal visas from Finnish 
consulates in St. Petersburg and Tallinn by claiming that 
they are coming to Finland to shop or visit friends.  Once 
inside the country, they fly from Helsinki's Vantaa airport 
to western European cities with large red-light districts 
like Amsterdam, Brussels, and Berlin.  The women may travel 
alone, in small groups, or with a pimp or facilitator. 
 
C:  The Police report that the advent of direct air routes 
between Helsinki and several major Asian cities has 
facilitated the use of Finland as a transit point for Chinese 
traffickers.  Once inside Finland, Asian trafficking victims 
travel from Helsinki to cities throughout Western Europe. 
Embassy personnel have witnessed the arrival at Helsinki's 
Vantaa airport of small groups of young Asian women who fit 
the profile of trafficking victims;  the women, having 
arrived from Asia and cleared customs, immediately purchased 
tickets to Schengen-area onward destinations.  Finnish 
authorities are aware of this, but report than in the absence 
of concrete evidence that such women are being trafficked, 
there is little that they can do since the women maintain 
that they are tourists and deny involvement with traffickers. 
 The police are also wary of being accused of "racial 
profiling" in relation to focusing on Asian women or other 
non-Caucasians arriving at the airport. 
 
D:  Criminal intelligence analysts are aware of the major 
trafficking routes and monitor changes in these routes. 
Finnish police approach the situation as more of an organized 
crime/organized prostitution dynamic than a purely 
trafficking dynamic, and collect statistics accordingly; 
this makes it difficult to document the exact extent of the 
problem in Finland. 
 
E:  Most trafficking in Finland involves prostitution.  Many 
foreign prostitutes work in night clubs catering to business 
and middle-class Finnish and foreign clientele, although some 
trafficked prostitutes may work on the street.  Others, 
especially Estonians, work out of apartments that have been 
rented by criminal organizations.  In the fall of 2004, a 
scandal occurred when police broke up a 
prostitution/trafficking ring that used apartments owned by 
the Russian Trade Mission;  police are still investigating 
the extent of Russian Embassy personnel involvement in the 
operations.  The conditions for the women who work in 
nightclubs are generally better;  according to the police, 
they nay see between 2-3 clients per night (if any), and 
negotiate directly with their clients.  In the worst cases, 
the women may see between 5-10 clients per day. 
 
Compliance methods vary.  In some cases, passports may be 
withheld and violence used.  In other cases, threats against 
the woman's family in her home country may be used to secure 
compliance.  There is also evidence that electronic 
surveillance methods such as the use of closed circuit 
television cameras (CCTVs) outside apartments may be used to 
monitor the comings and goings of both prostitutes and 
clients.  The CCTVs may be monitored remotely in Estonia or 
Latvia, for example.  However, most women brought into 
Finland by criminal syndicates are poor, and economic 
necessity probably encourages them to cooperate with 
traffickers more often than physical coercion. 
 
There is a lower incidence of trafficking for labor.  Most of 
these cases involve persons coerced into working in ethnic 
restaurants and as maids.  The trafficked persons are often 
relatives of the "employers."  They are often forced to work 
long hours for low pay, and are often reluctant to come 
forward due to the cultural gap and fear of deportation or 
confinement.  There are illegal workers in the construction 
and agricultural industries, but these workers are typically 
smuggled into Finland willingly rather than trafficked and 
are "free" after arrival. 
 
F:  Not applicable. 
 
G:  There is will at the highest levels of Government to 
combat trafficking.  President Tarja Halonen participated in 
the "Stop Child Trafficking-Modern Day Slavery" conference in 
2003 co-sponsored by the Embassy and the GoF, and has 
subsequently made combating TIP a priority.  During the 2004 
Istanbul NATO Summit, Halonen highlighted the importance of 
the new NATO EAPC anti-trafficking policy in her address. 
There have been no government officials linked to TIP, but it 
is highly likely that if there were, the official(s) would be 
prosecuted and, if found guilty, severely punished by Finnish 
standards.  The Finnish Government and police pride 
themselves on their integrity, and corruption is not a 
significant problem in the country.  Finland has ranked first 
for several years in a well known international survey of the 
least corrupt countries.  The Finnish Government generally 
devotes relatively modest resources to law enforcement, and 
this is reflected in the resources it devotes to combat 
trafficking.  Prevention efforts are chiefly made through 
regional multilateral institutions that try to address the 
root causes of TIP in source countries.  Protection services 
have been minimal in the past, but the GoF is now considering 
the creation of a special Office of Victim's Advocate housed 
in the Ministry for Social Welfare as well as the creation of 
dedicated space in existing shelters for trafficking victims. 
 (Note: This section will be updated once the GoF's National 
Action Plan is released).  In the past, prosecution was 
hampered by the absence of a legal statute against 
trafficking and the fact that traffickers typically remain 
outside the country.  However, a new law went into effect in 
August 2004 criminalizing TIP for the first time. 
 
H:  Government officials and authorities do not condone 
trafficking. 
 
I:  Finland's overall crime rate is very low compared to 
other EU countries.  As a result, law enforcement and 
prosecutors are chronically underfunded, and this affects the 
Finnish Government's ability to address trafficking.  The 
Finnish Constitution also emphasizes civil liberties and, in 
practice, this sometimes constrains the state from pursuing 
investigations as aggressively as they might be pursued in 
some other countries.  Corruption is not a problem in Finland. 
 
J:  In the past, the GoF viewed this issue as more of an 
organized crime/organized prostitution problem than as a 
trafficking problem, and accordingly did not systematically 
monitor its anti-trafficking efforts in the areas of 
prosecution, prevention, and protection.  However, this began 
to change in 2004 as the GoF moved toward a victim-centered 
approach to trafficking.  The Ministry for Foreign Affairs 
has indicated that Finland's new National Action Plan to 
combat trafficking (due in March 2005) will contain 
recommendations to develop a more government-wide, 
systematized monitoring approach.  The GoF regularly reports 
and discusses TIP bilaterally with other governments and in 
multilateral fora such as the OSCE, the Nordic Council of 
Ministers, the Barents Sea States Council, the Council of 
Baltic Sea States, and others. 
 
K:  Prostitution is legal in Finland.  It is unregulated. 
The age of consent is 18.  Pimping and pandering are illegal. 
 In 2004 the police began to issue fines to clients 
soliciting sexual services in public.  This was a high-level 
policy decision, and was possible under existing penal 
statutes without passing new legislation.  The Justice 
Minister in 2004 announced that the Government would seek to 
make the purchase of all sexual services illegal, and set a 
2005 target date.  There is strong social opposition to 
criminalizing prostitution, however.  Many feminist and 
women's welfare organizations in Finland argue that women 
should have the right engage in prostitution if they so 
desire and/or that criminalizing prostitution would make the 
lot of prostitutes worse than it is currently is.  It is 
unclear whether the GoF will seek to criminalize prostitution 
given the unpopularity of such a measure with the Finnish 
public. 
 
(19.)  Prevention 
 
A:  The Finnish Government acknowledges that trafficking is a 
problem in Finland. 
 
B:  The Ministries for Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice, 
Labor, Education, and Social Welfare are all involved in 
combating TIP.  They are all represented on the GoF's 
interagency anti-TIP working group which was established in 
2004.  The Human Rights Caucus of Finland's Parliament and 
its chairperson, Ulla Anttila, are involved in 
anti-trafficking efforts.  The National Bureau of 
Investigation (NBI), Frontier Guards, Customs and 
Immigration, and various municipal police are all involved in 
anti-TIP efforts. 
 
C:  The Ministry for Social Affairs in 2004 ran an 
anti-trafficking campaign aimed at public awareness and 
demand reduction.  Public awareness campaigns were also 
conducted in Finnish secondary schools.  Most information and 
education campaigns inside Finland are carried out by NGOs; 
however, many of these receive grants from the Finnish 
Government.  The GoF's prevention efforts are aimed at 
stopping trafficking in regional source countries before 
trafficked women enter the country.  Finland actively 
participates in cooperative efforts among the Council of 
Baltic Sea States, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and the 
Barents Euro-Arctic Council to develop prevention measures. 
These organizations launched a "Nordic-Baltic Task Force 
Against Trafficking" on Nov. 27, 2003.  The Task Force, which 
receives funding from the GoF, has a three-year mandate.  The 
Task Force launched its first project in the fall of 2004 in 
the Murmansk and Archangel Oblasts in Russia.  Working with 
Oblast officials, the GoF and other Nordic governments are 
developing and promoting economic alternatives for 
disadvantaged women and girls most at risk for trafficking. 
Another GoF initiative, the "Nordic-Baltic Campaign Against 
Trafficking in Women," aims to increase cooperation among 
women's organizations and NGOs not previously involved in 
trafficking issues in regional source countries.  The 
"Campaign" has, among other activities, sponsored 
demand-reduction efforts in airports, harbors, and other 
ports-of-entry in Finland.  In May 2004, Finland's MFA 
provided a 2,521,000 Euro grant to the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) for "trafficking prevention 
and capacity-building" in Nordic-Baltic regional source 
countries.  This grant was the largest TIP-related grant the 
GoF has ever made, and one of the largest single grants that 
Finland has ever given to any non-governmental organization. 
The Embassy in the fall of 2004 also facilitated a successful 
grant proposal for a Finnish-Estonian NGO project that aims 
to raise public awareness and provide victim assistance 
services and build cooperation between Finland and Estonia. 
 
D:  See above response to Section 19 C. 
 
E:  The Government has the ability and will to support 
prevention campaigns, as described in paragraph 19 C. 
 
F:  The relationship between the GoF and NGOs on TIP has 
markedly improved since 2003;  the decision by the GoF to 
develop a more victim-centered approach to combating TIP is 
primarily responsible for this.  An interagency working group 
was created in the fall of 2004 to draft a new National 
Action Plan on trafficking, and NGOs were included on the 
working group.  The GoF provides funding to NGOs from 
slot-machine revenues for services such as a phone hotline 
for abused or battered women (60,000-70,000 Euro in 2004) and 
a rape-crisis center (30,000-40,000 Euro in 2004).  Although 
such services are not specific to trafficking victims, they 
are utilized by them as well as by Finnish victims of 
domestic abuse. 
 
G:  Finnish police and Frontier Guards adequately monitor its 
borders.  Finland has a 900-mile border with Russia, the EU's 
longest contiguous border with a non-EU nation.  Finnish 
officials monitor immigration and emigration patterns for 
evidence of trafficking using the most modern information 
technology.  Data bases are shared among law enforcement 
organizations, and the same information on foreign applicants 
for admission is available to officials at any port-of-entry. 
 Police believe that very few women are trafficked illegally 
into the country without inspection.  Most enter with valid 
visas obtained at Finnish consulates abroad. 
 
Finnish authorities interview and refuse entry to women 
suspected of being trafficked into the country for 
prostitution.  They attempt to follow up with investigations 
of possible trafficking organizations whenever possible. 
Finnish consular officials in Russia and Estonia have 
difficulty in recognizing trafficking situations since even 
women with limited financial resources may credibly claim 
that they are travelling to Finland for short trips.  Russia 
exerts political pressure on Finland to keep visa refusals 
low.  Some women will discreetly tip off Finnish consular 
officials that they wish their visas refused, and the 
officials oblige.  However, they usually do not follow up on 
such cases due to limited resources. 
 
H:  There is no multi-agency anti-TIP task force in the law 
enforcement community.  However, there is an interagency 
working group at the policy level.  Communication among 
various agencies about efforts to combat TIP is generally 
adequate. 
 
I:  In additional to the regional multilateral fora already 
mentioned, the GoF plays an active role in EU efforts to 
combat trafficking.  The Finnish police maintain liaison 
officers in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.  An 
Estonian liaison officer is stationed at NBI headquarters in 
Helsinki.  In 2004, the Finnish police liaison in Latvia was 
involved in the investigation and eventual prosecution (in 
Latvia) of a Baltic trafficking ring that sent women and 
girls to Finland and Sweden. 
 
In March 2005, Finland hosted a major NATO conference on the 
prevention, protection, and prosecution of TIP in areas of 
NATO crisis management operations.  Finland is not a NATO 
member, but is an active participant in NATO's Partnership 
for Peace.  The conference was co-hosted by Markus Lyra, 
Finland's Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and 
Robert Simmons, NATO's Deputy Assistant Secretary General. 
The conference was aimed at sharing best practices in 
implementing the EAPC policy on combating TIP agreed to at 
the 2004 Istanbul Summit.  It undertook, inter alia, to 
discuss the difficulties inherent in NATO anti-TIP policy 
given the different approaches to trafficking, prostitution, 
etc., among NATO member states. 
 
J:  The GoF in the fall of 2004 formed an interagency working 
group to draft a new National Action Plan to combat TIP based 
on a victim-centered approach.  The working group is chaired 
by Johanna Suurpaa, the Director of the Unit for Human Rights 
at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.  Other members include 
representatives from the Justice, Interior, Labor, Social 
Welfare, and Education Ministries, from Parliament, from the 
State Prosecutors Office, from NBI and the Frontier Guards, 
and from NGOs.  The group's final 50-page report, which will 
include the  completed National Action Plan, will be released 
and published in mid-March 2005.  The Embassy will report on 
the National Action Plan in a supplemental septel as soon as 
it is released. 
 
K:  There is no single entity or person responsible for 
anti-TIP efforts, although Johanna Suurpaa, the Director of 
the MFA's Unit for Human Rights, is the Chair of the GoF's 
interagency working group. 
 
(20.)  Investigation and Prosecution of Traffickers 
 
A:  Finland in August 2004 enacted legislation making 
trafficking-in-persons a criminal offense.  The law was 
lifted almost verbatim from that found in the Palermo 
agreement and covers both internal and external forms of 
trafficking.  The law covers trafficking for purposes of 
sexual exploitation and for non-sexual purposes such as labor 
trafficking. 
 
B:  The maximum penalty for persons convicted of trafficking 
is 7 years for each count. This penalty is sufficient to 
allow the Finnish police to use electronic surveillance 
techniques such as wiretaps to investigate trafficking rings. 
 There is no distinction made between sexual exploitation or 
forced labor as far as stipulated trafficking penalties are 
concerned. 
 
C:  The average penalty for rape is 2 years imprisonment. 
 
D:  There have not yet been any convictions under Finland's 
new anti-TIP law.  However, police advise that there are 
investigations currently underway that could lead to charges. 
 The Frontier Guards report that there were approximately 12 
investigations in 2004 that led to multiple arrests and the 
break-up of prostitution rings;  these arrests were of 
lower-level members of organized crime syndicates.  Since the 
police have not keep separate statistics on 
trafficking-related arrests, they are unable to estimate how 
many individuals may have been prosecuted for pimping and 
related offenses who were traffickers.  The average sentences 
for lower-level organized crime types was 6 months to one 
year in prison;  some were deported to their country of 
origin.  A high-profile investigation in 2004 by Finnish, 
Latvian, and Estonian law enforcement led to the break-up of 
a major prostitution ring that funneled women and girls from 
Estonia and Latvia to Finland.  The traffickers were 
ultimately tried and convicted in Latvia. 
 
E:  Trafficking-in-persons to Finland is chiefly organized by 
Estonian and Russian crime syndicates based outside of 
Finnish territory.  After the collapse  of the Soviet Union, 
there was a period of bloody conflict in the Nordic-Baltic 
region for control over smuggling and trafficking routes.  In 
the late 90's, these organizations reached a modus vivendi 
and divided Finland (and other countries) into different 
territories.  Russian syndicates control Northern Finland, 
the Turku area, and share territory in Helsinki and Karelia. 
Estonian syndicates share control of Helsinki and control the 
Tampere and Central Finland areas.  These criminal syndicates 
also engage in smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and 
non-genuine currency fraud.  Employment, travel, and tourism 
agencies are not typically used as fronts for organized 
crime.  There are several well known nightclubs in Helsinki 
that are controlled by or associated with crime 
organizations, trafficking, and prostitution.  Government 
officials are not involved in this activity.  Money is 
collected in cash and taken by land or sea ferry to Russia 
and Estonia for further distribution.  There was a scandal in 
2004 involving the Russian Trade Mission (housed in the 
Russian Embassy in Helsinki) and prostitution.  According to 
Finnish authorities, Russian prostitutes were operating out 
of apartments owned or leased by the Russian Trade Mission. 
The Russian Embassy denied all knowledge of such activity. 
The investigation was still underway at the time this report 
was produced. 
 
F:  The GoF actively investigates trafficking cases. 
Electronic surveillance methods are allowable under Finland's 
new anti-TIP law. 
 
G:  The Government provides specialized training for 
officials in how to recognize and investigate TIP.  The 
Embassy and the GoF collaborated to bring an expert TIP 
consultant (Nicholas Sensley) to Finland to act as an 
anti-trafficking trainer and catalyst for Finnish officials 
as they move to implement their new anti-trafficking 
legislation.  Sensley conducted three full days of seminars 
addressing key Finnish players involved in anti-trafficking 
efforts from Sept. 13-15 2004.  He conducted two practical 
workshops on "Collaboratively Combating Human Trafficking" 
(one for 35 law enforcement and prosecutorial officials 
representing all relevant Finnish agencies and districts, and 
one for 15 activists from key non-governmental organizations) 
and held roundtables with GoF policymakers (including the new 
interagency working group and Members of Parliament) on 
effective anti-TIP measures.  After Sensley's visit, the NGO 
which hosted one seminar followed through on his advice and 
established a network of Finnish NGOs engaged in trafficking 
prevention and/or victims' assistance.  The group 
subsequently initiated cooperation with Finland's Central 
Criminal Investigations Police and are working together to 
maximize the resources and capabilities available at each of 
the participating NGOs. 
 
H:  The GoF actively collaborates with other governments in 
the investigation and prosecution of trafficking cases. 
According to the State Prosecutor's Office, Finland in 2004 
collaborated on 7 major investigations of trafficking and 
prostitution rings with regional partners such as Estonia and 
Latvia.  The most noteworthy case was that mentioned  in 
paragraph 20 (D) involving women and girls trafficked from 
the Baltic countries to Finland, and which eventually 
resulted in convictions in Latvia. 
 
I:  The GoF in 2004 extradited a Finnish national to Latvia 
to stand trial for trafficking-in-persons.  The Finn was 
ultimately convicted and sentenced to prison.  The GoF in 
2003 and 2004 brought charges against Finnish nationals 
residing in Finland for sex acts with minors in Russia and 
Estonia respectively.  These cases received considerable 
attention in Finland and were clearly intended to send a 
signal to Finnish clients that the Government intends to 
track down and punish whenever possible Finns who engage in 
sex tourism with minors outside of Finland. 
 
J:  There is no government involvement in or tolerance of 
trafficking. 
 
K:  Not applicable. 
 
L:  Not applicable. 
 
M:  The GoF has signed and ratified the listed ILO, CRC, and 
UN conventions. 
 
(21.)  Protection and Assistance to Victims 
 
A:  In the past, the Finnish Government has provided only 
limited assistance to trafficking victims.  Women from the 
Baltic countries are usually not deported and allowed to 
remain in Finland or return home voluntarily.  Women from 
Russia and elsewhere are deported.  The police sometimes make 
unofficial arrangements with shelters, NGOs, etc., to assist 
trafficking victims.  The GoF also occasionally provides 
temporary residence in certain cases.  However, in most 
cases, current policy is to ultimately deport foreign 
prostitutes.  There are no Government-run shelters for 
trafficking victims and no HIV/AIDS screening facilities. 
Asylum seekers are provided temporary shelter in 
Government-run reception centers.  Many asylum seekers 
disappear from these centers (which are open) and presumably 
leave Finland for elsewhere in the Schengen area. 
 
This situation is expected to change in the near future.  In 
2004, the GoF announced that it would alter its previous 
approach to trafficking and develop a victim-centered 
approach to trafficking based on best practices in other 
countries.  The Embassy played a significant role in 
encouraging the GoF to adopt this approach.  In June, the 
Embassy organized a Voluntary Visitor (VOLVIS) program for a 
group of Finns from institutions that play different roles in 
the TIP dynamic.  Representatives from the Foreign Ministry, 
Social Affairs Ministry, Parliament, Lutheran Church, and 
NGOs travelled to the U.S. to consult with American 
counterparts in several cities at the federal, state, and 
local level.  The visit helped the Finns form an initial 
informal interagency anti-TIP network, and then in September, 
an official interagency working group was established to 
draft a new National Action Plan.  The Chair of the new 
working group, Johanna Suurpaa, was one of the VOLVIS 
participants.  The Action Plan, due out in March, will aim to 
implement the new victim-centered approach by eliminating 
practices such as the quick deportation of women who have 
come forward for help and by providing temporary shelter and 
economic options to victims. 
 
In September of 2004 the GoF hosted a major OSCE conference 
on protection measures and victim assistance.  More than 200 
participants from a variety of countries participated in the 
two-day conference in Helsinki.  The conference was 
co-chaired by Finland's Minister for Justice Johannes 
Koskinen.  It was during this conference that the GoF 
announced the formation of the interagency group to draft the 
new National Action Plan and signaled its support for a 
victim-centered approach to trafficking. 
 
B:  The Finnish Government provides funding to several 
multilateral organizations such as the Nordic Council of 
Ministers, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council, and the Baltic 
Sea States Council, which in turn fund NGO victim-assistance 
projects outside Finland.  Finland gave a major 2.5 million 
Euro grant to the IOM in 2004.  Revenue from 
Government-controlled slot machine monopolies funds victim 
assistance measures such as those described in Paragraph 19 
(F). 
 
C:  There is no screening or referral system in place to 
transfer victims placed in protective custody to NGOs, 
although the police report that they unofficially do this in 
some cases. 
 
D:  Finland has strong victims rights law, although in 
practice, many TIP victims are not informed of these rights 
by the police.  Current government policy is either to 
release the women without assistance (Baltic nationalities) 
or deport them (Russia, etc.)  Women are not abused or 
mistreated by government of police officials while in custody. 
 
E:  Finnish authorities encourage victims to assist in 
investigations in some cases; women who do so may be allowed 
to remain in Finland temporarily through stays of deportation 
and other means.  However, police state that most women are 
reluctant to cooperate and wish to return to their country of 
origin (or simply be released) as quickly as possible.  In 
theory, victims may bring charges against traffickers even if 
prosecutors decline to do so;  however, this has never 
actually happened.  Victims are not permitted to obtain 
employment.  There is no victim restitution program. 
 
F:  There is no witness protection program in Finland. 
 
G:  See Paragraph 20. G on training. 
 
H:  There are no Finnish victims of trafficking who have been 
repatriated to Finland.  Finland is not a source country for 
trafficked women and girls. 
 
I:  There are no NGOs specifically dedicated to working with 
TIP victims in Finland.  However, there are several NGOs that 
focus on women's rights and general victim assistance issues 
which include assistance to trafficking victims.  These 
include the umbrella organization "NYTKIS," "The National 
Council of Women in Finland," "Monika-Naiset," "The Finnish 
League for Human Rights Association," The Finnish UN 
Association," and the "Pro-Tupikiste" organization.  These 
NGOs operate or fund shelters for battered women, a rape 
crisis center, phone hotlines for women in distress, and 
counseling services.  The "Pro-Tupikiste" organization works 
with prostitutes and provides a gamut of services and 
information for them on issues such as HIV/AIDS and other 
health concerns. 
WEISBERG