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Viewing cable 06PARIS1338, FRANCE CONTRIBUTION FOR 2006 TIP REPORT - PART II

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06PARIS1338 2006-03-03 11:28 2011-08-24 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Paris
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 001338 
 
SIPDIS 
 
G/TIP FOR DONNELLY, G, INL, DRL, RPM, IWI, EUR/PGI FOR 
BUCKNEBERG, EUR/WE FOR LARREA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM KWMN SMIG KFRD ASEC PREF ELAB FR BU RO AL SL CM NI
SUBJECT: FRANCE CONTRIBUTION FOR 2006 TIP REPORT - PART II 
OF II 
 
REF: STATE 3836 
 
 VICTIM PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE - Question 24 
---------------------------------- 
 
A.  A trafficking victim who files a complaint against 
his/her trafficker(s) or who testifies against him/her is 
eligible for a temporary three-month card providing residency 
status and a work permit.  If the police can corroborate the 
victim's report (with reference to names, locations, etc.), 
the temporary card can be renewed for another three months 
for a total of six months, and then again for an additional 
six months.  If the trafficker against whom the victim made 
the complaint or testified is convicted, the victim is 
eligible for a permanent residency card (Article 76 of Law on 
Internal Security, Official Journal of March 19, 2003).  An 
association, the Accompaniment Places of Welcome (ALC), 
provides long-term shelter services for trafficking victims 
in metropolitan France and Corsica.  Thirty-three 
associations provide 42 places in 36 shelters across France 
for trafficking victims, and belong to the ALC.  The 
government funds three-quarters of the ALC budget, with the 
City of Paris funding the last quarter.  From January to 
September 2005, the ALC received notifications on 45 
trafficking victims in need of shelter from French 
associations.  ALC placed 35 of the victims in shelters, 11 
of whom eventually returned to their country of origin. 
ALC-member shelters provide judicial, administrative, health, 
and psychiatric assistance; help in finding a job or getting 
new training; assistance to the victim to return to his/her 
country of origin if that is what he/she wants; and food and 
lodging. 
 
On October 31, the Interior Ministry issued a circular 
reminding police, prefecture, and departmental leaders of the 
means by which they can authorize temporary residence permits 
and encouraging them to consider disseminating them more 
broadly.  The text includes a specific reference to the 
residence permits that can be authorized in conjunction with 
the 2003 Law on Internal Security (LSI) for trafficking 
victims.  It clarifies that the temporary residence permit 
that can be offered to trafficking victims is for six months 
(rather than three) and encourages authorities to take into 
consideration the presentations that NGOs make on the 
victim's behalf when considering whether to grant a permit. 
The circular further reminds that a principal condition of 
the granting of the permit is the victim's total cutting of 
ties with the persons exploiting her or him.  One NGO calls 
the circular's call on French authorities an "interesting 
advance" because of the clause calling on authorities to 
consider the humanitarian situation of victims even if they 
have not/not cooperated in an investigation for fear of 
reprisal.  The exact language of the circular reads (informal 
Embassy translation): "Beyond the hypotheses envisaged by the 
law (2003 LSI), other situations of distress can justify a 
humanitarian and benevolent examination.  In this regard, I 
ask you to give particular attention to all the victims of 
modern slavery who seek a temporary residence permit, alone 
or supported by an association, without having necessarily 
cooperated with the police or justice system nor immediately 
testified against their exploiters for fear of reprisals. In 
this case, I ask you to implement your power of appreciation 
to examine humanly sensitive situations, when there appear 
serious indicators letting one presume the quality of the 
asking victim, resulting from the realistic character of 
his/her story, of his/her having been taken in charge by an 
association and the proofs that he/she furnishes on behalf of 
his/her will to rejoin society." (Ministry of Interior, 
Circular NOR/INT/D/05/00097/C, October 31, 2005) 
 
B.  See above, the government provides the bulk of the budget 
of the NGO in charge of the shelter network. 
 
C.  Social services, NGOs, or police can call the ALC to 
request placement for a victim.  There are short-term 
emergency centers that host the victim while the long-term 
shelter is preparing to receive her/him.  The entry 
questionnaire for ALC is deliberately limited in order to 
protect victims in case they are collaborating with the 
police or serving as a witness. 
 
D.  Some prostitutes have been fined under the 2003 LSI. 
While the maximum fine under the law is 3,750 euros, OCRETH 
estimates that the average fine is about 300 euros.  The 
government believes that bringing the victims in off the 
street accomplishes two goals: 1) it is an opportunity for 
the police or an NGO to encourage him/her to file a complaint 
against his/her trafficker(s) and 2) taking the victim off 
the street for a night or a day deprives the trafficker of 
income. 
 
E.  See above, authorities encourage victim participation in 
trafficking investigations and prosecutions. 
 
F.  OCRETH did not have figures for all of France for 2005, 
but in Paris, the government issued 306 temporary residence 
permits, of which 197 were renewable.  The GoF does not/not 
have a witness protection program by which it could, for 
example, disguise the identity of victims for reinsertion 
into society. 
 
G.  The fight against child sex tourism is a mandatory 
element of the training that students in French tourism 
schools undertake to receive their degrees. 
 
H.  Post is not aware of any instances of repatriated French 
trafficking victims. 
 
I.  There are numerous NGOs in France that work with adult 
and child victims of trafficking, prostitution, child sex 
tourism, and forced labor.  A few of the more prominent are 
(organizations centered in Paris unless noted otherwise): 
 
Amis du Bus des Femmes - (Friends of the Women's Bus).  NGO 
that works with prostitutes, both trafficked and 
untrafficked, to provide care and to help reinsert them in a 
non-prostitute life.  The NGO drives its equipped bus to 
locations frequented by victims; it provides medical 
attention but also seeks to be a refuge for victims in hopes 
of helping them extricate themselves from slavery. 
 
Amicale du Nid -  Founded in 1946, NGO that works on the 
streets to aid prostitutes and provide shelter, training, and 
other assistance in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Marseille, 
Grenoble, and Montpellier.  Has a bus service, Intermede. 
 
Association Against Child Prostitution (ACPE) - Supports 
shelters for child prostitution victims in the Philippines 
and Guatemala.  Provides training for French tourism students 
on sexual tourism involving children.  Supports legal cases 
against French nationals prosecuted for engaging in sexual 
acts abroad with minors. 
 
Association of Places of Accompaniment (ALC), Nice - Created 
in 1913, ALC provides social services in the Alpes-Maritime 
department of France.  Its specialized Service for Prevention 
and Social Readaptation (SPRS) provides assistance to people 
in prostitution and victims of human trafficking.  It 
coordinates multiple preventative programs.  SPRS provides 
street work (social workers, public health workers, and 
cultural mediators go on the streets from 8 pm to 3 am), 
counseling, vocational guidance and follow-up, cultural and 
linguistic mediation (SPRS staff speak several of the 
languages of trafficked victims), awareness and information 
campaigns, professional training, and runs a national network 
of protection for victims of trafficking known as Ac.Se. 
(Secure Welcome).  SPRS Director Patrick Hauvuy works 
tirelessly to help trafficking victims and to raise the level 
of services available to victims both within France and 
within Europe broadly as well.  He is extremely active in 
visiting source countries and working with NGO personnel and 
authorities there. 
 
Committee Against Modern Slavery (CCEM) - Founded in 1994, 
the CCEM helps victims of domestic servitude.  Since its 
inception, the CCEM has helped about 300 victims; CCEM 
officials estimate they take on about 30 new cases each year. 
 In July 2005, the French state was found guilty in a 
CCEM-sponsored case at the European Court of Human Rights of 
having failed to adequately protect a young Togolese woman. 
 
ECPAT France - NGO that works to combat sex tourism involving 
children, affiliated with the international ECPAT network. 
ECPAT France was founded in 1992.  ECPAT works within an 
international network.  In France it is very active with Air 
France, which sells goods for which the proceeds go to Ecpat, 
and shows on its buses to Paris airports a video warning of 
the potential judicial consequences of engaging a minor for 
sex abroad (making the point that French nationals are bound 
by French law on the matter even outside French territory). 
 
Esclavage Tolerance Zero (Marseille) - Works with CCEM in 
Paris, but focuses also on sex slaves in addition to domestic 
slavery. 
 
Fondation Scelles - Founded in 1993, fights against 
prostitution and trafficking in persons. Has a very strong 
legal research team, which publishes on pan-European legal 
schema for combating trafficking.  Also works with NGOs in 
source countries. 
 
Mouvement du Nid - Part, along with Amicale du Nid, of Nid 
(Nest), which seeks to create a society without prostitution. 
 It is present in most regions of France, and in some other 
countries (Brazil, Portugal, Belgium, and Cote d'Ivoire). 
 
Terre d'Asile - Founded in 1971 to promote the daily use of 
the right of asylum, follow the evolution of legal 
dispositions and administrative measures relating to asylum, 
help welcome refugees and asylum-seekers, and advocate a 
policy of social and professional readaption. 
 
La Voix de l'Enfant - "Voice of the Child," Founded in 1981. 
Its goal is "To Listen to and Defend Childhood in Distress in 
France and in the World."  Works in several different fields, 
including combatting sex tourism involving children.  Has 
several affiliate organizations as well. 
 
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm 
 
Stapleton