Annex III


Human Trafficking Questionnaire

Information provided by: Machon Toda`a** & Isha L'Isha - Feminist Centre Haifa*
concerning human trafficking from April 30, 2004 to March 1, 2005

Note: This questionnaire is long and comprehensive, so please only respond to questions you feel you can answer from professional experience. Moreover, please indicate if you prefer to be treated as a confidential source.

General/Law Enforcement

1. Have trafficking routes or methods changed in the past 12 months? For example: Do victims come from new countries? Traffic routes haven't changed and sources of trafficking women hasn't changed either (i.e. we are seeing the same source countries: Belarus, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Russia - 50% from Chabarosk county, Ukraina, Kyrgistan, Lithuania, Latvia). However, trafficking infrastructure inside the country has changed (please see answer re: trafficking change from brothels to private apartments).
   
   Is internal trafficking an increasing problem? YES. But since it is mainly local women who are displaced from town to town, the authorities are reluctant to identify this phenomenon as trafficking.
   
   Has trafficking changed from brothels to private apartments and escort services? YES. In the past year we can see a qualitative change in victim recruitment, procurer infrastructure and methods. Trafficking has definitely moved from brothels to private apartments and escort services. There are more advertisements calling women for exclusive "discrete work" with high remuneration. The final destination is a "discrete apartment", and some advertisements even specify getting 'a discrete apartment' as part of the job "benefits". Adds are aimed at Israeli women (as they are written in Hebrew) and others at Russian Speaking women in the local Russian newspapers.
   
   Is labor trafficking on the rise? NO. Labor trafficking and also trafficking for sexual purposes has diminished due to raids of Immigration police during the last few months.
   
   Is your country increasing as a source, transit or destination country compared to last year, etc.
   
   In terms of quantitative change from last year - on the whole Israel has not increased as either a source, transit or destination country. However, during the last several months there were a few cases of trafficking of Israeli women to other destination countries. Regarding transit -there is no evidence, but many rumors and also testimonies of the victims of trafficking, referring to the direct threats that they receive. They are told that if they will not behave properly, they will be sold to the occupied territories. Procurers use the "I will sell you to the occupied territories" card as a threat and intimidation tool. For example, in one case, a trafficker was already trialed and sentenced to 8years in prison, but he kept calling the women and threatening them (on the phone) not to leave the brothel, because if they will they will be sold to the occupied territories. We have no evidence of cases that were really sold to procurers in the Palestinian Authority though rumors say that the victims are used as sex slaves and contact is lost.
   
   
2. Has the government organization for combating trafficking in persons changed in the past year? NO, although at the end of 2003 strong government decisions were passed to combat trafficking as a first priority and a very extensive law proposal was handed by MK Zehava Galon - including substantial criminal laws and procedures, mechanisms for civil remedies, witness protection program, closure of places of organized prostitution - it's still waiting to be passed in the first hearing (Law proposal P/1291 - Prohibiting Trafficking in Persons). We are interested in substantive criminal laws and procedures, mechanisms for civil remedies, witness protection in court proceedings and witness security outside of courts. If yes, then give the text of the law in your answer or provide an appropriate Internet address.
   
   
3. What is your observation regarding the implementation of existing laws and procedures? There are many problematic issues with regards to implementation of existing laws and procedures. With regards to the court handling trafficking cases - the length of imprisonment time in the penalties is being increased but compensation to the victims was given in only half of the cases (16 trials - 8 compensations) and the trend of plea bargaining is still in place. In addition, ongoing court cases run while the victim is obliged to meet and see the perpetrator/s and sometimes the victim is threatened without receiving any assistance from the court administrators. Therefore victims seldom testify.
   
   With regards to the state-run shelter - there are many problematic issues on a variety levels. First of all, as the state run shelter (Ma'agan) just celebrated its first year. The grim reality of its operational ideology has been established. The most significant decision (that affects all levels of operations) is that the state-run shelter has set a clear priority to first accept victims that are willing to testify. Therefore the police are sending only women that are willing to testify, or women that the police are interested in using as living testimonies. The selective acceptance of only testifying victims is a serious violation of the government decision to open a shelter for ALL trafficked victims. Making matters worse, is the whole treatment of the victims by the authorities (from the police to the shelter staff). It is somewhat alarming and shows a serious lack of understanding of the subject matter. Some of the victims, who do end up arriving at the shelter, believe that they have committed a crime and think they need legal protection! In one case, the police bluntly lied to a victim from Belarus; threatening her, that if she will not testify - the police in her home country (Belarus) will arrest her and charge her. Most of the victims, do not receive a simple briefing of their rights, shelter procedures, what actions they can take, at what stage is the court case, etc. For those women who do choose to testify (and hence "buy"or "earn" their right to stay at the shelter), complain that their "out" times are "officially" limited to a few hours each day - but in many cases even those hours are a privilege others don't get at all (for weeks!).
   
   Example: One woman said that she has been at the shelter for 3 weeks now and can leave only twice a week for a few hours. Furthermore, there are punitive sanctions for those who break the rules (reducing their "outside" time, etc.). One woman signed an agreement with the shelter management that she will not leave the shelter for a month, because the last time she went out she came back drunk or under the influence of drugs. No psychological help was given to her to deal with her drug problem, other than a meeting with a social worker. Similar punishing sanctions are implemented on women who run away from the shelter and are caught back by the police (after running away/ disappearing, etc.). In most of the cases mentioned above - the NGO's were not consulted or even informed. In conclusion, the picture that is emerging from this so called "shelter for victims of trafficking" is one of a detention center for testifying victims. This, besides being quite sad, is a breach of the initial government decision, and at times, in contradiction of basic human rights.
   
   In addition to that, regarding the implementation of procedures that should have been done by the Inter-Ministerial committee: During 2004, due to the fact that the Ministry of Justice did not allocate the needed budget for the position of a coordinator of the Inter-Ministerial- this committee never met! The NGOs requested again and again to be part of this committee and were told that only after a year of the State Shelters' existence will there be a possibility to invite them to participate in this committee. On January 30th, 2005, the four NGOs (Isha LeIsha, Machon Toda`a, the Rape Crisis Center, and the Hotline for Migrant Workers) that are working with victims of trafficking and are involved with the issue, received letters from the head of the Inter-Ministerial committee that they will be part of the newly created professional Inter-Ministerial committee that will organize the inter-organizational procedures. The first meeting of this new committee was due on March 3rd, 2005. The NGOs were informed on the day of the meeting that now only one of them (the Hotline for Migrant Workers) will represent the four organizations. It will be the only organization to participate on this committee. This decision was made in spite of the request by MK Zehava Galon that all four organizations would be part of this committee and contrary to a letter of invitation sent by Menachem Vagshal , the head of the Inter-Ministerial committee to the four organizations stating that it is important that the four NGOs will participate and will be able to share with the committee members their extensive experience with the issue. The matter is still outstanding. For the moment we see in this episode as well as in the fact that contrary to a government decision in December 2003 no funds were allocated for the position of a coordinator, a fast deterioration and lack of will of the Israeli authorities to deal with the Trafficking in Persons phenomenon. Please provide specific examples if relevant.
   
   Example for court cases: In December, 2004, during a trial of a female victim of trafficking, the judge requested that the accompanying social worker leave the courtroom. This decision was against the law. The victim had to face her traffickers and pimps alone. It was done because the lawyers of the defendants requested to continue the trial with "closed doors" .The Judge requested that everyone leave the hall but also mentioning that she knows this is a breach of the specific law regarding accompanying the victim. During November 2004 a district judge ruled, as compensation to a car accident victim, a man in his 30s, the buying of sexual services twice a week until the age of 70. This case is currently making its way to the High Court.
   
   Examples of detentions and sanctions against consenting trafficking victims: A victim of trafficking who consented to testify against several traffickers, pimps and lawyers of pimps was accepted in the shelter during October 2004. She had a difficult time there and several times left the shelter and did not come back. One time she was found in a brothel. As a sanction, she was detained in the shelter because the police were afraid that she would disappear again. This was not the only case.
   
   
4. If your country has adopted a law that punishes for trafficking in persons, what levels of punishment did it concretely institute since March 2003 against human traffickers? Since March 2003 high levels of punitive elements were implemented by the courts - mainly prison (the highest penalty given was13 years in prison 2 years + suspended), compensations and fines ( Max compensation: 25,000 Israeli Shekels in 2 cases( $6,000)./ max fine: 30,000 Israeli Shekels in one case).
   
   If committed in respect to minors or in the sexual exploitation of children, did courts apply more severe punishment? YES. In the few trials where the victims were minors, perpetrators were severely punished and victims received compensations. All the minor victims, whether they testified or not, were transferred to the Shelter when they were rescued from the traffickers/ procurers. Please answer with specific cases if possible. During 2004 Isha LeIsha took care of five teenagers, ages 15-17. One case involved two sisters who were trafficked from Uzbekistan (one of them was 20 but her younger sister was 16 years old). They were promised work as hostesses. When smuggled to Israel through the Egyptian border, they were separated and only after 6 months (September 2004) found each other. Later on, the older sister was arrested and sent to the detention center "Renaissance" in the north of Israel. After 2 weeks her younger sister was also arrested and sent to the detention center "Tzohar" in the south of Israel and from Tzohar she was transferred to the Ma'asiahu prison. Her older sister (who was in Renaissance and met the volunteers of Isha L'Isha called them urgently to intervene). Rita Chaikin from Isha L'Isha contacted the authorities in Ma'asiahu Prison and said that the young girl is 16. The following day she was transferred to the shelter for trafficked women. Furthermore, Isha L'Isha made sure that the two sisters will be sent back to Uzbekistan together (as the sisters did not want to testify against their trafficker(s) so nothing was done in this respect). Isha L'Isha organized a local NGO representative to meet them at the destination airport to assure their safe return.
   
   
5. What punishment was applied for rape cases since March 2003? Were civil remedies available? During 2004, about14 civil law suits were submitted to the Labor Courts but no verdict has been made as of yet. The decision to submit those law suits to the Labor Court and thus preparing grounds for a lobby to legalize prostitution was contested by many including the head of the labor issues department in the Ministry of Justice, Adv. Nurit Eltshtein. No civil remedies and procedures are in place.
   
   
6. Can you say that the anti-trafficking laws in your country are strict enough to reflect the nature of the crime? Yes, but not implemented enough as there are seldom any arrests of procurers and brothel managers. The police officers in charge are still not aware of the link between TIP and Brothels or "Discreet apartments" prostitution.
   
   
7. Did the police pursue human trafficking cases with respect to organized crime in the past 12 months? YES. Does pursuing a case as organized crime give law enforcement special powers of investigation or witness protection? YES, but there is no witness protection program yet.
   
   
8. Do police actively profile traffickers? Yes (Please explain how you know this information.)
   
   (Inside information)
   
   The special police units - investigating the trafficking of women - are now being trained to understand the problems of the women trafficking victims and much of this educational information comes from the local NGO's. It is imperative that the police learns more about the complexity of the phenomenon and situation, and therefore improves the unit's knowledge and understanding of victims of trafficking. Another issue which is yet to be solved is the fact that the special police unit concentrates the majority of its efforts, against the trafficking in women, only in the centre of Israel. There are not enough resources for operations in more peripheral cities, or simply in many towns and villages across the country. In Tel Aviv and Jerusalem there are many police investigators that speak Russian but this is not the case in Haifa, B'er Sheva and other fairly large scale cities in other regions. The police forces in many of the remote regions ignore the prosecution directives regarding procurers either because they were not informed or because they lack resources.
   
   There is a problem with the two different police entities in Israel. That we work with. One police force is "The Immigration Police", who deals with the entrapment, detention and the transferring of persons without legal documents who are staying or working in Israel. The other police force (or entity) is the Israel Police Force, which fights the criminal elements in Israel. The problem, as per our impression, is that these two police entities seem to work separately and have not been sharing or disclosing information about most cases of trafficking victims during 2004. Such a dichotomy of operation leads to an unbearable situation for the victims of trafficking who do not get the correct attention.
   
   When a woman is arrested by the immigration police, they see her as an illegal person in the country and not as a victim of trafficking. They do not investigate the woman regarding her situation and they can be extremely unsympathetic to her in addition to being rude and verbally abusive. The only information about this problem comes from NGOs like Isha L'Isha or the Hotline for Immigrant Workers, who are the only organizations with state facilities entry permits. These NGOs have regular visits only to incarceration facilities in the north and the centre of Israel. Due to the many raids and arrests in brothels and district apartments during 2004, many women were arrested and transferred to their country of origin without proper questioning. Unfortunately, there are too many instances where the NGOs do not have the access, the manpower or resource to fully learn about these stories.
   
   
9. Does the government investigate cases of trafficking in humans committed by state officials? If yes, have any government officials been subject to an investigation or criminal proceeding concerning trafficking in human beings? Have those officials been subject to criminal or professional sanctions? Please explain your source of information about this (personal contacts, media, assistance to victims in the case, etc.) YES. During summer 2004 there were 2 cases that were subject to investigation. Criminal sanctions were taken as well. To specify: during the summer of 2004 a police officer from the central unit of Tel Aviv tried to sell 2 women to a trafficker. At the moment he is detained and the police investigation is still on going. The second case took place in Eilat, during summer 2004, a police officer raped a victim of trafficking. His ranks were abolished and he was fired. He is waiting for the trial to take place. Source of information: personal contacts.
   
   Victim Assistance and Protection
   
   
10. Do you have a role in assisting victims or providing services? YES .If so, do you actively share information with police and prosecutors regarding traffickers, victims and routes? NGOs share their information with the police. Do police and prosecutors seek out and/or use your information? Quite rarely, if at all. What is the level of cooperation, communication and trust between your organization and law enforcement? Both Isha L'Isha and Machon Toda`a are very cooperative with the police but the police does not collaborate (with us, or other NGOs) on all levels. They use (or hear out) some of the information's but do not see the benefits from collaborating with the various local NGOs. On a scale from 1 to 10 the cooperation level is on 3 to 4 due to the police unwillingness to cooperate.
    
    
11. Does government have methods to protect victims of trafficking? Are those methods regularly used? How? There are methods for protecting victims of trafficking, but they are applied only for those trafficked women who intend to testify against their traffickers. The state-run shelter for trafficked women (Ma'agan), which was opened last year offers its facility only to trafficking victims that wish to testify. This is done in contrary to a government decision that the state shelter will harbor all trafficking victims! This is a breach of a government decision! Furthermore, the Police Immigration Force does not usually offer that option to the victims of trafficking it catches. Secondly, as of yet, there are not any methods or implementation of supportive and protective mechanisms to help victims of trafficking. Only in specific cases, does the police run a danger assessment profile, and its results usually punitively affect the victims. Their allotted outing hours usually decrease to once or twice a week. Sometime, women can literally be detained at the shelter without being allowed to leave it, supposedly for safety reasons. However, the best interest of the victim is not the priority of the shelter management. Often the penalization of the victims is so that they won't run away before finishing their testimony rather than consideration for their well-being. Many of the women that are being detained at the state run shelter (for trafficked women) do not even understand that they are in the shelter for protection; many of them think that they are accused by the police of prostitution, and that they are going to be prosecuted. To summarize, the government or police' protection is selective, minimal and irregular.
    
    
12. Does government actively assist victims to return home? Not in most cases. Usually, the government just sends the victim back without any assistance. In a few cases, where NGOs were specifically involved in helping victims, victims were able to notify the NGOs of their safe arrival back to their home country. There are cases where a victim wished to testify but the law enforcement authorities' orders explicitly called to send them back without testifying. In order to assist victims to return home safely, further collaboration is urgently needed between the government, its relevant agencies, and local and foreign NGOs. Unfortunately, this is not the case today. Does it assist victims in third countries to resettle there? NO. Please explain through specific examples or cases. Assistance for trafficked victims in their home country does not happen in any shape or form by the Israeli government or its relevant agencies.
    
    
13. How could methods of victim protection and implementation be improved? The biggest problem now is the selective acceptance of trafficked victims into the shelter. It is a serious breach of the government's official decision and puts into doubt the ability of the state run agencies to implement decisions from above. Further, the minimal protection plans that are set by the police are limited and penalize the women by limiting their "out time" from the shelter. This is also a big problem that many of the trafficked women complain about. Victims that arrive to the shelter are confused and scared. The fact that some of them think that they are at fault and that the police are going to prosecute them shows that further communicational skills of the police must improve. More collaboration with the four Israeli NGOs is much needed. There is a definite need for more shelters for victims of trafficking, whether run by the state or by NGO's. Protection plans and procedures should be developed, and then implemented by the relevant divisions. Protection plans and procedures must take into account the painful, traumatic history of these women, the communicational barrier, and the victims' basic need to know their rights.
    
    Does the government support victims of trafficking? Only victims who agree to testify against their traffickers are lodged in a state shelter and get medical assistance, work and stay permit(s) until the end of the trial. Psychological help is given only in urgent or acute cases. Legal assistance is given if the victims wish to file a civil complaint while the penal trial is on going. For example, do they provide referrals to NGOs; have victim advocates; offer legal, medical or financial assistance? The state shelter (for trafficked women who are willing to testify) does not provide referrals to NGOs as far as we know. The shelter receives assistance from Israeli NGOS to provide legal advice to the victims in Russian, etc.
    
    
14. Does the government provide housing to victims of trafficking who have been rescued in case of a security threat? Yes.
    
    
15. Does the government detain victims of trafficking or keep them in prison? Yes. Victims who do not wish to testify remain in detention. Contrary to the Government's decision regarding victims of trafficking held in custody and contrary to a decision stated by the head of the Immigration entity, Superintendant Ziva Agami, some of the officials who are in first contact with victims of trafficking threaten them that they will be banished into Egypt since in most cases they have entered Israel illegally through this border. As per one testimony during September 2004, at least one victim of trafficking was really deported to Egypt with a group of illegal persons among who were a few other victims of trafficking as well.
    
    
16. Do you know of cases where the government punished victims for forgery of documents, illegal crossing of borders or illegal work? Yes. When a victim of trafficking entered Israel the third time the prosecutor detained her in prison for 9 months.
    
    
17. Is the governmental attitude and treatment toward victims of trafficking equal for all victims regardless of circumstance, i.e. forced prostitution, or labour? Not relevant.
    
    Prevention of Trafficking
    
    
18. Does the government address the prevention of human trafficking? Not yet. During 2004 there was a survey issued by the Knesset's research center regarding the public attitudes towards Trafficking in persons. But there is not yet any public campaign issued by the government regarding this issue.
    
    Does it provide financial support to NGOs working to promote public awareness or does the government implement such campaigns itself? No. The government does not provide financial support to NGOs working to promote public awareness.
    
    In 2004 the Ministry of Foreign Affaires was involved in a prevention campaign - They printed 8,000 fliers in Russian to the Eastern Europe countries. The amount of the fliers is marginal in comparison with the massive need to distribute these fliers across such a broad area of source countries. It is important to note, that there was a very nice collaboration between the various local NGOs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, the small (and practically insignificant) amount of fliers leads to think that it was done only to show that "Israel has done a prevention campaign". This is only a small fraction of a solution to prevent Trafficking, and it ignores many aspects of the problem. When we, the NGOs that were part of the campaign asked why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not willing to publish awareness campaigns in the TV channels in Russian, the answer was that this might hurt Israel's image abroad.
    
    The NGOs that were part of this campaign requested to send an NGO representative with the fliers but the response was that there are no funds to be allocated for such purpose. In addition to that, the NGOs asked to train the Israeli consular representatives in the respective countries but the Foreign Ministry refrained from any response yet.
    
    
19. Does prevention include protection against criminal acts and prevention against vulnerabilities that create victims (poverty, domestic violence, unemployment, poor schooling, discrimination against women, children or minorities, etc.)? NO.
    
    
20. Does government interact with other governments to facilitate criminal proceedings of trafficking cases and punish traffickers and their accomplices? YES.
    
    
21. Does government monitor cases on immigration and emigration to identify trafficking in persons? NO. If yes, please explain through specific instances.
    
    
22. Please provide comment on any experiences with trafficking not already addressed. We also encourage you to share some specific victim stories, as long as the name and identity is protected.
    
    

On the whole, we can say that although there is much to improve in terms of the government and official representative awareness regarding the complex phenomenon of women trafficking, the Knesset investigative parliamentary committee designated for this issue, headed by MK Zehava Galon , has introduced the issue as top priority in the different Ministries who are responsible to tackle this matter. On the other hand, not much was done in terms of strategy regarding implementation. Government decisions are not fully, if at all, implemented and some decisions need still to be developed and implemented. We would like to emphasize one problematic issue that might jeopardize the whole Progressive State Plan of Action which, for more than a year, exists only on paper. The important and very necessary post of Inter-Ministerial Coordinator, that was decided upon by the government (decision No. 1248 announced on December 2003), which was carried out by Adv. Rachel Gershoni, Head of the Penal Department in the Ministry of Justice since, has been terminated because of lack of funds. A letter dated from the 30th of January 2005, notified the NGOs and the Committee that the post was terminated due to the fact that the necessary funds to run it were not forwarded by the Ministry of Finance in spite of repetitive requests from the Ministry of Justice.

If the post of the inter-ministerial coordinator remains vacant the whole attitude of the Israeli authorities towards the trafficking issue should be reprimanded.

Isha L'Isha - Feminist Center Haifa


Rita Chaikin - Anti-Trafficking Project Coordinator, Isha L'Isha - Haifa Feminist Center 118 Arlozorov Street, Haifa 33726 Tel: +972-4-8650977, Fax:+972-4-8641072 Hotline: +972-4-8640598 Email: ishahfc1@netvision.net.il

Rita Chaikin is the coordinator of the Anti-Trafficking Project at Isha L'Isha-Haifa Feminist Center, multi-cultural women's NGO in Israel. We have been involved in the fight against trafficking in women for several years now. Our activities are focused in northern Israel but our work has a nation-wide impact. Our clients are victims of trafficking in the sex industry, usually from the former Soviet Union.

Most of our clients have been arrested and are housed in a detention center. We provide them with practical, emotional and legal support. We offer a hotline for all the women who are victims of trafficking whether they are in prison or in brothels. We provide educational programs to the police, prosecutors, lawyers and to the general public. We are continually lobbying in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament). We cooperate with the Anti-Trafficking Coalition in Israel and with other NGO's in Israel working in similar situations. We cooperate with numerous NGO's in the former Soviet Union to assist in the repatriation of the women who would choose to return home. In Israel, over the past four years, we have accomplished many gains to assist the women victims of trafficking.

Machon Toda`a - Awareness Center

Awareness Center" (Machon Todaa) is a member of the International Abolitionist Federation (IAF)* During the last 4 years, in collaboration with Israeli NGO`s and governmental institutions, we created in Israel an infrastructure of awareness and action against commercial sexual exploitation of minors, trafficking in human beings and adult local prostitution.

Why Machon Todaa

The aim of Machon Todaa is to raise public awareness and to steer decision-makers to eradicate all forms of commercial sexual exploitation and to fight for a democratic and equal society where women and young persons can live free from violence.

We propose information and plans of action to Prevent, Protect, Prosecute and Promote UN Conventions and protocols concerning the eradication of Trafficking in persons for prostitution purposes and the exploitation of the prostitution of others.

We provide, through our website , mostly in Hebrew, consulting and information where individuals and institutes such as educational systems, social workers, university researchers, journalists, jurists can seize the issues and find the necessary answers through knowledge sharing.

http://www.macom.org.il/todaa-home.asp

We are lobbing in the Knesset and lecture in conferences to raise awareness regarding the "Desire" industries.

We issue a yearly shadow report that is sent to the UN Commission of Human Rights and is distributed to many world wide NGOs and research centres.

We are assisting trafficked victims and local prostituted persons to receive rights as human beings.

* IAF - International Abolitionist Federation - NGO which was created 123 years ago by Josephine Butler as a protest against the system of controlled and regulated prostitution in the UK and other countries in Europe. IAF enjoys consultative status category 1 with ECOSOC. IAF has a permanent representation at the United Nations in New York, Geneva and Vienna, the Council of Europe, UNESCO , UNICEF and ILO. Formulated the convention on trafficking in persons and the exploitation of the prostitution of others, which was adopted by the UN on 1949 and helped to formulate the convention on the rights of the child of 1989