AT THE end of this month the first ever graphic novel in Cyprus will be launched by INDEX: Research and Dialogue. It centres on the fate of one woman caught up in the trafficking web. Arriving to Cyprus from her home country, the story follows her from the airport to her arrival at the cabaret and her eventual escape from conditions within which she was being exploited. The graphic novel finishes there – but what happened after she escaped?
This storyline is based on extensive interviews INDEX conducted over many months with real life victims. And, as one woman reported to us, having escaped from the cabaret she turned to the police for help. Having been informed of her rights, which included immediate access to social support and protection, she made a decision to become a witness in an attempt to prosecute those responsible for her maltreatment. Yet, more than a year later, she left the country disillusioned. Disillusioned by the limited protection and social support actually received as well as the lack of transparency surrounding both her rights and how decisions, directly affecting her, were being taken.
To understand this unfortunate outcome we first need to be aware that here in Cyprus we have only recently developed a comprehensive anti-trafficking strategy. This was itself a response to outside pressures such as the identification of Cyprus as a destination country for trafficked persons not responding very effectively in the effort to combat trafficking, being classified as a ‘tier 2’ country by the American State Department in 2004. The initial reaction to this was a defensive response from the Minister of Justice who claimed that this was one example amongst many of the US seeking vengeance against the Greek Cypriot community for voting ‘No’ in that year’s referendum on the Annan Plan.
Whilst sensitive to American criticism the Minister’s response contradicted a report by the Republic’s own Commissioner for Administration who, in 2003, had outlined significant evidence of trafficking to Cyprus. This report had itself been prompted by the death of a young Russian woman, Oxana Ranseva, on the island in 2001, a case that has subsequently become known internationally since the father of the victim successfully brought a case against Cyprus for negligence in protecting his daughter’s welfare and ultimately, her life. By 2005 the state had felt compelled to develop and adopt an action plan to tackle the phenomenon, the first official admission that trafficking in human beings was a significant problem in Cyprus.
Two years later Cyprus reformed the legal framework for combating trafficking in order to harmonise with the Council of Europe Convention on Action against trafficking in Human Beings. This was a significant breakthrough since by modernising the law Cypru
s began to reshape its approach to trafficking which went beyond a prosecution perspective but also placed a real emphasis on the rights of the victim.
This more recent law combines a number of mechanisms which not only seek to prosecute the criminals involved but also offering adequate protection to the victims and related efforts aimed at preventing the recurrence of the phenomenon. As with the standards set by the Convention of the Council of Europe the state’s responsibility to protect the victims, as outlined in the law, is clearly not dependent to the necessary task of securing criminal prosecutions.
In practice, these dual objectives require a variety of public services to bear responsibility for implementing different aspects of the law. For example, the arrest of criminals and the identification of victims is the responsibility of the police. Whilst once a victim has been identified then he or she would need to receive the support of other public services including the provision of secure accommodation as well as all that is required in order to recover from the ordeal. These include health and psychological services, public benefits and opportunities to reintegrate amongst others. Consequently, responsibility for the welfare of the victim is shared by many different departments, the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education and so on. The Legal services also have responsibilities towards a victim, which are predicated by the victim’s status as a vulnerable witness, should the victim opt to take on that role.
In practice, despite the comprehensive character of the law, the rights of access to these services are sporadically available to the victim. In many cases, those public services that are expected to discharge important responsibilities in relation to the victim simply lack the resources or expertise to provide those specialised services required. This is, in part, an outcome of the fact that no extra resources were earmarked for the implementation of the new law when it was adopted in 2007. This appears to be a repeated pattern since no extra resources have been earmarked for implementing Cyprus’ action plan drafted earlier this year.
The importance of ensuring that the victim has their needs met and their rights respected was recently reiterated at a meeting of the Group of Experts of the EC which discussed the ECHR’s decision against Cyprus. The Group of Experts state that states need to respond to the obligations towards persons who have been victimised on their territory. Obligations to the victim are clearly noted in Cypriot law but questions can be raised about how this translates into practice since the human rights dimension of that law seems to play second fiddle to the pursuit of a successful prosecution.
Yiouli Taki is Senior Researcher, INDEX Research & Dialogue. You can order The Tunnel, free of charge, at www.indexcyprus.com Tomorrow marks the EU’s annual anti-trafficking day
