Human trafficking is one of the most heinous and dramatic crimes, with devastating effects for its victims. Beyond sexual and labor exploitation, the scope of trafficking has extended to child exploitation, organ trafficking and other forms of abuse that have become more visible in recent decades, revealing the multidimensionality of this problem. Although it is a scourge that affects people all over the world, Latin America has shown itself to be particularly vulnerable due to a convergence of social, economic and political factors.

Globally, estimates for 2022 reveal an alarming figure of around 50 million victims of trafficking, which represents approximately one in every 125 people in the world. And in Latin America, the situation is no less worrying, given the steady increase in the number of victims detected in recent decades. And despite the efforts made by various countries to eradicate human trafficking, the challenge persists.

The problem persists due to structural factors such as poverty, socioeconomic inequality, political instability and corruption permeating institutions have contributed to the perpetuation of this cycle of exploitation. In addition, international cooperation is limited and there is little political will, which has hindered the implementation of more comprehensive and effective strategies to address this form of “modern slavery”.

A vulnerable region

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), human trafficking in Latin America is mainly concentrated in forced labor and sexual exploitation. Women make up almost half of the victims, 87% of whom are sexually exploited, more than one in ten of them being girls. Men account for 57% of forced labor victims. The majority of trafficking cases in the region occur at the domestic level and 90% involve people from South American countries or victims within their own countries.

Several Latin American countries such as Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia continue to function as points of origin, transit, and destination for victims of trafficking, both for sexual and labor exploitation, whose most vulnerable groups continue to be children and adolescents. The region’s complex economic and social situation has increased people’s vulnerability to trafficking, with most of the perpetrators being members of the victim’s immediate family or social environment.

Structural poverty in the region is one of the determining factors behind human trafficking. In many cases, families living in extreme poverty easily fall into the traps of traffickers, who promise them false jobs or better educational opportunities for their children. Among the methods of recruitment and subjugation, traffickers include grooming, false promises of improved quality of life, withholding of documents, threats to report immigration irregularities, and provision of money, lodging or food.

The most vulnerable people are easy victims of trafficking networks. However, it is a crime that does not discriminate against borders, age or social strata as the situations of vulnerability in Latin American countries are transversal and converge in a “perfect storm” that drastically reduces the options of many people, which leads to their exploitation.

Countries such as Venezuela have experienced economic and political crises that have forced millions of people to flee searching for a better future. However, many of these migrants, lacking legal status or adequate protection in the receiving countries, find themselves in a situation of extreme vulnerability that facilitates their exploitation. According to the UNODC, more than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their country recently, many of whom have fallen into the hands of traffickers who take advantage of their precarious situation.

Challenges for the institutional response

Aware of the magnitude of the problem, some Latin American countries have adopted legislation that complies with the international standards established by the Palermo Protocol, the main international treaty to combat human trafficking. Initiatives such as the Ibero-American Network of Prosecutors Specializing in Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (REDTRAM), an informal collaboration mechanism between Public Prosecutors’ Offices in cross-border investigations, have also been set up. Or even the Track4Tip project, which has attempted to unite several countries in the region around this problem. However, the frontal fight against trafficking seems to be insufficient.

In Mexico, for example, although the legislation is solid, the challenges in terms of institutional coordination and data collection on the modalities of the crime are enormous. The situation is similar in other countries such as Ecuador and Colombia, which have developed ambitious programs, but whose real impact has yet to be demonstrated.

Corruption within government institutions is another obstacle to the fight against human trafficking. In several countries in the region, public officials are often complicit in trafficking networks. In other cases, lack of resources, poorly trained law enforcement and the absence of a coherent institutional strategy have contributed to the perpetuation of the crime.

International cooperation, an essential mechanism for effectively combating human trafficking, is another pressing challenge, as it is a transnational crime. Against this backdrop, it is a priority to establish a comprehensive strategy that not only addresses the creation and strengthening of specialized police and prosecutorial units for the prevention, investigation, and care of victims, but also has a victim-centered approach, as well as effective interagency cooperation, both national and transnational, following the recommendations of the Fifth Technical Dialogue on Trafficking in Persons.

Trafficking: everyone’s problem

Political will and a firm commitment are required for human trafficking to be considered a priority on the public agenda. It requires a greater allocation of resources, an intensification of preventive public policies and a comprehensive approach to address the widespread ignorance about the magnitude and dimensions of this crime.

It is not only a legal or police challenge. Furthermore, it is a humanitarian crisis that challenges society and demands a cultural change, based on human dignity over economic profit. To this end, promoting a collective awareness of the importance of eradicating this scourge is essential. Only with a determined commitment and coordinated action will it be possible to prevent efforts from continuing to be fragmented and insufficient.

_{*Machine translation proofread by Janaína da Silva.}