Brasília, 24 February 2023 - The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Brazil launched, at the end of last month, the "Study on Victims of Human Trafficking Exploited for Drug Transportation". The publication was prepared jointly with the National Secretariat of Justice (SENAJUS), of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) and the Public Defender of the Union (DPU).
The study, exploratory and qualitative in nature, addresses the issue of victims of trafficking in persons for the purpose of committing crimes, i.e., persons who are psychologically or physically coerced into committing illicit acts, and who have elements of having been victims of trafficking in persons.
The focus was on situations in which people or accused persons, Brazilians, or foreigners, identified as "mules" of international drug trafficking by the justice system are indicted or denounced for committing this crime, but who are in fact also victims of trafficking in persons for the purpose of crime.
The study begins with the presentation of the normative elements that define trafficking in persons and the dilemmas faced in identifying trafficked persons. For the analysis, 105 criminal sentences of the 2nd Instance Federal Court of Guarulhos, issued in the years 2018 and 2019, were systematized, in addition to interviews conducted with public and civil society institutions that deal with the theme. In addition, the study addressed the principle of non-punishment of victims of human trafficking, raised by the United Nations, and brought examples of how this principle is applied by other countries.
The goal of the study is to put forward the most detailed and recent information on the correlation between these crimes that will be useful to justice institutions, policy makers and victim assistance institutions, and serve as a management and/or procedural decision tool for the adequate treatment of these cases.
Learn more about the work of UNODC Brazil in the area of Trafficking in Persons here (in Portuguese) and of UNODC headquarters here (in English).
