Panama City (Panama), 22 April 2024 – From the tropical seaside towns of the Dominican Republic to the busy streets of Brazil, Latin America and the Caribbean have recently witnessed disturbing trends in human trafficking.
A United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) project, TRACK4TIP, is bringing countries in the region together to stand against this horrific crime, resulting in some 90 criminal investigations and the identification of more than 600 trafficking victims.
According to data collected by UNODC in Central America and the Caribbean, 89 per cent of the human trafficking victims are women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation in bars, nightclubs, hidden apartments or behind webcams.
“With no regard for human rights or dignity, trafficking groups are becoming increasingly sophisticated and transnational, and in most cases operate as business entities,” said Gilberto Zuleta, a UNODC crime prevention expert.
Leveraging digital technologies, they search for potential victims on social media, make transactions with cryptocurrency and even apply artificial intelligence.
Many of the victims are migrants fleeing violence, political instability, limited economic opportunities or natural disasters. A significant number of migrants are from Venezuela.
Years of political turmoil and socioeconomic instability have caused more than 7.7 million people to flee the country – surpassing the number of migrants and refugees from Syria or Ukraine – in what is considered the largest recorded migrants and refugee numbers in the Americas.
“Often with irregular migration status and without any labour or social security rights in foreign countries, migrants find themselves in vulnerable situations, which traffickers take advantage of,” Zuleta noted.
The story of N.V. (initials have been changed) is one of thousands. The 29-year-old woman from Venezuela was promised a job as a waitress in Ecuador. The offer turned out to be fake, making her life a nightmare.
Traffickers sexually exploited N.V. and forced her to work in appalling conditions in numerous locations.
Despite the threat of deportation and other risks, she fled to Peru with her brother and child – without proper travel documents. After walking for hours through a wild landscape, she secretly crossed the border and reached a nearby city.
There, she received support and protection from the “Binational Immediate Response Team between Peru and Ecuador”, one of many initiatives launched through UNODC’s TRACK4TIP project.
As part of the project, UNODC organized a special event, the “Best Practices Regional Exchange Forum”.
Held over two days on 17-18 April 2024 in Panama, the forum allowed authorities from participating countries to exchange experiences and learn from each other to bolster collective response against human trafficking.
“This exchange is a stocktaking of what has worked, what could work better and how we can prepare a response for the future” mentioned Sylvie Bertrand, UNODC Regional Representative for Central America and the Caribbean.
Since its inception, TRACK4TIP has forged partnerships with ministries, law enforcement agencies, NGOs, and private enterprises across nine Latin American countries. “UNODC's training, research and other efforts to promote regional cooperation have now produced tangible results,” Zuleta stressed.
Through more than 400 training sessions, they have equipped over 2,500 specialists with the tools to identify trafficking cases, employ specialized investigation techniques, utilize forensics and enhance intelligence operations. “We want to give anti-trafficking experts the opportunity to share the results of their work that have led to meaningful and promising changes in their countries,” Zuleta said.
TRACK4TIP is implemented in eight countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with the support of the US Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
