Study Finds Exploitation in Central America and the Caribbean

In the interrogation room of a Nicaraguan police station, a young woman recounts her sex trafficking experience ¯ one of false promise, abuse and exploitation that kept her behind locked doors for a year and a half in a Guatemala City brothel. Grasping at an opportunity to earn money, the young woman follows a recruiter across the border, where he is paid approximately $190 in exchange for her and two others. Instead of a decent job in a factory, she finds horror:

“He deceived me by telling me that I was going to work at a factory where he was working in Guatemala, that it was a maquila and I would be earning well,” she recalls. “And he told us that we could come along without a problem, that he would pay for all the expenses…that we shouldn’t worry about that.

“We worked every day. We slept with ten men…it wasn’t our choice, but rather it was obligated in order to repay the money they had given [the recruiter] when we were sold. We had to do it because it was a business, and it was forced labor. …. He mistreated us, we weren’t well, the food bad….”

The story above illustrates the brutal realities facing women and child victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in Central America and the Caribbean. The report of the DePaul University International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI), “In Modern Bondage: Sex Trafficking in the Americas,” examines the key features of one of today’s most pressing human rights crises. It provides an overview of findings from a two-year investigation in Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, conducted in association with the Inter-American Commission of Women and the Inter-American Children’s Institute of the Organization of American States.

“This was groundbreaking, exploratory work in a region where little was known publicly about the trafficking phenomenon,” said M. Cherif Bassiouni, president of the Institute and a DePaul law professor. “At present, it is impossible to accurately report hard statistics measuring the problem. Official or unofficial efforts to collect data are hindered by confusion over how to define the problem, its low priority among many law enforcement agencies that might collect information, and its underground and often illegal nature. Nonetheless, it is widely recognized ‘on the ground’ that the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is a growing concern in this region. We have found that the patterns of sex trafficking may vary throughout the world. In this project we have focused on the interplay between national and regional influences throughout the Central American and the Caribbean regions that contribute to the problem of trafficking.”

Using information collected from first hand interviews with government officials, non-governmental organizations and those individuals closest to the trafficking trade, as well as media and law enforcement reports, IHRLI has created a model to address the problem in the Americas. The report charts overall findings for the Central American and Caribbean region, including the following:

· Generally, the region suffers from a paucity of prevention, protection, suppression and integration strategies to counter the growth of trafficking. Growing attention has been drawn to the trafficking of children, but lack of funding and other obstacles have stalled implementation of targeted programs.

· Despite government recognition of the trafficking problem, only ad hoc measures have been taken to combat this practice in the region. In most cases, it was only a single official supporting the effort in each country.

· All nations in the region except El Salvador have criminalized international sex trafficking, although the laws are rarely applied. Investigation and prosecution is often compromised by the need to have a complaint registered before pursuing a case.

· Thus far, government response mechanisms have been non-existent or inadequate. Disinterest, corruption and constrained resources plague law enforcement and immigration sectors, which have severely limited their effectiveness.

· With the exception of the Dominican Republic, stemming the trafficking problem has not been incorporated into the national agendas of the countries studied.

Specific findings include:

· Belize—Women and minors are trafficked from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua into bars and brothels in the country. Occasional arrests and deportations of trafficked women occur for immigration violations following police raids of brothels, while traffickers remain untouched.

· Costa Rica—Trafficking of women and minors occurs from Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Significant internal trafficking of Costa Rican minors for sexual exploitation exists near tourist points and ports.

· Dominican Republic—International trafficking of women from the Dominican Republic to Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, nearby Caribbean islands and Europe is widely recognized. Internal trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation in the tourist trade also has been reported.

· El Salvador—Women and children are trafficked from Nicaragua and Honduras into and through El Salvador. Salvadoran women and adolescents fall victim to recruiters who traffic them into Guatemala and Mexico.

· Guatemala—Trafficking into, within and out of Guatemala is alarming. In addition to the usual method of trafficking through false promises of work ending in forced prostitution, female migrants who may have arrived independently or with the assistance of smugglers are coerced into prostitution.

· Honduras—Honduran women and children are trafficked to the neighboring states of El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, and on to Mexico and the United States. Few trafficking or procuring cases reach the justice system.

· Nicaragua—Researchers documented cases of trafficking to El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. Some cases have been reported and investigated, but weaknesses in the justice system have resulted in delays, dismissals and lack of follow-up.

· Panama— Panamanian women and girls have been trafficked to Israel. Trafficking assumes a cover of legality under a visa program for “alternadoras” (escorts) managed by the Directorate of Migration and the Ministry of Labor. In 2000, more than 700 women from Colombia were granted such visas for temporary work in establishments.

The study also offers data from available sources to illustrate the patterns and practices of trafficking and an evaluation of national policies in the Americas. Numerous recommendations at the regional and national levels are included. “To be effective, efforts to address trafficking require that states adopt tactics that respond to the specific dynamics of the problem in a particular region,” said Bassiouni. “All aspects of the prevention, prosecution and integration or recovery efforts must be comprehensive and meaningful.”

The investigation supports the increased commitment of governments to combat transnational crime, including trafficking of persons, by developing models to collect reliable data upon which effective policy can be based. It also recognizes the important human dimension necessary to consider when constructing new legislation and policy. As U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has remarked, “Traffickers prey on the most vulnerable members of our human family, violating their most basic rights, subjecting them to degradation and misery.”

Established in 1990 within DePaul’s College of Law, IHRLI has engaged in a range of investigative projects involving human rights violations. Its work has included leading the data gathering and analysis initiative for the investigation of human rights violations in the former-Yugoslavia; interviewing witnesses to an alleged massacre of peasants in Guatemala in 1995; and preparing recommendations on how best to prosecute those responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Since 1998, the institute has monitored the trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation around the globe. In addition to field investigations in Central America and the Caribbean, the institute and a local partner conducted an in-depth inquiry into sex trafficking in Brazil. A report on those findings is forthcoming.

Note to editors: M. Cherif Bassiouni can be reached at 312/362-5922. In Modern Bondage: Sex Trafficking in the Americas can be found on IHRLI’s website at http://www.law.depaul.edu/ihrli.