human trafficking is "the biggest criminal activity in the world" but it is still an almost unknown crime in which it is estimated that for every victim there are twenty more unidentified and it is practically invisible in Latin America.
In addition, it is a crime that increases with technology, which it becomes a double-edged sword.
On the occasion of the commemoration this Saturday of the International Day Against Trafficking in Persons, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) recalls that globally this crime mainly affects women and girls -65%-, and that half of the victims suffered sexual exploitation, for a total of 2.5 million people affected.
"Talking about human trafficking is talking about a serious crime, a serious violation of human rights that is related to issues of structural violence, migration, armed conflict and the multiple vulnerabilities that communities face, in addition to poverty."tells in an interview with Efe Doris Hernández, leader of Peacebuilding and institutional doctrine of the Colombian Red Cross.
A large part of the victims of human trafficking in the world suffer sexual exploitation, but there is also illegal adoption, the exploitation of begging, forced labor, servitude or servile marriages. In the case of Latin America, more or less half of trafficking crimes are related to sexual exploitation.
And within this modality there is a differentiated impact, since it mostly affects women and girls, especially after the pandemic, which "increased the vulnerabilities of women"accompanied by an increase in cases of human trafficking, domestic and sexual violence.
In South America, 80% of trafficking victims are female, of which 31% are girls.
This year, the UN decided to focus on the role that technology can play in this crime and how it can somehow be the cause and increase the "traps" to capture victims, but also a mechanism that can serve to do pedagogy and as a prevention tool.
IDENTIFY THE CRIME
"In my case I realized too late that I was being trafficked"tells a Colombian survivor to Efe, because "Before leaving Colombia they proposed many things to me, they excited me; I wanted to earn a lot of money, I wanted to have many comforts".
But after the first month they took away his passport, the "locked in one room". "There we had to lie down on the floor; make food in a paint pot. First they promise us many things and when we are already in another country they practically take away our freedom, because they don’t even let us leave the place where we were."recounts.
Among the challenges that countries face to tackle this crime is precisely the lack of recognition as a phenomenon of violation, in addition to the naturalization of cultural practices and stereotypes that favor its occurrence.
"One of the particularities of this phenomenon is that there is not much awareness that it is a crime and the seriousness of this phenomenon."which sometimes leads to being "made invisible"Hernandez warns.
To this are added the difficulties of the states to implement the policies built and gaps in the knowledge of their officials, poor identification and distinction from other illegal situations or other forms of violence.
REPORT
"We had a lot of difficulties in being able to file a complaint because a colleague tried to blow himself up (escape), and they showed him photos where his mother was, to tell her that if they filed a complaint, our family would pay the consequences. We were very afraid"continues the victim.
In the case of the network that exploited this survivor, "they had been investigating them and the same Police was the one who rescued us" and dismantled it.
After reporting, survivors must have support that can come from both state agencies and private entities such as the Red Cross. "When I arrived in Colombia, the Red Cross contacted me to provide me with psychological, economic and academic help.".
In turn, the difficulty in reporting causes cases to be underreported, which means that there is not enough data to provide greater visibility and requests for support funds.
TRAFFICKING IN COLOMBIA
In Colombia there are various factors behind the trade in people, especially a structural issue and economic and social factors that "increase the risk to victims"these crossed by migration and by the armed conflict that is lived in the country, explains Hernández.
As in many other countries in the region, there "multi-affectation scenarios": in the same geographical environment we can find victims of the conflict, victims of natural disasters and other situations of violence.
In fact, the situation in Colombia has led the Ombudsman to issue early risk alerts related to human trafficking.
According to figures from the Colombian Ministry of the Interior, and despite being a highly underrepresented phenomenon, between 2013 and 2020, 686 cases of human trafficking were registered, of which 82% corresponded to the female gender, with the form of sexual exploitation being the most frequent. preponderance, with 408 cases, followed by forced labor, with 134.
Last year, until October 14, the Police identified 123 victims of trafficking, most of them women, and 34 minors, and arrested at least 33 people for this crime.
The Colombian Government has set up a free telephone line (01 8000 52 2020 nationwide or +57 (1) 6001035 from outside the country) which you can call if you want to consult a job offer that is too attractive, on the route of assistance to a victim of human trafficking, on recommendations for before and after traveling or to publicize possible cases of trafficking.