Search results
- Various investigations indicate that the groups most likely to be victims of trafficking schemes in Mexico are Indigenous people, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, informal sector workers, youth from gang-controlled territories, and asylum seekers and migrant people.
www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/-kill-kidnap-rape-trafficking-victims-speak-dangers-face-rcna40952'They kill you, they kidnap you, they rape you': Trafficking ...
Since 2018, UNODC in Mexico has been collaborating with local indigenous leaders to address the risks of human trafficking through culturally and linguistically-sensitive strategies. Margarita is a representative of the “Centers for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Women” of Baja California, Mexico, an organization led by local women who provide different support services in their communities.
- Overview
- Grappling with historic migration
- Not just sex trafficking
The young woman, 15, left Tegucigalpa, Honduras in early March to come to the U.S. Her aunt, who lives in Florida, had paid a "coyote" $4,000 to cross her into U.S. territory.
But after journeying several weeks, the smuggler left her lying on a street in the Mexican state of Puebla.
There, what she thought was an offer from a man to work at a restaurant as a waitress turned out to be a ruse from a human trafficking network. “They put me as a sex worker. There were several people who controlled me a lot, the clients even hit me. It was horrible," she said of her ordeal, which lasted several weeks. She managed to run away one day she was being taken to a hotel room.
Her story and that of other victims who spoke to Noticias Telemundo — their names are being withheld for fear of reprisals —illustrate the experiences of the approximately 50,000 people that are trafficked every year across 148 countries, according to the United Nations latest biannual report.
More than 60% of human trafficking victims in the last 15 years have been women and girls, and most have been trafficked for sexual exploitation, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
In addition, "it's estimated that at least 25% of the cases are migrants. It is very high, and there are victims who are not being detected,” said Mario Cordero Véjar, head of UNODC's Program on Crime and Drugs.
In recent years, Mexico has experienced a record migratory flow toward the United States, with U.S. authorities detecting more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants on the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021. In addition, more than 58,000 people requested refuge in Mexico during the first half of 2022, a situation that is unprecedented in the country.
A South American woman who was forced into prostitution for four years in Mexico City told Noticias Telemundo she was recruited in her native country with a false job offer, which she accepted because her mother was very ill.
But when she arrived in Mexico, she found herself immersed in a nightmare of sexual exploitation that left her with multiple physical and psychological consequences. Every day she had to produce the largest number of "tickets," a euphemism used by traffickers to refer to the act of having sex and for which they charged 200 pesos per client — under $10.
“On several occasions I got sick because I don’t smoke cigarettes and everyone smoked. Once my left lung was blocked. You're a foreigner and alone, and you suffer mistreatment and discrimination," said the woman, who has sought legal help from CATW-LAC.
Mexican authorities recently created a working group dedicated to human trafficking and smuggling.
“We are not only interested in getting into the diagnoses, but also in improving the registry and at some point having some care protocol," said Miguel Aguilar, director of the Center for Migratory Studies, part of Mexico's Interior Ministry, noting that migrant trafficking victims could be exploited again.
The State Department report also warned of labor exploitation, stating that the Mexican government did not allocate enough funds or staff to the Ministry of Labor to enforce labor laws.
Inspectors in the country have a limited mandate to monitor working conditions in informal businesses and farms, which employ more than half of the Mexican workforce.
Groups say labor exploitation and trafficking impacts many Indigenous people who are recruited from the south of Mexico, especially in states such as Chiapas and Oaxaca, with a promise of attractive jobs. They're then taken north to do agricultural work.
“They are people who don’t speak Spanish, or speak very little, and they don’t have documents, but they live in extreme poverty and their only chance is to work in a field for more than 14 hours," said Cordero, from UNODC.
On July 30, which marked International Day against Trafficking, the UN launched a campaign with videos to identify and call attention to the issue. Since many victims are transported by plane, an alliance was created to include brochures on flights so that passengers have the necessary information to identify and denounce such practices.
The UN advises various organizations to detect and prevent cases of labor trafficking. Women in Defense of Women is a group in San Quintín, in Baja California, an important agricultural center near the U.S. border.
Mar 27, 2024 · Since 2018, UNODC in Mexico has been collaborating with local indigenous leaders to address the risks of human trafficking through culturally and linguistically-sensitive strategies.
Dec 4, 2017 · Nearly 1,300 victims of human trafficking in Mexico were reported from 2009 to 2015, mostly women and girls forced into sex work, according to latest government figures, the CNDH said.
Aug 10, 2018 · Border checkpoints in Mexico have forced migrants to use more dangerous routes in an attempt to escape detection, detention, and deportation. Smugglers often kidnap and extort migrants during transit, and even abandon them on inhospitable routes.
An international organization reported there were 29 shelters in Mexico that could assist trafficking victims, including 13 specialized shelters for victims of trafficking, 11 for victims of GBV, and five that each served a specialized population such as Indigenous women, children and adolescents, or migrants.
An international organization reported there were 29 shelters in Mexico that could assist trafficking victims, including 13 specialized shelters for trafficking victims, 11 for survivors of GBV, and five that each served a specialized population such as Indigenous women, children and adolescents, or migrants.
