Key Trafficking Issues in the Western Hemisphere Region
Key Trafficking Issues in the Western Hemisphere Region
Human trafficking manifests itself differently around the world. In the Western Hemisphere – North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean – there are broad commonalities in trafficking trends countries face and how their governments and authorities approach the crime. Below is an overview of shared issues in the region to illustrate the overall situation and coordinate the anti-trafficking efforts of governments and other stakeholders. These regional issues are extrapolated from the individual narratives for the countries in the region, including the United States.
Unprecedented irregular migration in the region affects all Western Hemisphere countries. Migrants and asylum seekers are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor, including by large and small organized criminal groups. Migrants who rely on migrant smugglers are at particularly high risk of exploitation as many assume debt to pay migrant smugglers. Irregular migration may also include individuals already exploited by traffickers, as victims may be motivated to migrate and seek protection elsewhere. While some countries enacted policies aimed at reducing migrants’ vulnerability to trafficking by providing temporary residency and access to formal employment, education, healthcare, and other services, we encourage all countries faced with irregular migration challenges to prevent trafficking and prioritize screening among migrants.
Countries across the region generally have a good understanding of and response to sex trafficking, especially in identification of women who are victims. Governments also undertake and emphasize the importance of law enforcement and criminal justice approaches to address trafficking, even if implementation is uneven. Many governments seek to tackle both internal and transnational human trafficking. In broad terms, there is political will in many countries to address human trafficking, particularly sex trafficking.
Weak efforts targeting forced labor remain a concern in the Western Hemisphere. Governments generally focus on addressing sex trafficking and have weaker, poorly enumerated procedures to prosecute labor traffickers and protect victims of forced labor. Labor inspectorates are underfunded and understaffed and typically have limited or no authority to inspect informal sector worksites where many victims are exploited, especially along changing migration routes. Governments’ lack of attention to labor trafficking leaves victims unprotected in multiple sectors, including agriculture, mining, logging, maritime, and service.
Traffickers also exploit many victims in forced criminality. Organized crime groups, including gangs and illegal armed groups, exploit girls in child sex trafficking, force children into street begging, forcibly recruit or use child soldiers, and coerce and threaten young men and women to transport drugs, commit extortion, act as lookouts, or commit acts of violence, including murder. Organized crime groups target groups of migrants unable to enter a country due to border restrictions or awaiting asylum decisions, including at the U.S.-Mexico border. State-sponsored forced labor is also a concern, specifically Cuba’s labor export program, including its medical missions – which the Cuban government continues to profit from by subjecting workers to forced labor and exploitation.
aps in trafficking victim protection are another broad concern in the Western Hemisphere. For years governments have lacked (or failed to provide the necessary) financial and human resources to screen for and identify trafficking victims and provide them trauma-informed services. Some governments have developed policies and protocols for screening victims and referring them to care, but implementation has been inconsistent or ineffective. In addition, governmental interagency coordination is weak, with working groups often disjointed and disempowered, which is particularly detrimental to the cross-sectoral collaboration needed for victim protection efforts. These problems are particularly notable among migrants, whom governments rarely screen for trafficking indicators.
Furthermore, governments make weak screening and identification efforts even with underserved populations and marginalized groups recognized as at high risk to trafficking, including Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and LGBTQI+ persons, as well as members of other ethnic and linguistic minorities, migrants, refugees, and displaced persons. These populations also frequently experience discrimination from authorities, often making them fearful to report crimes or access care and justice. Finally, there are insufficient trafficking-specific services for victims, particularly for men and boys, in most countries across the region. Governments refer identified trafficking victims to support systems designed to serve other populations, such as migrants, individuals experiencing homelessness, or victims of gender-based violence, which do not meet the specific needs of trafficking victims. Similarly, access to justice and services is concentrated in large urban areas, while the most vulnerable individuals frequently live in rural areas with limited government presence. Lack of victim-centered and trauma-informed services can hinder victim identification, prevent healing, increase risk of re-trafficking, and fuel impunity by making survivors less likely to participate in the case against their traffickers.
Criminal justice responses and definitions of trafficking are concerning across the region. Many governments have weaknesses in their legal systems and uneven judicial application of trafficking laws, including levying fines in lieu of imprisonment for trafficking crimes, imposing penalties not commensurate with those for other crimes, and failing to criminalize all forms of child sex trafficking. Judges, in particular, may lack adequate training in applying trafficking laws and coercive methods traffickers use, which impacts their decisions and sentences. Impunity for trafficking crimes fosters misperceptions about trafficking among both policymakers and the public. Inadequate law enforcement efforts and insufficient capacity-building for law enforcement and other first responders hinders or impacts efforts in low-capacity countries, especially in the Caribbean. Governments with limited resources often do not recognize or implement low-cost/high-impact anti-trafficking policies. Official complicity within law enforcement, the prison system, and local government facilitates trafficking crimes across some governments, but criminal prosecution of complicit officials lags behind the already low number of convictions of other traffickers. Child sex trafficking and extraterritorial commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse are also pervasive concerns, particularly due to the increased use of social media and online platforms to recruit victims. Many officials conflate human trafficking with other crimes, including migrant smuggling, child labor, sexual violence against children, illegal commercial sex, and illegal adoption. Because of this confusion, governments may misidentify trafficking victims, fail to give them adequate support, and therefore underreport trafficking crimes. These problems lead to inadequate data collection and reporting on human trafficking and, therefore, an incomplete understanding of the extent of the crime in the hemisphere.
Excerpt from the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report from the United States Department of State Publication Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
