By Paola Velasco
What activities are carried out on July 30, World Day Against Human Trafficking?
The main objective of this event is to make people aware of this serious crime. So most of the activities are focused on helping, protecting and preventing human trafficking from happening in all countries of the world.
To achieve this, many non-governmental organizations hold talks and symposiums on the subject. They disseminate information in the streets by distributing pamphlets. On the other hand, they join in interviewing victims of human trafficking, in order to provide them with legal and psychological advice, so that they can overcome this horrible experience.
Share useful and interesting information about the World Day Against Human Trafficking on social networks, using the hashtags #FinDeLaTrata #EndHumanTrafficking #TrataDePersonas
What is human trafficking?
Human trafficking is considered one of the most serious human rights violations, being classified as a modern symbol of slavery in the 21st century, through which people are deprived of their freedom and rights by third parties.
By “human trafficking” we mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, or retention of people, with the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, kidnapping, fraud, deception, abuse of power or exploitation of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person who has control over another, for the purpose of exploitation.
They are people subjected against their will to situations of sexual and labor exploitation, forced labor, domestic servitude, removal of organs, begging, among other things.
It is estimated that approximately 30 per cent of the victims of human trafficking are children and the other 70 per cent are women and girls. Children, in most cases, are «used» for forced labor in precarious situations, while women and girls are sexually exploited from a very young age. This does not count those cases related to black market organ dealers, or that are linked to other criminal acts such as drug trafficking.
Currently, more than 12 million people worldwide are victims of this crime. There are approximately 500 human trafficking routes and only 32 of them are in Latin America.
In recent years, it has become apparent the great danger that the Internet and social networks present, where traffickers communicate anonymously with possible victims, attracting them to their human smuggling network.
Human trafficking is a serious crime and violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Virtually every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has strengthened the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the related protocols and assists states to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking.
According to reports issued by the United Nations Organization, a high proportion of the groups that suffer this type of criminal act are the displaced, that is, people who have had to leave their country of origin (migrants), due to an armed conflict or political situation that prompts them to emigrate or seek refuge in another nation.
Human trafficking worldwide
Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia are the territories where the most victims of trafficking have been found outside their borders. Sexual exploitation is the main reason in all regions of the world except in Africa, where it is forced labor. In Latin America, Colombia is the third country most affected by this scourge, ranking alongside Mexico and Brazil. In the “Globalization of Crime” Report, published by UNODC in 2010, the main destination countries for the sexual exploitation of victims from Latin America are Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Where is there more child trafficking?
Latin America is one of the regions with the highest number of girls and women victims of trafficking, which sometimes also includes begging, forced marriages, criminal activities and even organ harvesting.
The trafficking of girls, who represent 40 percent of all victims, is one of the largest in the world.
In the Mexican Republic, Mexico City was the entity with the highest incidence of this crime, from 2015 to 2021 it accumulated 523 cases, followed by the state of Mexico (420) and Chiapas (264); the states that registered the least number of files were Colima (2), Sonora (3) and Durango (6).
