Bolivia, human trafficking affect children and adolescents mainly

teleSUR English

*In Bolivia one third of every 1,000 reports of missing persons end in human trafficking *Children and adolescents are the most frequent victims *14 destinations for victims of human trafficking have been verified *Judicial permissiveness contributes to a doubling of the phenomenon *Victims are recruited through social networks in more than 80% of cases

Transcript

00:00In other news, in Bolivia, reports and cases of human trafficking have increased constantly

00:04over the last three years and have almost doubled.

00:06The main destination of this phenomenon is sexual exploitation, followed by labor exploitation.

00:11Correspondent Fred Morales has the details.

00:17Human trafficking begins with the disappearance of a person.

00:20If the absence is prolonged, the police label the report as human trafficking.

00:24On average, one-third of every 1,000 missing persons reports result in human trafficking.

00:30In the first half of last year, we had 1,653 reports, of which 1,328 people were found.

00:43But we are still looking for 325 people.

00:47During the first half of this year, we have more than 1,807 reports, of which we have

00:53found 1,380 reports.

01:00According to research, most of the people trafficked are children and adolescents, and

01:04preferably women.

01:06They are mainly recruited for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

01:10It is always considered child sexual exploitation, which is known as child prostitution in some

01:20places.

01:21But this child sexual exploitation is just that, it is sexual exploitation.

01:28There are no children that involve consent, because it is a minor.

01:32There is no consent in this, and this is human trafficking, because there are benefits for

01:37third parties.

01:42The second destination of victims of human trafficking is labor exploitation, but 14

01:48have been verified, ranging from organ trafficking to forced pregnancy, sex tourism, forced begging,

01:54serval marriage and employment in criminal activities.

01:57In Bolivia, the cases detected are met with judicial condescension.

02:01If we do not have a significant number of sentences, we are sending a message to criminal

02:09organizations and criminals that this crime is not being punished in the country, and

02:14the work done by the rest of the institutions for prevention, attention to victims, investigation,

02:19ends up being insufficient in the face of this reality, since this is a message which

02:24is very strong.

02:27The permissiveness of the justice system, according to the authorities, may contribute

02:31to the fact that the phenomenon of human trafficking has almost doubled in just three years.

02:38In 2021, the total in Bolivia was 589.

02:42In 2022, it was 724, and in 2023, it was 947.

02:49Therefore, there is an increase in the number of complaints in the processes that are currently

02:54underway for human trafficking, which has to do with social networks.

03:02According to official statistics, 70% of trafficked persons in Bolivia are under 18 years of age

03:07and 76% are women.

03:09In more than 80% of the cases, the victims are recruited through social networks, and

03:14it has been revealed that a trafficker needs only 18 minutes to convince his victim to

03:18have a meeting.

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