Key Facts
- In 2023, Spain identified 664 victims of sex trafficking, including 12 minors, primarily from Colombia and other South American countries. This figure represents an increase of 100 identified victims compared to 2022, suggesting the underlying activity is returning to prepandemic levels.
- Human trafficking and sex exploitation have expanded dramatically in Latin America due to dwindling economic opportunities and increasing migration. The situation is particularly severe in Venezuela, where the number of victims rescued has surged from 451 in 2021 to 1,390 in 2022. In Spain, the majority of identified victims come from Colombia, and the Cuban regime appears to be collaborating with sex-trafficking networks by recruiting people on the island.
- Combating sex trafficking effectively requires coordination between governments, robust prevention policies, dismantling criminal networks, victim protection, and international support. National action plans that focus on prevention, protection, investigation, and governance are crucial to addressing this global scourge.
Introduction
As a remote worker in Ecuador, I used to frequent a coworking space just 10 minutes from my home. The receptionist there was a kind Venezuelan woman who had left her country some years ago in search of better opportunities. Despite having a stable job, she was a passionate and talented cosmetologist, needing extra money to send remittances back to Venezuela.
On her last day at the coworking space in 2019, she shared exciting news: she was flying to Madrid, where she had secured her dream job at an elite beauty salon, earning 2,000 euros monthly plus tips and commissions.
Two months later, she returned to Ecuador. She had fled a criminal scheme that lured Venezuelan migrants into Spain under false pretenses and forced them into prostitution. She asked us to keep silent about her name and location, since she feared retaliation. This was the first time I encountered such a story, but, unfortunately, it was not the last.
In early July 2024, the Spanish police dismantled a major sex trafficking and exploitation network in Málaga, Spain. When police arrived at the four-story operations building, the network had hidden more than 145,000 euros in cash and 1.2 kilos of cocaine for the victims’ and clients’ consumption. The building had surveillance cameras on every floor to monitor the victims, who were forced to be available 24-7 for clients. Police identified 500 women, mostly from Colombia, who were lured by fake job offers at beauty salons.
🚔 MÁS DE 500 VÍCTIMAS
Desarticulan una de las mayores redes de explotación sexual de mujeres latinoamericanas por la Policía en Málaga, España.
Aquí los detalles 👉🏼https://t.co/cnWSVeUkBI
📹 @policia pic.twitter.com/T6knHuUY9M
— 800 Noticias (@800Noticias_) July 3, 2024
As economic opportunities have dwindled and emigration has increased in Latin America, human and sex trafficking has expanded, becoming one of the most lucrative illicit activities. This investigation examines the factors that fuel sex trafficking in the region, the traffickers’ modus operandi, the role of organized crime, and how to tackle sex trafficking.
For this purpose, the Impunity Observer interviewed the following experts on human-trafficking prevention and protection for victims:
- Adrianne Robinson, a former official dedicated to human-trafficking prevention in the Ecuadorian government. She has also specialized in intelligence and cyber security in Spain and Eastern Europe.
- Daniel Rueda, a lawyer specializing in human trafficking, presides over the Ecuador-based Alas de Colibrí Foundation (in English: hummingbird wings). The foundation has provided assistance to Venezuelan, Colombian, Peruvian, and Ecuadorian victims, mainly of sex-trafficking networks in the United States.
An Escalating Crisis
In 2023, Spanish officials identified 664 victims of sex trafficking and exploitation in Spain, including 12 minors. Of the victims, 98 percent were women, primarily coming from Colombia and other South American nations. This figure represents an increase of 100 identified victims relative to 2022. This suggests that the number of victims is returning to prepandemic levels—when it reached 900 victims annually. The spread of COVID-19 impeded movement drastically, including human trafficking.
The Colombian government’s figures reflect this alarming trend. Over the last four years, 710 people reported being sex-trafficking victims. Of those people, the Colombian Ministry of Interior addressed 264 human-trafficking reports in 2023 alone, and 63 percent of those declared they were forced into prostitution. Based on available data, officials have identified that sex traffickers mainly operate in the cities of Medellin, Cúcuta, Pereira, and Cali. The main destination countries for Colombian victims are Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, and Spain.
In Venezuela, the situation is even more dire due to the large exodus. In 2021, 451 Venezuelan women were rescued from human-trafficking networks. In 2022, the year with the latest available data, that number soared to 1,390 victims. In Venezuela, sex-trafficking networks are operating across the whole country.
Daniel Rueda, president of the Alas de Colibrí Foundation, told the Impunity Observer: “In the last few years, this phenomenon has increased, particularly with Venezuelan women migrating across the region. With the evolution of technology, these networks have resorted to social media to offer opportunities, appealing to the victims’ need for employment and security. In Latin America, promises usually relate to migrating to the United States.”
The figures released by governments only showcase identified cases. According to Rueda, “with this kind of activity, victims rarely report, since they are usually threatened.” Therefore, the actual number on the ground is markedly higher. Beatriz Sánchez, a Spanish prosecutor specializing in human trafficking, has warned that “for every woman detected, there are 20 others who are not.”
False Hopes Meet Harsh Realities
According to Spanish authorities, most victims arrive in Spain hoping for better days. A gang dismantled in April 2024, for example, approached low-income women in Colombia and Ecuador and recruited them. The police statement reads: “taking advantage of their precarious situation by deceiving them with the promise of coming to Spain to work in elderly care. Once they arrived in our country, they were forced into prostitution.”
Robinson tells the Impunity Observer that recruitment tactics include: (1) romantic enticement, (2) false promises of work, study, or advancement in sports, (3) perverted feminist narratives (advocating being your own boss), and (4) social-media grooming, sometimes with artificial intelligence. These tactics explain why victims usually travel voluntarily: “Once they arrive in the destination country, sex traffickers retain their passports or threaten them and ask them to pay the costs of the travel by working in prostitution.”
Both Robinson and Rueda stress that sex traffickers are increasingly using social media to facilitate their activities. Rueda tells the Impunity Observer that sex traffickers usually create fake profiles and identities: “With false identities, they reach the victims and capture them easier than before.” Once they have the victim’s trust, they lure them, offering solutions to their needs. “Usually victims have had scant access to education, health care, and employment.”
Robinson adds that human traffickers mainly operate or seek victims in countries where there is organized crime, authoritarian regimes, and high rates of poverty, unemployment, and informal employment. Marginalized or vulnerable groups, such as children, adolescents, women, LGBT people, migrants, and those in adverse family situations, are more prone to being targeted: “In Latin America, all these factors converge, which is why this is one of the regions with the highest number of victims, and where countries are sources, transit points, and destinations for sex trafficking.”
In addition, in extreme cases such as Cuba, the dictatorship appears to play a role in human trafficking. Robinson explains: “Cubans leave their country through labor programs promoted by the government itself, such as the exportation of doctors, but they do not know the conditions and where they will arrive.” According to the United Nations, the major destinations of Cuba’s labor exportation program are Italy, Qatar, and Spain.
Who Are the Sex Traffickers?
In May 2024, US officers inflicted a blow, including three arrests, on a sex-trafficking ring run by the large Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua. This network operated in Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, New Jersey, and Florida. One victim revealed she was enticed with promises of illegal entry into the United States, only to be forced into sexual exploitation upon arrival to repay her alleged debt. According to Rueda, “sex traffickers in the United States usually have ties with Mexican drug traffickers, who also coerce people—particularly minors—into other criminal operations.”
In March 2024, the Spanish police uncovered a network that attracted Colombians with lucrative job offers as webcam models, promising they would not have direct contact with clients. Once the offer was accepted, the victims traveled to Spain, where they were taken to brothels. Their passports were then confiscated, and they were told they had incurred a debt of 6,500 euros, which they had to repay through prostitution. The police captured the five people who operated the network.
While this illicit trade is often seen as the domain of large criminal organizations, Robinson highlights that it can also occur on a smaller scale: “Investigations have shown the Nigerian Mafia, Albanian Mafia, Bosnian Mafia, and various Latin American criminal groups are involved in sex trafficking and exploitation. However, such operations can also be run by just a few individuals, without the extensive infrastructure of a cartel.”
Robinson illustrates the latter with two examples: “Soccer schools are commonly used as a ruse to recruit children and adolescents. Small groups claim to scout soccer talents and offer parents an all-expenses-paid opportunity to send their children to soccer schools of famous Spanish soccer teams. Once there, children lose contact with their parents.… In Brazil, an influencer in personal development offered retreats for spirituality but actually sexually exploited the women who attended these programs.” Contrary to popular belief, Robinson notes, those who lure victims into these networks are often people close to them, such as relatives or acquaintances.
How to Combat Sex Trafficking
As Spanish Prosecutor Sánchez has asserted, “sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative activities in the world, only behind arms trafficking and on the same level as drugs. So, imagine the difficulties in eradicating the major mafias dedicated to human trafficking.” Betania, a Spanish nonprofit providing support to gender-violence and sex-trafficking victims, reported in September 2023 that sex trafficking worldwide accounts for more than $40 billion per year and affects more than 2.5 million people.
According to Robinson, to counteract networks effectively, measures must include “coordination between governments, prevention policies, dismantling criminal gangs, protecting victims, and support from international organizations like Interpol.” For Rueda, prevention is the key. Local governments should address the root problem by promoting social and economic development and tackling poverty: “With the support of technology, they can launch awareness and education campaigns to communicate to people how sex-traffickng networks operate and how to be cautious.”
Rueda also highlights the importance of cooperating with the national government and civil-society organizations and acting proactively: “Judicial authorities should proactively investigate. Since sex-trafficking victims do not report their cases, officers must engage in continuous intelligence, inspection, and online surveillance to try to detect these networks.”
Robinson believes all state branches and governmental institutions should work towards a specific goal. For her, the coordinated work should address the phenomenon in a comprehensive manner, from prevention and investigation to protection and law enforcement.
Regarding the latter, Robinson argues “there is still much work to be done in terms of access to justice and reparations for victims, especially when they are foreigners and lack support from the destination country after being separated from these networks.” After the victims have experienced such harsh conditions and traumas, they need specialized support, including psychological attention, medical care, and protection during reintegration back into society.
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