What profile do human traffickers look for in their victims?

Women and children, children without parents, adolescents and people from the LGBTQI+ community are the main victims of human trafficking in Central America, according to the annual report on human trafficking in the world released by the United States Department of State.

Trafficking is a crime where the human being is seen as an object that can be bought and sold over and over again, whether for forced labor and sex trafficking, among others.

According to the report, presented this Monday in Washington, traffickers are increasingly using short-term rental properties as places of exploitation. Additionally, they use social media and messaging platforms to lure victims, including fake employment or education opportunities abroad, which facilitates their exploitation.

Those who are not sent abroad are forced to perform forced labor in agriculture, domestic service, criminal activity and begging.

“Traffickers prey on the marginalized and most vulnerable. But we are witnessing an emerging trend in which the demographic profile of trafficking victims is also expanding, in step with the digital developments in which we live,” he explained. Kari Johnstone, coordinator for the Fight against Human Trafficking.

Another profile sought by traffickers are migrants and asylum seekers. According to the report, in the Western Hemisphere there are “common” aspects regarding human trafficking, one of them is irregular migration.

According to the report, migrants and asylum seekers are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor, as they depend on smugglers to cross to other countries such as Mexico or the United States. Many assume debts with them, something that makes them vulnerable.

In Central America, other groups at high risk of trafficking are people of African descent and indigenous people. These populations often experience discrimination from authorities, which often makes them afraid to report crimes.

“Traffickers continue to operate with impunity, and their crimes are not receiving enough attention. We must strengthen law enforcement to bring criminals who commodify human beings to justice. And we must do more to help survivors rebuild their lives,” added UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama are the Central American countries that are at level 2 of the report prepared by the US, where governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Law for the Protection of Victims of Trafficking (TVPA), but “they are making significant efforts to comply with them.”

The only country in the region located at level 3 is Nicaragua, which means that it is not making efforts to counter trafficking. The State Department noted that the Managua government continues to “minimize the severity of the human trafficking problem.”

Before El Salvador will implement the still current emergency regime, in March 2022, “Transnational criminal organizations and gangs, including MS-13 and Barrio 18, operated by recruiting, kidnapping, training, arming, and subjecting children to forced labor in illicit activities, including murder, extortion, and drug trafficking, often in children’s own communities,” the report adds.

Although with the emergency regime in El Salvador the gangs lost control of the neighborhoods, the report explains that “there is no data on the impact of the State of Exception on trafficking in El Salvador,” and adds that before the measure, the Limited government presence in gang-controlled territory increased trafficking risks among vulnerable groups.

In 2023, Salvadoran police investigated 38 new cases of suspected trafficking: 23 for sex trafficking, four for labor trafficking and 11 for unspecified forms, involving 79 suspects.

That same year in Honduras, 128 people were accused of trafficking, human trafficking and production of child sexual content. Guatemala has more than 600 cases of trafficking under investigation.

Globally, some 27 million people are exploited in the workplace, services or sexually, through force, fraud and coercion, the report revealed.

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