A Medellin NGO on Wednesday condemned what they claim is the Colombian government’s negligence in protecting victims and prosecuting criminals in response to the largely unrecognized problem of sex trafficking in the country.
“There isn’t a single program for the victims,” Betty Pedraza, director of Espacios de Mujer, told Colombia reports. “But everything looks good on paper,” she said referring to the U.S. State Department’s classification of Colombia as a tier one country in fighting against human trafficking.
Women from Medellin who have been coercively transported to other parts of the country to be exploited as sex workers for armed groups and who somehow manage to escape are welcomed by Espacios de Mujer for crisis management, medical help, and psychological counseling.
Victims often shy away from cooperating with prosecutors, if they are ever found at all. For fear of reprisal, most victims keep their mouths shut, as is the case in many instances of human rights abuses in Colombia. However, in order to receive government aid, a victim must implicate those responsible.
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The UN, the U.S. State Department, NGO’s, and others in the international community, have criticized the Colombian government for not adequately funding victims programs, and for their lack of know-how and general awareness when it comes to domestic human trafficking. Much of the work is left to people like Betty Pedraza and her small yet productive team.
The incidence of international human trafficking, specifically of women and girls for sex work in different parts of the world is a well-recognized problem with commensurate media coverage. Internal trafficking inside Colombia, however, is severely underreported.
According to Colombia’s Law 985 enacted in 2005, human trafficking is defined as: “the exploitation of a prostitute, other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, servitude, forced begging, servile marriage, organ removal, sexual tourism and other forms of exploitation.” The consent of a victim to any form of exploitation, however, does not exempt the perpetrator from criminal responsibility.
Accurate statistics about the size of the internal human trafficking problem in Colombia do not exist.
The maps below document the internal human trafficking routes in Colombia. The first represents the origins of the victims. The second represents the destinations. The maps represent the findings of a study conducted in 2008 by Universidad Nacional and the United Nations.
Origin Departments
Destination departments
Sources
- Interview with Betty Pedraza, director of Espacios de Mujer
- Ley 985 of 2005
- 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report (United States Department of State)