Human Trafficking Around the World (19 page)

WHAT HAPPENS TO VICTIMS AFTER TRAFFICKING

The government does not operate shelters for trafficking victims but does refer victims to local NGOs. Authorities do provide psychological and medical care, access to financial and employment assistance, and legal support. Although, the government does not have formal procedures for the identification of trafficking victims among vulnerable populations such as displaced persons or prostitutes, authorities do have an interagency anti-trafficking operations center to refer those victims who have been identified to service providers. The operations center also allows authorities to track criminal investigations and prosecutions as well as to collect nationwide information and statistics regarding trafficking crimes. During 2009 the government identified 155 victims of transnational trafficking, half of them forced-labor victims and half sex-trafficking victims. The majority were adults. Seventy-eight percent of the victims were provided with services. In 2010 the government identified 338 child soldiers; 76 transnational trafficking victims, made up equally of forced-labor and sex-trafficking victims; and 15 internal trafficking victims. It is unclear how many of the victims received services, though the child soldiers were referred to the government’s Family Welfare Institute for services. Victims who assist in the investigation and prosecution of their trafficker(s) are provided housing through the nation’s witness protection program, though most victims do not come forward because of fear of retaliation (U.S. Department of State, 2010a, 2010b, 2011). Their concerns are not without merit. Those who participate in the witness protection program often do not blend into their new environment, and want to contact family and friends from home. Also, harm can come to family members remaining in the trafficked person’s hometown (Pearson, 2002; U.S. Department of State, 2006). Out of 80 trafficked women assisted between 1997 and 2000, only 4 filed a formal report with authorities. Instead, it is officials or family members of victims who bring most cases of trafficking forward. In 2009 only 4 victims participated in prosecutions against their traffickers (Anti-Slavery International, 2002; U.S. Department of State, 2010a). There is no specialized legal mechanism that grants temporary residence status to foreign victims, but authorities can provide victims with temporary permission to stay in the nation on a case-by-case basis. Victims are also eligible for humanitarian assistance through the government (U.S. Department of State, 2010a). It is unclear how often, if ever, temporary status is granted to victims.

The Colombian government does provide some support to Colombian victims trafficked abroad, though the reported numbers are erratic at best. Consular officials reported aiding 22 victims in 2008, 110 in 2009, 106 in 2010, and 9 in 2011. One hurdle is that victim services overseas are limited to consular districts with at least 10,000 Colombian residents. Consequently, their services are not typically available to victims in isolated areas. The International Organization for Migration has helped Colombian victims obtain protection and services in the country where they were trafficked and has safely brought them back to Colombia. Officials have also set up interviewing facilities at the international airport in Bogotá, in order to greet returning victims and debrief them on their rights and the procedures on bringing charges against their traffickers (U.S. Department of State, 2006, 2010a). Interpol officers state that while Colombian anti-trafficking law is sufficiently stringent, a significant increase in anti-trafficking training must take place so that victims are not treated as culpable parties to their own trafficking experience. “During legal proceedings we often see victims being ‘hammered’ with questions like ‘why did you go?’ or ‘how could you not realize it was a bogus offer?’” Interpol officers told the news agency Inter Press Service (Martínez, 2009).

WHAT HAPPENS TO TRAFFICKERS

While the number of convictions of those who have committed trafficking offenses is not high, it does appear, generally, to be on the rise. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) states that from 2003 to September 2009, only 3 prosecutions and 3 convictions for trafficking in persons were recorded (UNODC, 2009a). The U.S. State Department reports a higher number of convictions: 2 in 2005, 10 in 2006, 6 in 2007, 16 in 2008, 14 in 2009, 17 in 2010, and 16 in 2011. Sentencing of traffickers also appears to be increasing. In 2005 persons convicted of trafficking offenses received 9 years’ imprisonment compared to 48 months to 6.5 years in 2006, 4 to 12 years in 2007, 4.5 to 14 years in 2008, 7 to 27 years in 2009, 7 to 23 years in 2010, and 2 to 26 years in 2011. Moreover, the number of trafficking investigations were increasing over all, until 2011: 49 in 2006, 182 in 2007, 159 in 2008, 215 in 2009, 144 in 2010, and 72 in 2011. The number of investigations of labor trafficking increased from 2 in 2008 to 80 in 2009 (U.S. Department of State, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010a, 2011, 2012). Particularly noteworthy is that the government attained its first labor trafficking conviction in 2010. What is concerning and potentially regressive is that the majority of investigations in 2011 focused on transnational sex trafficking; there was only one reported investigation of forced child labor. Furthermore, all 16 convictions in 2011 were obtained in transnational sex-trafficking cases. Despite the window of increasing investigations between 2006 and 2009, it seems that sex tourism has continued to slip under the radar. For instance, there were no reported prosecutions or convictions of child sex tourists in 2009, 2010, or 2011 (U.S. Department of State, 2010a, 2011, 2012).

INTERNAL EFFORTS TO DECREASE TRAFFICKING

In 2002 Colombia made human trafficking a specific offense. The law prohibited promoting, inducing, constraining, enabling, financing, cooperating, or participating in a person’s transfer within the national territory or abroad by resorting to any form of violence, ruse, or deception, for exploitation purposes, to lead such person to work in prostitution, pornography, debt bondage, begging, forced labor, servile marriage, slavery for purposes of obtaining financial profit, or any other benefit either for himself or for another person (Pearson, 2002). In August 2005 new anti-trafficking legislation (Law 985) was adopted. Under the law, a victim’s consent is irrelevant when defining situations of human trafficking, which means defendants cannot raise consent as a means of defense. Offenders face a minimum sentence of 13 to 23 years’ imprisonment. The law also assigned the Interinstitutional Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons the task of developing a comprehensive national action plan to eliminate human trafficking and to coordinate anti-trafficking policies (U.S. Department of State, 2006; UNODC, 2009a). Reforms to the penal code in 2011 increased fines for trafficking minors. The government also reformed penalties for using minors in the commission of crimes and established sentences of 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment (U.S. Department of State, 2012). While the government has made moderate progress in increasing awareness of human trafficking, it relies a great deal on the work of international groups and NGOs to do the bulk of public awareness anti-trafficking campaigns.

There exist various official units that focus on human trafficking and related offenses. In 2007 the Public Prosecutor’s Office established a National Unit of Human Rights that focuses on human trafficking. The DAS also has a unit that concentrates specifically on trafficking investigations and operates under the direction of Interpol (UNODC, 2009a; IOM, 2009). As part of the 2008 Comprehensive National Strategy Against Trafficking in Persons (Act 4786), the Ministries of Justice and Interior and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime field office implemented an Anti-Trafficking in Persons Operational Center (Centro Operativo Anti-Trata de Persona). The center’s objective is to coordinate authorities’ efforts to investigate and prosecute traffickers and provide assistance to victims (Act 4786, 2008; UNODC, 2009a; IOM, 2009). The Register Information System on Trafficking in Persons (Registro de Informacíon de Trata de Personas, RITRA) was created to assist in the coordination of trafficking case information. Launched in 2007, RITRA collects information from various institutions that deal with trafficking cases, such as direct assistance organizations and criminal justice agencies (UNODC, 2009a).

Colombia has strengthened and continued international anti-trafficking cooperation efforts with Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. The anti-trafficking partnerships focus on the repatriation of trafficking victims and trafficking investigations (U.S. Department of State, 2010a, 2011). Since January 2005 Japan and Colombia have worked jointly to eliminate human trafficking of Colombians to Japan, an effort that has involved significant obligation on both sides. Japan has agreed that Colombian victims are allowed to stay in Japanese shelters for extended periods as opposed to immediate deportation back to Colombia. Colombia has agreed that once victims return to Colombia, they will be offered immediate care. Colombian and Japanese officials have agreed to make efforts to exchange information on both victims and traffickers (Asahi Shimbun, 2005; U.S. Department of State, 2006). The Colombian government has also agreed to expand efforts to ensure that passports are not forgeries, and Japan has agreed to increase its enforcement of traffickers, who are often involved in organized crime mafias (Asahi Shimbun, 2005).

All 32 departments in Colombia have anti-trafficking committees, though they vary in degree of activity. Of concern is that civil society actors state that some of the committees exist only in name. In 2009 the government put together a national workshop for departments to discuss the challenges they face and the best practices. In addition, the Ministry of Education has introduced an anti-trafficking component into the education curriculum, specifically in sex education. And in contrast to many other nations, in an unusual but potentially beneficial anti-trafficking measure, Colombian authorities have trained 171 journalists to improve awareness and increase accurate media coverage of the trafficking situation in Colombia (U.S. Department of State, 2010a, 2012).

While all of these measures are certainly positive, one key step to reducing human trafficking in Colombia is to halt the civil unrest. Significant efforts and successes have occurred. Eight former leaders of the now demobilized AUC paramilitary group have been imprisoned and charged with crimes against humanity (Vieira, 2010). These paramilitary leaders have committed more than 42,000 crimes and have sought a reduced prison sentence of eight years under the controversial Justice and Peace Law in exchange for demobilizing their troops and confessing their crimes (Gill, 2009; Vieira, 2010). The Constitutional Court ruled that the demobilized paramilitaries could obtain the legal benefit of the Justice and Peace Law only if they confessed the complete truth. In response, the eight former commanders pointed out that there are other culpable persons who also need to be brought to justice for their involvement in paramilitary activities: high-level officials, politicians, members of the public security forces, business leaders, contractors, and foreign investors (Vieira, 2010).

The eight paramilitary leaders wrote a letter to Iván Cepeda, congressman-elect and spokesperson for the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, and Gustavo Petro, former presidential candidate for the Alternative Democratic Pole. In the letter, the imprisoned former commanders stated that their disarmament and demobilization and the “half truth and half justice” were “worth nothing” if those persons in higher positions who “personify” the paramilitary evaded responsibility and remained protected by political and economic power. The commanders emphasized that “land speculation, seizure and concentration of agricultural property, violence and displacement in the countryside, and the consequent social injustice against the rural people, entail and involve situations still unknown” (Vieira, 2010). Camilo González, director of the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace, agreed that there are multiple layers of culpability. “What they say is true. They were merely the armed wing of paramilitarism. Here we have a many-headed monster, with the armed, political, and economic heads. They are interrelated, and each one has a small piece of the other.”

Those displaced by the unrest continue to be marginalized. In an effort to push the government to adequately protect IDPs, in 2009 the Constitutional Court declared the right of IDPs to be included in the registry and directed the government to address under-registration through various means. These include registering persons whose applications were rejected in previous years, sharing information between government databases and the IDP registry, and registering children born to IDPs after the family’s registration date (IDMC, 2009). In the same year the Constitutional Court upheld its 2004 ruling that the lack of response by the government represents an unconstitutional state of affairs. Throughout 2009 the court made 12 decisions obligating the government to take action. In response, various government agencies drafted a comprehensive reform of land policy (IDMC, 2009). In October 2011 the court echoed its previous sentiments that the government’s response to internal displacement amounted to an unconstitutional state of affairs, and ordered the government to adopt a wide range of measures and report on the implementation and outcomes of the measures. Months before, on June 10, 2011, President Santos signed into law a new Victim and Land Restitution Law (Ley de Victimas y de Restitución de Tierra, Law. 1448) aimed to restore land to Colombians who have been forced from their homes by violence. Under the law, victims of conflict, including IDPs, will be provided redress. An approved finance plan of $500 million will support its implementation. Some remaining problems have been identified in the Victims’ Law, including in the property restitution section—such as how to ensure the safety of returning individuals and communities as unrest and conflict continue; and although the Constitutional Court confirmed the right of Afro-Colombian communities to be consulted in the process of adopting and implementing the law, the communities report that this has not been sufficiently done. The implementation of the law began on January 1, 2012 (IDMC, 2011; ABColombia, 2012).