Human Trafficking in [Bolivia Street Children in [Bolivia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Bolivia] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Republic
of Bolivia [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The Bolivia is
principally a source country for men, women, and children trafficked for the
purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Members of indigenous communities
are particularly at risk for labor exploitation. Many victims are children
trafficked internally for forced labor in mining and agriculture and suffer
harsh conditions. Other victims are trafficked within the country and to
neighboring South American countries and Europe, particularly Spain. Bolivian
workers have been trafficked to sweatshops in Argentina and Brazil, and to
Chile and Peru for involuntary servitude. Illegal migrants from Asia transit
Bolivia; some may be trafficking victims. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2007 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been
culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Bolivia,
U.S. cracking down on human trafficking Bolivia, like the United States,
has a human trafficking problem and is
searching for solutions. So says Casimira Rodriquez Romero, the newly
appointed Bolivian Minister of Justice, in an interview with me in August. According to Rodriquez, two major
forms of human trafficking exist in Bolivia. Because people are desperate for
jobs, they flock to Argentina, Brazil, Spain and North America where some find
jobs, and others end up as indentured servants or worse. There is also a
tragic problem of disappearance of children, and the government is
establishing ways to locate these children and to find out what happened to
them. ***
ARCHIVES *** Quick Search for Missing Children
- Select Gender, Country ( U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Some children are known to work as indentured domestic laborers and
prostitutes. Children are reportedly
trafficked internally to urban or border areas for commercial sexual
exploitation. It is also reported that
children and adolescents are trafficked internally within Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – Faced
with extreme poverty, many citizens were economic migrants, and some were
victimized by traffickers as they moved from rural areas to cities and then
abroad. Women and children, particularly from indigenous ethnic groups in the
Altiplano region, were at greater risk of being trafficked. Children were
trafficked within the country to work in prostitution, mines, domestic
servitude, and agriculture, particularly harvesting sugar cane and Brazil
nuts. Weak controls along its extensive five borders made the country an easy
transit point for illegal migrants, some of whom may have been trafficked.
Commercial sexual exploitation of children also remained a problem. While there were reports that some
adolescents were sold into forced labor, it appeared that most victims
initially were willing economic migrants who were duped or later coerced into
accepting jobs that turned out to be forced labor. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2005 [63]. The Committee is concerned
about the extent of sexual exploitation and trafficking of children for this
or other purposes, in particular economic exploitation, in the State party
and about the lack of effective programs to address this problem. Japan
Sex Industry Ensnares Latin Women At least 1,700 women from Latin
America and the Caribbean are lured each year into sexual slavery in Japan's
huge illicit sex industry, according to a new report. A team of researchers hired by the
Organization of American States found that most of the women come from
Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico
and Peru. Bolivia,
U.S. cracking down on human trafficking Bolivia, like the United States,
has a human trafficking problem and is
searching for solutions. So says Casimira Rodriquez Romero, the newly
appointed Bolivian Minister of Justice, in an interview with me in August. According to Rodriquez, two major
forms of human trafficking exist in Bolivia. Because people are desperate for
jobs, they flock to Argentina, Brazil, Spain and North America where some
find jobs, and others end up as indentured servants or worse. There is also a
tragic problem of disappearance of children, and the government is
establishing ways to locate these children and to find out what happened to
them. HumanTrafficking.com
- Select the testimonies you wish to read from the menus to the left [BOLIVIA]
TESTIMONY OF PATRICIA - From her home in an impoverished village in rural Bolivia,
the prospect of quick riches as an escort girl proved impossible to resist
for 23-year-old Patricia Suarez. A
neighbor working for a Hong Kong gang suggested the trip, promising the young
mother an escape from part-time work as a domestic servant that paid only US
$50 (HK $387) a week. Desperate for
money, the former university student left her two-month old baby with her
mother and six brothers and sisters—unaware that she was heading for a
nightmare trapped in a sleazy underworld. U.S. Says
Belize, Cuba, Venezuela Not Fighting Human Trafficking HUMAN TRAFFICKING “TIER 2 WATCH
LIST” - Even though
Bolivia moved up from its Tier 3 listing in the 2005 report, the country was
placed on the Tier 2 watch list for its failure to show evidence of
increasing efforts to combat trafficking in the areas of trafficking
prosecutions and victim protection. Human
trafficking's dirty profits and huge costs CASES IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE
CARIBBEAN - In
Bolivia, the intermediaries who traffic in illegal adoptions charge up to
$30,000 per child. The Bolivian National Police have found only 18 percent of
the children and youth who disappeared in 2005 and 2006 (IOM/OAS, 2004). BOLIVIA - The Prevention of Trafficking
of Women and Children Project was carried out in Bolivia, during October, in
conjunction with the International Organization for Migration. This project
involved a prevention campaign carried by the mass media, including
television and radio, for which public service announcements were produced in
the Spanish, Quechua, Aymara, and Guarani languages. Between October 17 and 21, a
series of seminars, focusing on different topics, were held in the cities of
Trinidad, La Paz, and Cochabamba. La Paz hosted a seminar on “Training for
Journalists from the Bolivian Media in Trafficking in Persons: Reporting and
Spreading the News while Upholding Victims’ Rights,” at which communicators,
journalists, and owners of media outlets (written press, radio, and
television) involved with the topic or who had produced important work
relating to it, were given training relating to trafficking in human lives.
In Due to
Efforts against Trafficking in Persons Bolivia Removed from Tier 2 Watch List Over the past year, despite
limited resources, Bolivia increased law enforcement and prosecution. In a
landmark case in Cochabamba, the regional Attorney’s Office secured the
convictions of two traffickers for enslaving an 11-year-old child. Moreover,
special anti-trafficking police and prosecutors opened 36 trafficking
prosecutions across the country in 2006. Also, Bolivia made efforts to
prevent this crime by means of awareness seminars held throughout the country
and increased protection services for the victims. The
Grounds for Bolivia’s New Military Bases BOLIVIA’S
PLANS FROM A DOMESTIC PERSPECTIVE - An argument in favor of the bases
is that Bolivia does have a major problem with drug trafficking and
contra-band activities, making constructed military bases in the rainforest a
national security necessity. A BBC September 13 report noted that in the
extreme northeastern part of Bolivia, in Pando, at Fort Manoa, only one
sergeant and nine privates are guarding the border with Brazil. The Bolivian
police is also dispersed and scarce, with only an average of three policemen
at each of the country’s 110 border points. These facts have facilitated
criminal activity such as human
trafficking, particularly between Bolivia and Paraguay. At the
presentation of Bolivia’s National Security Council’s report to the Chamber
of Deputies on June 22, Defense Minister Walker San Miguel asserted that “We
have a sparse population along the borders, and consequently we are a country
tremendously vulnerable to peaceful invasion by citizens of other bordering
countries.” Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 3 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Partly Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Bolivia Street Children in [Bolivia] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Bolivia] [other countries]