Combating Human Trafficking in the Western Hemisphere: The Need for Increased NGO Involvement

• U.S. politicization of trafficking unfairly nabs Venezuela;
• Human trafficking is a serious issue;
• Haiti’s restaveks particularly exploited.
Human Trafficking is a global industry that transcends borders, regions, and cultures. Within the Western Hemisphere trafficking is an important issue that arguably helps to shape relations between Latin American and the United States. In June 2010, the State Department Report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) included, for the first time, in its ten year existence, a ranking allocated to the United States as well as 177 other countries. The TIP report helps substantiate the claim that the United States and Latin American governments must strive to improve the lives of millions of innocent people who increasingly are victims of human trafficking. Therestaveks, Haitian youth forced into domestic labor without compensation, exemplify the lack of protective measures against child trafficking who usually turn out to be the chief victims of trafficking.

The plight of these children, in Haiti and elsewhere throughout the region, reflect both the obvious and more subtle weaknesses in efforts to reduce human trafficking in Latin America. The trafficking of children is an immensely serious problem that regional governments paired with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) must address. Moreover, the United States must actively engage with both the governments of other countries as well as foreign NGOs to facilitate this improvement.

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This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Kelsey Carey

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 | Research Memorandum 10.1

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