Panama A
Transit Depot For Human Trafficking
By Marijulia Pujol Lloyd
Panama Star - Panama has taken
significant steps to combat human
trafficking, but more needs to be done to
eradicate that problem from the country,
said the 2009 US State Department on
Trafficking of Persons.
Trafficking in persons is modern-day
slavery, involving victims who are forced,
defrauded, or coerced into labor or sexual
exploitation.
Currently Panama is in category two of
countries with human trafficking problems.
This means that the government is making big
efforts to comply with the standards of the
US Traffic Victim Protection Act.
The standards contemplate a legal framework
and immigration policy designed to prevent,
catch and punish those people dedicated to
human traffic and to protect the victims of
the crime.
Twelve months ago, Panama was included in
the Tier 2 Watch list, because the number of
human trafficking victims was increasing,
but that situation has changed.
Last year the Martin Torrijos’s
administration reformed the Penal Code
imposing harsher punishments for human
traffickers and implementing prevention
measures. It also eliminated the
“alternadora” visa that allowed foreign
women to enter the country to work in night
clubs as “companions/ prostitutes”.
However, human trafficking continues to
thrive due to the lack of security on the
borders with Costa Rica and Colombia that
allowed human traders to cross without being
detected.
According to the report Panama is a source,
transit, and destination country for women
and children trafficked for the purpose of
commercial sexual exploitation.
Also some non-government organizations
reported that some Panamanian children,
mostly young girls, are trafficked into
domestic servitude.
Government agencies indicate that indigenous
girls may be trafficked by their parents
into prostitution in Darien province.
With regards to the foreign traffic victims
are adult women from Colombia, the Dominican
Republic, and neighboring Central American
countries; some of them migrate voluntarily
to Panama to work but were subsequently
forced into prostitution.
Another document for the Fund for Peace
Foundation said that one of the biggest
human rights violations occurring within
Panama is human trafficking, especially of
women and children.
An article published by the Panama America
on April 23, 2007 said that the Chinese
Mafia considered Panama and Colombia safe
routes for human trafficking towards the
United States.
The situation is improving in Panama, but in
other countries such as Nicaragua, the
Dominican Republic and Venezuela human
trafficking is a prosperous business said
the report.
It is important to point out that according
to the State Department, Colombia is the
only country in Latin America that complies
with the minimum standards of the Traffic
Victim Protection Act.
The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton
said that the global economic crisis makes
people more vulnerable, because they are
easily attracted by false promises of
employment and become modern slaves.
The annual report examines the human
trafficking situation in 175 countries. |
