|
COSTA RICA: Persons for Sale
By Daniel Zueras
SAN JOSÉ (IPS) - Global trafficking of
persons continues apace and Costa Rica is
not exempt from sexual exploitation and
forced labour. Data compiled by the United
Nations indicate that women and girls are
most affected by human trafficking, making
up 80 percent of victims worldwide.
A large proportion of these girls and women
are trapped into sexual exploitation,
although there are no real statistics.
"There is a lot of mythology around this
subject," Ana Hidalgo, head of the
International Organisation for Migration
(IOM) unit combating slavery and human
trafficking in Central America and Mexico,
told IPS.
She explained that sexual exploitation
cannot always be prosecuted as illegal
trafficking in women, because it is not
necessarily combined with coercion or
deprivation of freedom, a basic requirement
for the U.N. definition of trafficking.
The phenomenon is still popularly referred
to as the "white slave trade", a phrase that
originated in its impact on white people.
"It seems as though problems only exist when
they affect white people in the West,"
Hidalgo said.
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children, also known as one of the Palermo
Protocols after the Italian city where it
was signed in 2000, supplements the U.N.
Convention against Transnational Organised
Crime.
Among the shortcomings of the convention is
that it addresses and penalises traffic
between countries, "but in Costa Rica, the
domestic trade is more of a problem" than
cross-border trafficking, although "they are
closely interlinked," said Hidalgo.
Other forms of exploitation endured by
victims of trafficking include recruitment
as child soldiers or beggars, illegal
adoptions, forced marriages, surrogate
motherhood, organ extraction, forced labour,
servitude, classical slavery or forced
participation in crime, the expert said.
In the last few years, the justice system in
this country has acted in cases involving
the sex trade and forced labour. Costa Rica
is a source, transit and destination country
for human trafficking.
The main victims of forced prostitution,
apart from Costa Ricans themselves, are
women immigrants from the Dominican
Republic, followed by those from Nicaragua.
Costa Rica is documented as the country of
origin for human trafficking bound for
Canada, Mexico and Japan.
According to the Regional Study on
Legislation regarding Trafficking of Persons
in Central America and the Dominican
Republic, 54 prosecutions for human
trafficking were opened in Costa Rica
between 2002 and 2006, which led to the
conviction of 16 people.
Between 1998 and 2007, 151 victims of such
crimes were identified, including a
contingent of 56 persons from China and
another group of 44 Peruvians and 13
Ecuadoreans.
The other cases investigated by the justice
system during that period focused on the
traffic of women for sexual exploitation and
the sale of children for illegal adoption.
According to Hidalgo, there are many cases
of young women travelling back and forth
under the auspices of modelling schools and
agencies, where they are offered attractive
contracts. However, when they reach their
destination they find the reality to be very
different to what they were promised.
The most susceptible victims are "poor,
unemployed women looking for opportunities,"
she said.
Slave labour is another serious problem in
Costa Rica, and Chinese mafias engaged in
human trafficking, apparently to meet that
demand, have appeared on the scene. In the
latest case, in early April, a shipment of
300 under-age children from China to Costa
Rica was foiled.
The Costa Rican embassy in Beijing had been
warning the Chinese authorities since 2008
about forged "hukou" (family registration
booklets), which are required to obtain
visas to enter Costa Rica.
The mafias look for Chinese people living in
Costa Rica whose surnames match those of
future under-age Chinese forced workers.
"They would ask for people with a certain
surname, and a given number of people would
come forward. They would set a maximum price
and hold a reverse auction," the head of the
Costa Rican Migration Service, Mario Zamora,
told IPS.
The person with that surname willing to take
the least money would be paid, and would
come forward to pick up the trafficked
child, posing as the child’s father. The
trafficked under-age worker would then work
a given number of years free for the
organised crime group running the scam.
The ringleaders of the trafficking network
were arrested in China, while in Costa Rica
a former Foreign Ministry official is facing
prosecution.
Thanks to this operation and another one
carried out in 2007, for which the trial
verdict is still awaited, "we have been able
to find out how these networks operate,"
said Zamora. Based on available evidence,
the Chinese immigrants were probably going
to be used as forced labour, he said.
But Zamora said it was difficult to prove
crimes related to trafficking in court,
because both the accused and the victims
remained silent. The victims' families back
in China were the "guarantee" that they
would not talk.
According to Zamora, trafficking is
organised by international organisations
that carry out "criminal activities behind a
legitimate front. They transform themselves
into corporations."
The attempted trafficking that was
interrupted in 2007, when the alleged
criminals tried to pay Zamora 5,000 dollars
for each of 500 visas they applied for, is
being tried only on the charge of bribery,
"because bringing in human trafficking would
complicate the case," said the head of the
Migration Service.
He complained that although penalties for
such crimes have recently been stiffened, to
bring them closer into line with the Palermo
Protocol, this is still not enough to
successfully combat the traffickers.
In his view, "the crime of human trafficking
has been typified as a socio-political
concept, but from the judicial point of view
it is an extremely complex matter to prove
unequivocally in court."
According to Zamora, the Palermo Protocol is
inadequate, because it is necessary to
demonstrate international linkages, and the
judges are faced with witnesses who refuse
to talk.
Trafficking exists in the context of the
economic dynamics of supply and demand, and
the networks establish the connections
between one and the other.
"As long as there are asymmetric labour
dynamics, conditions will be ripe for
(human) trafficking and slavery," Hidalgo
concluded. To put an end to these practices,
the OIM regional official called for
migration policies that recognise different
economic realities, and regulate the entry
of foreigners under conditions that are
"legal, decent and safe."
|
