La Conferencia

This weekend I flew to Arequipa, a beautiful mountainous town in Southern Peru. On Friday, there CHS was hosting the “Debate Regional Arequipa Contra La Trata De Personas.” People from all over Peru that are involved with the issue came to listen to speakers talk about the current problem, and after the speakers they were able to share their opinion in a debate.

The first speak was Ricardo Valdes, the director of CHS. The beginning of his speech focused on causes of trafficking that I have heard time and time again, the fact that trafficking is a consequence of economic and political decisions. If poverty was not so prevent in this country, or any other, the cases of trafficking would be drastically reduced. The girls that I met on Iquitos Avenue would not be working there if their mother’s didn’t ask them to help support their family. The kids that are begging on the streets or dealing drugs wouldn’t have to if there were affordable schools for them to attend. If their parents had jobs that they could support their families with, the kids would be allowed to be kids.

Valdes then continued to talk about some of the specific of trafficking in Peru in terms of the origin, transition and destination of victims. The origin is those in poor and vulnerable situations without education or capital. The victims are transitioned trough zones that have very little control, which appears to be the majority of Peru. Finally, the destination of the victims is the urban areas throughout Peru.(http://chsperu.com/chsalternativo/contenido.php?men=L&pad=32&hij=37&shi=61&pla=2&sal=2&id=IThe map created by CHS reflects common routes of trafficking victims in Peru. Since CHS has begun to keep records of trafficking cases in 2005, there have been 209 cases involving 522 victims. This is exactly what Not For Sale needs, this coming week I am going to be working with Luis of CHS to get the data on these cases to eventually work towards obtaining “accurate” (it will never actually be accurate) numbers of trafficking in Peru.

The second stage, transition, is one that I have not spent enough time reflecting on. During the debate, this issue came up time and time again. In Peru, there is very little control of transportation. Even though many of the organizations there recognize this, there were very few that offered suggestions for improvement. Peru has an enormous problem of missing persons, one person disappears every hour in Lima and 50% of those that disappear are minors. These people get lost in the transition stage. Using the government website Peruvanos Desaparecidos (http://www.latinoamericanosdesaparecidos.org/peru/default.php) the government is making the information of the missing persons public. I want to get in contact with this organization and see how the new technology has helped with combating trafficking in persons.

The end of Valdes‘ presentation focused on the social tolerance of the issue. There are too many people in Peru that see young girls in prostitution or see boys working docks and see it as scenery. They don’t dig any deeper, they don’t care to know, and they don’t want to help. The public’s apathy of the right of the child encourages and allows trafficking to flourish. Citizen participation and awareness is crucial in protecting these children.

The second speaker of the debate was Dr. Gisella Vignolo the director of Adjunta para los Derechos Humanos Defensoria del Pueblo. She described typical trafficking situations that she has seen of women and children being deceived by people that they have trusted, at times their own family members in order to make a profit. She compared human trafficking with drug trafficking. Trafficking a human is far more profitable because the product trafficked can be used repeatedly and it is easily replaceable. In drug trafficking, the product is sold once and the supply must be replenished instantly.

Vignolo, like many others involved in the field, recognize the necessity of aftercare facilities for victims in Peru. Without these facilities, those that have been rescued are very likely to fall back into the same situations because they don’t know any other life and are they are left with very few alternatives. An absence of these facilities counteracts the progress that Peru has made in the areas of prevention and prosecution.

I felt that at the end of Vignolo’s speech was focused directly at me. She stressed the necessity of knowing accurate numbers of the crime in order to make the government and the general public aware of the scope of the problem. One of the many objectives of Adjunta para los Derechos Humanos Defensoria del Pueblo is solidifying the numbers. I tried to catch Dr. Vignolo at the end of the debate but she took off early. I want to work with her and use the information that her organization has already obtained to contribute to my ongoing work.

The second part of the conference was the debate where the room split up into groups focusing on: prevention, assistance, and punishment. The group was to discuss the issues that they felt were the most prevalent and at the end of the discussion they were to agree on two main areas of focus.

Prevention
1) Teach families about the dangers of trafficking for their children and instill a sense of moral responsibility
2) Strengthen the power of the institutions that can help though education and legislation such as the police and department of transportation.
Assistance
1) Raise awareness of trafficking in police stations throughout Peru, and encourage the local government to work with the police.
2) The government should provide after care facilities specifically for people that have been trafficked providing housing, legal assistance, and health services.
Punishment
1) Instill punishments on transportation personal that fail to report a trafficking victim.
2) Those that are tried for trafficking offenses should have their properties confiscated by the government, and the capital from those assets should go to the victims.