State Dept: Venezuelan Women
State Dept: Venezuelan Women and Girls Exposed Trafficked/Sexually Exploited in Curaçao and Sint Maarten
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Department of State: Venezuelan Women and Girls Exposed to Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation in Curaçao and Sint Maarten
07/30/2022
The governments of these islands failed to adequately identify the victims of the networks dedicated to this crime,
many of whom come from Venezuela, indicates a report from the US government
Venezuelan victims of human trafficking have been deported from Curaçao and Sint Maarten due to poor application of protocols for the investigation and treatment of victims of this crime.
According to the latest report from the United States Department of State on the matter,
State Dept: Venezuelan Women
this is one of the reasons why Curaçao was included in the group of countries that do not do enough to combat these practices, while Sint Maarten was included in a “watch list” ,
from which you can only get out if you meet a set of requirements.
According to the report, released on July 21, as of 2019 the Curaçao police have only carried out one investigation each year for sex trafficking .
However, the judges are “little familiar” with the matter, and generally the accused come out of the proceedings unscathed, or with light sentences.
Confusion
“The government continued to treat the problems of human trafficking and migrant smuggling with the same resources and procedures,
charging traffickers with smuggling crimes. Officers frequently confuse both crimes ,” the document states.
State Department warns traffickers exploit women and girls
The island government also failed to treat the victims.
According to the US Foreign Ministry report, Curaçao lacks shelters for people who are subjected to human trafficking .
Some minors were placed in a shelter run by a non-governmental organization, which was initially dedicated to victims of domestic violence.
“Due to inconsistent application of protocols and confusion between trafficking and smuggling, (Curaçao) authorities deported misidentified or unidentified victims of trafficking, including Venezuelans,” the document states.
The lack of budget caused the policemen dedicated to this matter to be used in the surveillance of quarantines by covid-19.
State Dept: Venezuelan Women
“ Traffickers exploit women and girls from Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, among other nationalities, in sex trafficking, ” says the report, referring to the bars where the so-called “trago girls” work.
forced labor
In the case of Sint Maarten, the report detected a modus operandi in which women must engage in forced labor and sexual exploitation, after being recruited in their countries of origin through seemingly legal job offers. This happens with Venezuelans, Haitians and Dominicans.
Women from Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are especially vulnerable
“Illegal recruiters allegedly target foreign women for the sex industry, coercing them into paying debts.
Women from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking on Sint Maarten ,” the report highlights.
The inability to meet the challenges of human trafficking was also noted in Aruba. According to the report, on this island they also fail to properly identify the victims, who are often treated as illegal aliens.
In the case of Aruba, it has also been detected that criminal organizations encourage victims of trafficking to commit crimes such as robbery and drug trafficking .
State Dept: Venezuelan Women
no cooperation
The situation in the Caribbean islands is worsening as a result of the humanitarian emergency that Venezuela is going through, which drives many people to seek a better destiny in neighboring countries.
The director of the Venezuelan Organized Crime Observatory, Luis Cedeño, warns that “ Venezuela lacks mechanisms to prevent and control issues related to human trafficking and smuggling .”
People are misled through seemingly legal job offers
He explained that the South American country is the point of origin of a “significant flow” of people who are trafficked by sea to different Caribbean islands, without the government being able to prevent it.
State Dept: Venezuelan Women
“The issue is that Venezuela is a large country, and it has very little capacity to prevent and control human trafficking and smuggling. There is very little cooperation between countries here ,” she indicated.
The same US government report also criticized the absence of measures by the Nicolás Maduro regime to prevent it, and indicated that men are also victims of forced labor in Aruba and Curaçao .
State Dept: Venezuelan Women
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