In studying these routes and characteristics of the individuals trafficked in these routes, many features conform to common sense expectations and the findings of prior research. In Brazil, most trafficking routes originate in rural areas of the states and move towards the large urban centers or international border regions (which serve as either a step off point for international trafficking or as a destination for sex tourism).
Similarly, routes develop to serve dramatic changes in
the economic environment created by development. For example, in
the Northeast region, significant trafficking routes have developed to
transport primarily Amer-Indian women to serve the railroads and gold
mining zones.
Economic conditions help drive trafficking, with trafficking
routes running from economically disadvantaged areas moving towards
areas that are, at least relatively, more economically prosperous. Thus
the poorest areas, the North (with 36 routes) and the Northeast (with 20)
regions have the most domestic trafficking routes, with the South
(9), Central-West (8) and Southeast (5) having significantly fewer
domestic trafficking routes.
Methods of transporting trafficked individuals domestically do
reveal some interesting features that might be of use in enforcement.
Specifically, while Brazil is a large country with a large navigable
system of waterways, the primary method of domestic transport is
overland, with taxis and trucks the preferred vehicles for transport,
followed by cars and trucks. Interestingly, what limited domestic
trafficking occurs utilizing airplanes as the method of transport is used
almost exclusively to transport adolescents.
Finally, as previously noted, analysis of the domestic routes
reveals that adolescents are the primary subjects of domestic
trafficking, followed by women. Data on child trafficking is,
unfortunately, extremely limited.
International Trafficking Routes
PESTRAF was able to identify 131 international trafficking
routes to 17 different destination countries for women and children.
Here again, certain characteristics are of note.
As was the case with domestic routes, those regions under the
most economic stress are also the points of origin for the most
international trafficking routes. However, the distribution among the
regions is less disproportionate, than with domestic routes. For
example, while the South has one quarter as many domestic trafficking
routes (13) than the North (45), it has half as many international routes
(15 vs 31).
However, due to geographic considerations, while the
North has the most domestic routes (45), the Northeast has the most
international routes (35 vs 31.) One can explain the proportionate
increase of the South, Southeast and Central-West in relation to
international routes in two ways. First, the southern 3 territories are
more urbanized and have significant international airports and
international transportation links to serve in trafficking. Second, it
appears that these three regions serve as transit links between domestic
routes and international routes. In many cases individuals are
domestically trafficked in to serve the demands of these regions and
then, given the market demand for "fresh faces", they are then
trafficked out of the region into the international system.