The process of consultation and investigation in the region has revealed how relatively unfamiliar government institutions and, to a lesser extent, non governmental agencies, are with trafficking. This lack of knowledge is not surprising, given the vast information gaps that have kept the issue largely hidden.
Existing data systems do not produce information that would
assist in formulating a clear understanding of the phenomenon. Law
enforcement and court records on trafficking and related crimes only
reflect those cases that resulted from complaints, which for many
reasons is extremely rare. Child welfare reports use the most basic
classifications to register children either as juveniles in conflict with
the law or at risk.
Information that may be revealed in the course of
treatment does not filter into generalized databases. Statistics on
migration, where they exist, are rarely disaggregated by sex and/or age
and do not report the conditions of exit or return. The health monitoring
systems of sex workers and programs focused on HIV/AIDS, while
providing consistent information, offer only indirect indicators about
trafficking. Further, these records are not likely to include the
population of trafficked women and children in the most extreme
circumstances those unable or unwilling to access services.
Currently, no statistics are available to accurately quantify the
magnitude of trafficking in the region or within particular countries.
The little information that is being collected is not being
meaningfully circulated. Throughout the region, researchers were told
of instances where crucial information was not shared with appropriate
authorities.
For example, labor inspectors who knew of children
working in bars and nightclubs did not coordinate intelligence with
police and prosecutors; judicial authorities have failed to inform
consulates of trafficking cases involving their nationals, either as
defendants or victims; consulates, in turn, have overlooked notifying
law enforcement authorities in their home countries, even when
recruitment and other activities occurred there.
Lists of suspects involved in international trafficking are often unavailable to all border
posts. Finally, NGO and civil society sources have valuable
information that does not always reach government actors.
A final challenge is that it appears from interviews that
intelligence, even government generated, is often more easily
accessible on the black market than through official channels.
In several states, prosecutors and advocates complained of the inability to
respond quickly enough to reports. Coordinated raids of establishments
would often find that the bar had been closed or an absence of minors
that had been reportedly working there just hours earlier. Authorities
suspect corruption, but little action has been taken to address the
problem.
Absence of Political Commitment
Perhaps due to the lack of information, the issue of trafficking
in persons, and particularly trafficking of women and children for
commercial sexual exploitation, has not been adopted as a significant
priority in national agendas. Some attention is beginning to emerge
through policy initiatives against the commercial sexual exploitation of
children. But even where counter trafficking language is included in
such platforms, it does not benefit from full explanation.
Recommendations for action rarely respond to the particular nature of
trafficking the coerced movement and dislocation that differentiates it
from other exploitative practices. Furthermore, these policies have
struggled with lack of independent funding and frequent destabilization
of their coordinating bodies throughout the region. Attention is even
weaker for trafficking of women. Out of all eight states, the Dominican
Republic is the only one to have assigned institutional resources to
combat female trafficking.
In absence of strong policy statements, attention to the issue
has been difficult to obtain. Law enforcement, immigration and
welfare institutions, which juggle many competing priorities, turn to
other issues. In addition, coordination between agencies is difficult
absent a clear, unified vision that can recognize the appropriate roles of
each institution and of civil society.