Drafting.- Women, girls and adolescents continue to be the main victims of human trafficking in Colombia, since they represent 89% of the cases of this crime, according to the Ombudsman’s Office on the occasion of the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. .
Of 236 cases handled by the Ombudsman’s Office between 2018 and June of this year, 212 (89%) corresponded to victimizations against girls, adolescents, and women; 60 of them (25.4%) were related to the enslavement of migrants.
The departments of Norte de Santander, Bogotá, Caldas, Valle del Cauca and Cundinamarca are the places where the most cases occurred.
The Ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, urged the State, “with the support of the international community and society as a whole, to strengthen the definition and implementation of public policies that allow early and urgent prevention of slavery inside and outside the Colombian territory.
“Trafficking in persons is a serious violation of human rights that every day affects more nationals and foreigners, without sufficient State resources to face the actions of those who are traffickers in an autonomous and organized manner, which results in the lack of protection of those who are direct and indirect victims, especially girls, adolescents and women,” warned Camargo.
The National Directorate of Public Defender’s Office is legally representing victims of crime in 124 criminal proceedings, while the Ombudsman’s Office has issued 40 Alerts in which it warns of the risk of human trafficking in the development of the armed conflict and in connection with other violence .
To date, this behavior has been identified in 133 municipalities in 25 departments.
This translates into the fact that for the illegal groups immersed in the conflict, enslaving compatriots and foreigners generates a series of uncalculated benefits: economic, population and territory control.
In this sense, it is necessary for the State to advance in the detection and registration of cases, as well as the prosecution and penal sanction of the networks and autonomous perpetrators. Also the definition and implementation of actions that allow the integral accompaniment of the migrant population, in order to mitigate the high risk of enslavement in which it finds itself.
