Ecuador: 158 Arrested Over Last Four Years for Human Trafficking

telegrafo.com.ec reported in the rehabilitation centers of Ecuador there are 158 persons imprisoned for the crime of trafficking in persons since 2010. Only in the last year were captured 48, of which 4 are foreigners and the rest is in the country, according to figures from the Justice Department of indicators, human rights and statistics of the Ministry of Justice, human rights, and cults.

According to information provided by the owner of this portfolio of State, Ledy Zúñiga, Ecuador is a country of origin, transit and arrival of the victims, both internal and international site. The main destinations for human trafficking are United States, Spain, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Israel, Japan and other Asian countries.

Since 2004, the Ecuadorian State declared as a policy priority the fight against trafficking in persons, illegal traffic of migrants, sexual or labour exploitation and other modes of exploitation and prostitution of women, girls, children and adolescents, child pornography and corruption of minors. So was established the inter-agency Commission responsible for drawing up the national plan to combat these crimes.

Currently, there is an inter-institutional table involving integrated and articulated 19 State institutions, who work from their skills.

Argentina Santa Cruz is the Coordinator of the programme against trafficking in persons of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), working on this theme in the country since 2006 in the axes of prevention, protection of victims, research and punishment and incarceration.

From 2011, the IOM has worked with the municipalities of Lago Agrio, Santo Domingo, Ibarra, Cotacachi, Otavalo, Colta and Guamote. “We chose those sites because there was a greater number of cases. By sexual exploitation issues they chose to Lago Agrio, Santo Domingo and Ibarra, but we also wanted to raise awareness in the country that there is trafficking for labour exploitation and that we start to work with cantons with indigenous population.” Read Article