Chihuahua, Chih.- Children in Chihuahua continue to be victims of human trafficking, a crime for which the state ranks fourth nationwide this year, with 21 cases, according to data from the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP).
Chihuahua is also ranked fourth in the incidence of this crime in the historical accumulation, which dates back to 2015, with 208 cases, representing eight percent of the 2,596 victims reported throughout the country.
Statistics from January 2015 to June 2024 show that adolescent girls and women are the most affected by this crime. At the national level, they represent 74.7 percent, while in the state they are 85 percent, that is, 177 of the 208 affected minors.
From January to June 2024, 185 victims of trafficking were reported in Mexico, of which 150 were women and 35 men. In the state, there are 21, of which 17 were women and four men, according to SESNSP statistics.
With these 21 cases, 2024 surpasses last year in the number of trafficking victims in the state, since during all of 2023 there were 20 – all women. In 2022 there were 27; in 2021 there were 18; during 2020 there were 19; in 2019 there were 33; in 2018 there were 31; 2017 closed with 16; 2016 registered 14 and in 2015 there were nine.
Other crimes that affect girls and adolescents more are extortion in Chihuahua, child trafficking, corruption of minors and other crimes that threaten personal freedom and society.
The General Law to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Crimes Related to Human Trafficking and for the Protection and Assistance of Victims of These Crimes defines trafficking as “any malicious action or omission by one or more persons to recruit, hook, transport, transfer, retain, deliver, receive or house one or more persons for the purposes of exploitation.”
Exploitation may be understood as slavery; the condition of serfdom; prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation; labor exploitation; forced labor or services; forced begging; the use of persons under 18 years of age or who do not have the capacity to understand the meaning of the act, or do not have the capacity to resist the conduct, in criminal activities; illegal adoption of a person under 18 years of age; forced or servile marriage; trafficking in organs, tissues and cells of living human beings or illicit biomedical experimentation on human beings.
Article 40 of the aforementioned law establishes that the consent given by the victim, regardless of his or her age and the type of crime, is not a cause for exclusion of criminal liability.
In the state, one of the most common forms of trafficking is prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, followed by pornography, forced labor or services with seven, forced begging with six, and labor exploitation with three.
The Attorney General’s Office has also registered cases of illegal adoption of persons under 18 years of age and the use of minors in illegal activities.
At the federal level, there is a Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes of Violence Against Women and Human Trafficking (Fevimtra) to which cases of serious crimes such as trafficking can be reported anonymously, by phone or email.
In the state, it is also possible to report these cases to the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Attention to Women Victims of Crime for Reasons of Gender and the Family and the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Investigation of Human Rights Violations and Forced Disappearances.
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