Honduras' New Human Trafficking Law Faces Enormous Challenges http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/honduras-new-human-traffic...

InSight Crime

Honduras' New Human Trafficking Law Faces Enormous

Challenges

Written by Edward Fox Thursday, 19 July 2012

A new anti-human trafficking
(http://www.insightcrime.org
/component/tags/tag/7-human-
trafficking) law is supposed to
reduce Honduras
(http://www.insightcrime.org
/component/tags/tag/66-honduras)'
importance as a source country for the sex trade, but will likely face
many challenges in its implementation thanks to the country's
inefficient, corrupt police and judicial system.
On May 22, members of the Honduran National Congress officially
signed (http://www.elheraldo.hn/Secciones-Principales
/Pais/Autoridades-firman-decreto-de-Ley-Contra-la-Trata-
de-Personas-en-Honduras) decree 59-2012, a new anti-human
trafficking (http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/7-human-
trafficking) law that is the country's most comprehensive to date. As
the US State Department points out (http://www.state.gov/j/tip
/rls/tiprpt/2011/164232.htm), previous legislation in Honduras
(http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras) mainly
focused on child sex trafficking, but the new law sets out more formal
penalties for the crimes of forced labor, organ trafficking, and the
forced prostitution of adults, with convicted human traffickers facing
up to 20 years in prison.
The renewed focus on forced prostitution is particularly welcome. This
appears to be the most widespread human trafficking
(http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/7-human-trafficking)
crime in Honduras (http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag
/66-honduras), a key source country for Central America's sex trade.
According to 2010 statistics (http://www.aecid.org.sv/documentos
/ONGD/EstudioViolencia.pdf), 60 percent of the victims who received
assistance from Honduras (http://www.insightcrime.org/component
/tags/tag/66-honduras)' chief human trafficking
(http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/7-human-trafficking)

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protection program had been subjected to commercial sexual

exploitation.
A documentary by journalist Ramita Navai (see video below), aired
last week on the UK's Channel 4, highlighted the extent of Honduras
(http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras)' sex
trafficking problem. In the northwest city of El Progreso, Navai found
that hundreds of Honduran women had been "disappeared," likely
forced to work as prostitutes in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.
Traffickers reportedly lured their victims, often poor females, with the
promise they would be moving to Mexico
(http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/9-mexico) for
well-paid jobs. Once there, however, they were immediately sold into
sex slavery and forced by their "owners" to work in bars and brothels
as prostitutes without pay.
Sex trafficking is now so lucrative an industry that the International
Organization on Migration estimates (http://www.awid.org/Library
/Sex-Trafficking-Now-a-16-Billion-Business-in-Latin-
America)·it·brings in $16 billion a year for Latin American criminals.
In one indication of the trade's profitability, an alleged former
trafficker told Navai that he was able to sell up to 40 Honduran girls a
day in Mexico (http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag
/9-mexico) for $100 each.
As the documentary highlights, once the victims had been captured,
they were subjected to endless psychological and physical abuse. This
included threats that if they escaped, their families would be harmed,
and that if they refused to work, they would be raped and beaten.
These are familiar tactics employed by sex traffickers throughout the
region (/news-analysis/case-highlights-importance-of-colombia-
to-global-sex-trade) and ensure that the women are too afraid to
attempt to flee. As one Honduran victim told Navai
(http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ramita-navai/honduras-the-lost-
girls_b_1580067.html?ref=uk), once the traffickers have "broken you
in," there is no escape, physically or mentally.
The former Honduran consul in Chiapas, Patricia Villamil, stated that
during her eight months in office, Mexican authorities received some
200 calls from Honduran females claiming they were victims of sex
trafficking. This probably only represents a fraction of the total
victims, as many are likely too afraid to attempt to contact help. And
only few of those who actually reached out to Mexican authorities
were rescued.·Villamil was removed from her job

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(http://archivo.elheraldo.hn/Ediciones/2011/06/17/Noticias
/Es-destituida-consul-de-Honduras-en-Chiapas)·in June 2011, when
she began to receive death threats, which she says may have been
linked to her criticism of Mexico (http://www.insightcrime.org
/component/tags/tag/9-mexico)'s inability to properly confront the
human trafficking (http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag
/7-human-trafficking) problem.
While Chiapas appears to be a major destination for Honduran
trafficking victims, it is by no means the only one. Many women are
forced into prostitution in neighboring countries such as Nicaragua and
Guatemala (http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag
/52-guatemala). Some are even sent further. For example, a sex
trafficking ring dismantled by Honduran authorities last year (/news-
briefs/honduras-breaks-up-suspected-sex-trafficking-ring) allegedly
trafficked its victims to Europe and the United States, and there have
even been reports of unsuspecting Hondurans shipped to Romania
(http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/07
/batstone.romania.sex.trade/index.html), forced to work without pay
once they arrived.·All of this highlights the extensive reach of
networks operating out of the Central American state.
Honduras' endemically high poverty rate makes the country attractive
ground for traffickers. Statistics from the Central Intelligence Agency's
World Fact Book show that in 2010, 65 percent of Hondurans
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields
/2046.html) lived below the poverty line. This alarmingly high number
gives traffickers an enormous opportunity to exploit people's needs for
money with false offers of work abroad. What's more, since the coup
in 2009, Honduras (http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag
/66-honduras)' economy has disintegrated further, as Navai noted,
rendering any prospect of a foreseeable improvement slim.
Compounding this problem is the apparent move by traffickers into
targeting the middle-class as well as the poor. A La Tribuna report
(/news-analysis/honduran-women-increasingly-trafficked-through-
modeling-agencies) from last year found that traffickers were turning
their attention to affluent urban women, luring them into the global sex
trade with advertisements promising a successful modelling or dance
career. These increasingly sophisticated methods will be a significant
challenge to Honduran authorities as they try to implement the new
law.
In order to become fully effective, decree 59-2012 must still be signed

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by President Porfirio Lobo. As of last week, Lobo had somewhat

surprisingly still not sanctioned the law (http://www.latribuna.hn
/2012/06/07/piden-al-presidente-sancionar-ley-contra-la-trata-
de-personas/), leading Save the Children and the Spanish International
Cooperation and Development Agency (AECID) to publicly call for
him to do so. However, in light of his wife's presence at the May 22
signing, along with her championing of the legislation, it is highly
unlikely he would send the bill back to Congress.
Provided Lobo's delay is nothing more than short-term feet dragging,
Honduras (http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag
/66-honduras) must turn its attention to how the law will be made
effective. While its extensive coverage and punitive measures against
traffickers are vital steps, seeing Honduras
(http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras)' police
force and judicial system implement it properly will be another,
arguably more difficult task. Impunity rates in Honduras
(http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/66-honduras) hover
around the 90 percent mark (http://www.witnessforpeace.org
/downloads
/Fact%20Sheet_U.S.%20Military%20Aid%20and%20the%20Drug%20War%20in%20Honduras_5.10.11.pdf)
and the police have a notorious reputation for corruption (/news-
analysis/dynamics-of-honduran-police-corruption-narrow-chance-
for-reform) and links to the very criminal structures they are supposed
to be fighting. Unless these issues are addressed alongside putting the
law into practice, any potential progress in countering human
trafficking (http://www.insightcrime.org/component/tags/tag/7-human-
trafficking) in Honduras (http://www.insightcrime.org/component
/tags/tag/66-honduras) will likely stall.

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