Alert for trafficking in women in Mexico: the number of victims increased by 40% since 2018

Trafficking in women in Mexico has been on an alarming increase in the last four years. The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) has reported that the regrettable figure has skyrocketed by 40% since 2018 when 360 victims were reported to 503 recorded in 2021.

Several organizations support the data and even warn that this figure represents even less than 20% of the cases that actually exist. And the fact is that the official record shows that out of 360 people victims of trafficking in 2018, in 2019 it became 402. Then, 402 were reported in 2019. It was 455 in 2020 and 503 last year. While in the first two months of 2022 93 more have been counted.

The areas where the most cases of trafficking are usually found are: Tijuana, State of Mexico, Mexico City, Puebla, Hidalgo, Veracruz. Mexican victims have also been located abroad in places like New York. These women, who are sometimes just girls, range from 12 years of age to 35. They are mostly native to Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, Guerrero, San Luis Potosi and Chiapas.

“The data that the secretariat lets us see are, if anything, 20 percent of the cases that are being registered in the country. That is, the crime of trafficking in persons has a black figure above 80 percent,” Teresa Ulloa Ziáurriz, director of the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean, told El Universal, “most cases of women victims of human trafficking have to do with economic need, with a means of survival, with the vulnerability in which women are, to which they are very easy to engage”.

Meanwhile, Alicia Mesa Bribiesca, Executive Director of the Antonio de Montesinos Center for Social and Cultural Studies, warned that for each case of victims of trafficking, there are another 99 of whom there is no record. “It's invisible. Mexico ranks third in the world in terms of the number of victims. It is preceded by Thailand and Cambodia,” he said for the media, warning that for a decade drug cartels have been involved in this illicit business, although there are also Japanese, Russian and American mafia groups.

“Organized crime is already involved in this crime. In addition, the Yakuza, the Russians, the Americans who have international networks of trafficking and human trafficking. That is why few women dare to denounce, because they are very violent, aggressive people, who have greater impunity,” he said.

On the other hand, on April 12, the United Nations (UN) presented the report resulting from the visit to Mexico in 2021 by the Committee against Enforced Disappearances.

One of the Committee's main observations was that disappearances continue to affect mainly men between the ages of 15 and 40.

“However, official figures show a notable increase in the disappearances of boys and girls from the age of 12, as well as adolescents and women, a trend that worsened in the context of the coronavirus pandemic,” the Committee said.

Such disappearances would be aimed at hiding sexual violence, femicide, trafficking and sexual exploitation, said Carmen Rosa Villa Quintana, a member of the Committee.

At the same time, the panel noted that public servants and organized crime are responsible for the growing number of enforced disappearances in Mexico, according to its findings.

It should be noted that the Committee's visit resulted from the critical situation in the country: the National Registry of Missing and Unlocated Persons, administered by the National Search Commission of the Ministry of the Interior, is the only registry in operation as provided for by the General Law on Enforced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance Committed by Individuals.

According to official figures available as of November 26, 2021 (the last day the Committee was in the country conducting investigations), 95,121 missing persons were registered, of whom 112 had disappeared during the Committee's visit. As of April 12, the registry counted 98,883 missing and unlocated persons.

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