Main Menu
 
Poverty
 
Torture
 
CSEC
 
Street Children
 

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the hands of traffickers

Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025                                   gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Ecuador.htm

Republic of Ecuador

Ecuador is substantially dependent on its petroleum resources, which have accounted for more than half of the country's export earnings and one-fourth of public sector revenues in recent years.

From 2002-06 the economy grew 5.5%, the highest five-year average in 25 years. The poverty rate declined but remained high at 38% in 2006.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Ecuador

Ecuador is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. The majority of trafficking victims are believed to be children trafficked within the country from border and central highland areas to urban centers for commercial sexual exploitation as well as for domestic servitude, forced begging, and forced labor in mines and other hazardous work.   - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009   Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here

 

 

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Ecuador.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular interest to you.  Would you like to write about Forced-Labor?  Debt Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc.  On the other hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to the subject of Trafficking.  Scan other countries as well.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

HELP for Victims

International Organization for Migration
2256789
Country code: 593-

 

*** FEATURED ARTICLE ***

Smuggled Women, Modern Slaves, Tell Their Tales in New York

Daniela Gerson, The New York Sun, May 18, 2005

www.nysun.com/new-york/smuggled-women-modern-slaves-tell-their-tales/13991/

[accessed 3 February 2011]

Just weeks ago, the women said, they suffered thirst, hunger, and other abuses from smugglers, who had shepherded them from small villages in Ecuador to "stash houses" in Los Angeles, where they were held captive.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Ecuador

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 30 March 2021

www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ecuador/

[accessed 6 June 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorians, Colombian refugees, and Venezuelan migrants (see section 7.d.) were particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. Traffickers often recruited children from impoverished indigenous families under false promises of employment; these children were then forced to beg or to work as domestic servants, in sweatshops, or as street and commercial vendors within the country or in other South American countries. Men, women, and children were exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking abroad, including in other South American countries and the United States. The country is a destination for South and Central American women and girls exploited in sex trafficking, domestic servitude, and forced begging.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

A January 2019 report by the governmental Intergenerational Equality Council indicated the provinces of Bolivar, Chimborazo, and Cotopaxi had the highest child labor rates for children between the ages of five and 14. A 2017 survey on employment and underemployment found that 3 percent of children ages five to 11 and 10.6 percent of children ages 12 to 14 worked. The survey found that child laborers were most likely in rural areas, particularly in the agricultural and ranching sectors. Although the government conducted two surveys in 2017 that included some information on child labor, the government had not conducted a nationwide child labor survey since 2012. Government, union, and civil society officials agreed that a lack of updated statistics hampered efforts in eradicating child labor.

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/ecuador/freedom-world/2020

[accessed 8 July 2020]

G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION?

Men, women, and children are sometimes subjected to forced labor and sex work in Ecuador; indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian individuals, as well as migrants and refugees, remain most vulnerable. In February 2019, the Office of the Ombudsman published a report detailing the exploitation of workers in the plantations of the Japanese company Furukawa. The report described the inhumane living conditions of employees and their families as well as the legal maneuvers from the company to avoid prosecution. The National Institute of Statistics and Censuses also reported over 1,200 cases of economic exploitation against migrants, mostly from Venezuela.

The government has taken some action to address the problem of economic exploitation, including by increasing trafficking-related law enforcement operations. However, services for victims are inadequate, and some public officials believed to be complicit in trafficking operations have escaped punishment.

2017 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, US Dept of Labor, 2018

www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf

[accessed 17 April 2019]

www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf

[accessed 27 April 2020]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

[page 370]

Civil society and government contacts reported incidences of Peruvian children being recruited into forced labor under false promises of employment in illegal mines. (17; 6; 23) Migrant and refugee girls from Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Venezuela are particularly vulnerable to labor trafficking in domestic servitude and forced begging. (6; 23) Indigenous children from the highlands between the ages 6 and 10 are trafficked for forced begging in Guayaquil, Quito, and Rumiñahui. (24; 10)

Migrant and refugee children from other Latin American countries, LGBTI children, girls from poor families, and indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian girls are often used in commercial sexual exploitation, including in the provinces of Guayas and Manabí.  Commercial sexual exploitation in Ecuador also occurs near illegal mining sites. (2; 3; 6; 18; 24; 25) Venezuelan girls are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation in Ecuador. (18) Sex trafficking networks also recruit children in schools, and, increasingly, through social media platforms, encouraging children to recruit their friends and classmates. (6) On Ecuador’s northern border, children are forcibly recruited to engage in drug trafficking and robbery. (26).

U.S. Report On Human Trafficking Reveals  Scope Of Modern-Day Slavery

David Gollust, Voice of America VOA News, Washington DC, June 3, 2005

perspicacityonline.com/Articles/2005/06/Modernslavery050603.htm

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

Mr. Miller said that since the new report was compiled, one Third Tier country, Ecuador, has already taken action, with its congress this week approving changes in the country's criminal code to deal with trafficking.

Annual Report Of Activities By The Anti-Trafficking In Persons Section Of The Organization Of American States - April 2005 To March 2006 [DOC]

Organization Of American States, Inter-American Commission Of Women, 27 March 2006 -- Original: Spanish

scm.oas.org/doc_public/ENGLISH/HIST_06/MJ00334E08.DOC

[accessed 8 September 2014]

ECUADOR - On August 25 and 26, the Government of Ecuador and the OAS organized a training and awareness-raising seminar on trafficking in persons, held at the Supreme Court building in Quito. The OAS was assisted at this event by Ecuador’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Labor and Employment. Other sponsors included the ILO, the American Bar Association’s Latin America and Caribbean Law Initiative, and the embassy of the United States in Quito. More than a hundred individuals attended this event, including a large number of officials from the Ecuadorian government. In addition to experts from Ecuador and the United States, the meeting included experts from Panama, Peru, and Colombia.

Four Nations Move Against Trafficking in Response to U.S. Report

Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State, 10 September 2004

iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2004/09/20040910174056cmretrop0.6162226.html#axzz3Ceikh97X

[accessed 8 September 2014]

Bangladesh, Ecuador, Guyana and Sierra Leone have acted rapidly over the last few months to reduce human trafficking in their borders. In so doing, they have avoided U.S.-imposed sanctions, according to a White House announcement September 10.

Tainted Harvest - Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on Ecuador's Banana Plantations

Human Rights Watch, April 2002

www.hrw.org/reports/2002/ecuador/ecuad0402-01.htm#P234_12118

[accessed 3 February 2011]

CHILD WORKERS - Human Rights Watch interviewed forty-five children who had worked or were working on banana plantations in Ecuador. Forty-one of them began in the banana sector between the ages of eight and thirteen, most starting at ages ten or eleven. They described workdays of twelve hours on average and hazardous conditions that violated their human rights, including dangerous tasks detrimental to their physical and psychological well-being. The children reported being exposed to pesticides, using sharp tools, hauling heavy loads of bananas from the fields to the packing plants, lacking potable water and restroom facilities, and experiencing sexual harassment.

Ecuador appoints child labour inspectors

Anti-Slavery International, 16 April 2004

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 4 September 2011]

Ecuador's Labour Ministry has appointed 12 child labour inspectors as of 2 April; a positive move in a country that, up until late last year, had none.  It has taken two years for any progress to be made in this area. In spring 2002, a Human Rights Watch report highlighted the Government's failure to implement international labour standards and found there were no child labour inspectors, even though the law calls for 22 - one for each province.

Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation Between Venezuela and Ecuador

Survivors' Rights International, July 17, 2003

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 4 September 2011]

BACKGROUND - Women and children are also trafficked into Venezuela. Women from countries like Colombia are trafficked into Venezuela through prostitution trade networks originating in Colombia.  Children from Ecuador are trafficked into Venezuela to serve as prostitutes and work as street vendors and housemaids.  The victims are usually children who are kidnapped, sold by their parents, or deceived by false employment opportunities.  These children are first exploited through prostitution at the average age of 12.  Children as young as 7 years old have been found to be sexually exploited.  Of the 40,000 sexually exploited children in Venezuela, 78% are girls between the ages of 8 and 17.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 3 June 2005

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/ecuador2005.html

[accessed 3 February 2011]

[69] The Committee takes note with appreciation of the considerable efforts undertaken by the State party, and the various studies conducted by different institutions regarding the issue of sexual exploitation and trafficking of children, as reported by the State party. The Committee expresses its deep concern at the high number of children involved in commercial sexual exploitation and at the insufficient measures adopted by the State party in this regard.

The Protection Project - Ecuador

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University

www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/ecuador.doc

[accessed 2009]

www.protectionproject.org/country-reports/

[accessed 22 February 2016]

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Ecuadorians have been trafficked into the sex industry in Venezuela. Most Ecuadoran children trafficked into Venezuela come from the provinces of Chimborazo and Canar in the Andean region, a predominately indigenous area.  Children from Ecuador who are either sold by their parents or lured by false employment opportunities are trafficked for work in domestic service or prostitution in Venezuela.

Human Rights Overview

Human Rights Watch

www.hrw.org/americas/ecuador

[accessed 3 February 2011]

*** EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE ***

2017 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 20 April 2018

www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/wha/277329.htm

[accessed 21 March 2019]

www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/ecuador/

[accessed 21 March 2019]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

Reports of forced labor of children (see section 7.c.) and women persisted. Observers most frequently reported women as victims of sex trafficking or of working in private homes under conditions that may amount to human trafficking. On April 12, El Telegrafo newspaper reported a 25-year prison sentence against a man who forced a 12 year-old female into prostitution. Forensic tests revealed that the perpetrator drugged the minor. Indigenous Afro-Ecuadorians, as well as Colombian refugees and migrants (see section 7.d.), were particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. Traffickers often recruited children from impoverished families under false promises of employment; these children were then forced to beg or to work as domestic servants, in sweatshops, or as street and commercial vendors within the country or in other South American countries. Women and children were exploited in forced labor and sex trafficking abroad, including in other South American countries, the United States, and Europe. The country is a destination for Colombian, Peruvian, Paraguayan, and Cuban women and girls exploited in sex trafficking, domestic servitude, and forced begging.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

Child labor remained a problem in the informal sector. In rural areas children were most likely found working in family-owned farms or businesses, including banana and rose farms. Labor organizations reported that children were largely removed from the most heavy and dangerous work. Additionally, there were reports of rural children working in small-scale, family-run brick-making and gold-mining operations. In urban areas many children under age 15 worked informally to support themselves or to augment family income by street peddling, shining shoes, or begging.

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61726.htm

[accessed 8 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – Anecdotal evidence showed that traffickers lured young victims romantically or with promises of dignified employment and then forced them into prostitution. Some poverty-stricken parents also sold their children, wittingly or unwittingly, into prostitution or forced labor in agriculture, including banana plantations, or mines.

Anecdotal evidence indicated that some of those willing to pay up to $12 thousand to be smuggled out of the country were also victims of trafficking, and women were susceptible to sexual abuse by smugglers.

The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/ecuador.htm

[accessed 3 February 2011]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - The commercial sexual exploitation of children occurs in Ecuador.  ILO-IPEC estimated that there were 5,200 girls and adolescents in situations of sexual exploitation in 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available.  Ecuador is a country of origin, transit and destination for the trafficking of persons, but most child victims are trafficked internally for prostitution.

All material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.  PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.  Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - Ecuador", http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Ecuador.htm, [accessed <date>]