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
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 |
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CAUTION: The following
links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in 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 ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Smuggled Women,
Modern Slaves, Tell Their Tales in Daniela Gerson, The 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 ***
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 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, 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] Four Nations Move
Against Trafficking in Response to U.S. Report Distributed by the
Bureau of International Information Programs, iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2004/09/20040910174056cmretrop0.6162226.html#axzz3Ceikh97X [accessed 8
September 2014] Tainted Harvest -
Child Labor and Obstacles to Organizing on 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 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] 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 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 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 [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 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 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. 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 - |
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