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/Honduras.htm
Honduras is principally
a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the
purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Honduran victims are typically
lured by false job offers from rural areas to urban and tourist centers, such
as Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and the Bay Islands. Honduran women and
children are trafficked to Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Belize, and the
United States for commercial sexual exploitation. Most foreign victims of
commercial sexual exploitation in Honduras are from neighboring countries;
some are economic migrants victimized en route to
the United States. Additional trafficking concerns include reports of child
sex tourism in the Bay Islands, and some criminal gangs’ forcing children to
conduct street crime. - 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 *** Easy prey for
traffickers Yampier Aguiar
Durañona, Journalism student, Granma International, February 2, 2005 [accessed 10 June
2013] NO ONE CAN OR SHOULD
SELL OUR CHILDREN
- On July 23, 2004, Aguas Ocaña, Honduras’ first lady, announced that the
government was preparing a lawsuit against the US organization Orphans
Overseas for offering an Internet network selling Honduran children for $11,500
each. "No one can or should sell our children," she added. In an interview with the national HRN radio
station, Ocaña affirmed that in 2003 the government had rejected a request
from the US organization to operate in the country because it did not meet
the legal requirements. "The
company is now publicizing itself on the Internet as an adoption agency
operating in Honduras and what it is offering is the sale of Honduran
children," she stressed. ***
ARCHIVES *** Human trafficking a problem both in Central America and Central
U.S. Jeff Bahr, The Grand
Island Independent, 10 Sept 2019 [accessed 10
September 2019] In Honduras, human trafficking
has 11 different categories, including sexual exploitation, forced labor and
organ trafficking, said Martha Patricia Gonzalez, who is chief prosecutor for
the Trafficking in Persons Unit of the Public Ministry. Human Trafficking and
the Children of Central America Dr. Jarrod Sadulski, faculty member, Criminal Justice, American
Military University -- In Public Safety, 21 August 2019 inpublicsafety.com/2019/08/human-trafficking-and-the-children-of-central-america/ [accessed 21 August
2019] WHAT IS THE
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUMAN SMUGGLING AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING? There is a definite
difference between human smuggling and human trafficking. Human smuggling is
transportation based where a smuggler is paid thousands of dollars to guide
children – who may or may not be accompanied by family members from Central
America to the United States via the Mexico-United States border. However,
many families with migrant children do not have thousands of dollars to spend
on the trip, which often creates a gateway to human trafficking. Human trafficking
involves the exploitation of migrant families and their children who are
unable to pay the costs of being smuggled to the United States. They may be
susceptible to the three cornerstones of human trafficking, which are the sex
trade, forced labor, or domestic servitude to pay off their debt for being
smuggled to the United States. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Honduras 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/honduras/
[accessed 8 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Forced labor
occurred in street vending, domestic service, the transport of drugs and
other illicit goods, other criminal activity, and the informal sector.
Victims were primarily impoverished individuals in both rural and urban areas
(see section 7.c.). Children, including from indigenous and Afro-descendant
communities, particularly Miskito boys, were at risk for forced labor in the
fishing, mining, construction, and hospitality industries. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Estimates of the
number of children younger than 18 in the country’s workforce ranged from
370,000 to 510,000. Children often worked on melon, coffee, okra, and
sugarcane plantations as well as in other agricultural production; scavenged
at garbage dumps; worked in the forestry, hunting, and fishing sectors;
worked as domestic servants; peddled goods such as fruit; begged; washed
cars; hauled goods; and labored in limestone quarrying and lime production.
Most child labor occurred in rural areas. Children often worked alongside
family members in agriculture and other work, such as fishing, construction,
transportation, and small businesses. Some of the worst forms of child labor
occurred, including commercial sexual exploitation of children, and NGOs
reported that gangs often forced children to commit crimes, including
homicide (see section 6, Children). Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/honduras/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 28 April
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Lack
of socioeconomic opportunities combined with high levels of crime and
violence limit social mobility for most Hondurans, and exacerbate income inequality.
High youth unemployment and low levels of education help to perpetuate the
cycle of crime and violence. Human trafficking is a significant issue in Honduras, which serves as a source country for women and children forced into prostitution; adults and children are also vulnerable to forced labor in the agriculture, mining, and other sectors, and as domestic servants. 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 18 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 28 April
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 506] Reports indicate that
20 percent of the Honduran population is of indigenous or African descent and
that children from these groups are particularly vulnerable to child labor,
including its worst forms. (41; 42) Children in Honduras engage in the worst
forms of child labor, including commercial sexual exploitation and
recruitment by gangs into illicit activities. (43; 44; 45; 46; 36; 37; 47)
Reports indicate that gangs sometimes threaten families as a means to
forcibly recruit children into their ranks, where boys are used to commit
extortion, drug trafficking, and homicide, and where girls are engaged in
commercial sexual exploitation. (39; 36) Children who lack economic and
educational opportunities are the most vulnerable and are also among the most
likely to migrate to other countries. Once en
route, they are also vulnerable to human trafficking and commercial sexual
exploitation. (43; 44; 45; 46; 36; 37; 47). Immigrant sisters
admit charges in human trafficking John P. Martin,
Star-Ledger, August 04, 2006 www.alipac.us/f12/immigrant-sisters-admit-charges-human-trafficking-33642/ [accessed 21 April
2012] Two Honduran
sisters admitted yesterday that they helped smuggle dozens of illegal female
immigrants -- some as young as 14 -- into the United States, then forced them
to live together and work at North Jersey bars. The admissions by
Noris Elvira and Ana Luz Rosales-Martinez, during a federal court hearing in
Trenton, brought to five the number of guilty pleas in what authorities say
was a case of indentured servitude. Under questioning
from prosecutors, the women said they helped oversee dozens of illegal
Hondurans who were forced to work six days a week and live in cramped Hudson
County apartments until they could repay smuggling fees as high as $20,000. The immigrants
earned $5 an hour, plus tips, by dancing and drinking with male patrons at
bars in Union City and Guttenberg. One ring member said the girls were
encouraged to prostitute themselves; another said they were beaten if they
ignored the house rules. 10 Indicted in International Human Smuggling Ring - Young Honduran Women Forced to Work in Hudson County Bars Michael Drewniak,
Public Affairs archives.uruguay.usembassy.gov/usaweb/paginas/471-00EN.shtml [accessed 30 August
2011] The
women, mostly from rural, poor villages in Smuggled Honduran
Women May Be Allowed To Stay In newsday.com, 10
February 2005 -- Source:
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--smuggledwomen0210feb10,0,251994,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey [accessed 14 July
2013] But after
delivering them to ABSTRACT - Nineteen women and
girls from Honduras who were smuggled into the United States and forced to
work in a bar may be permitted to stay in this country as protected victims
of human trafficking, authorities said. Focus on Children -
Child Soldiers www.unicef.org/graca/kidsoldi.htm [accessed 9
September 2014] "At the age of
13, I joined the student movement. I had a dream to contribute to make things
change, so that children would not be hungry….Later I joined the armed
struggle. I had all the inexperience and the fears of a little girl. I found
out that girls were obliged to have sexual relations to alleviate the sadness
of the combatants. And who alleviated our sadness after going with someone we
hardly knew?…There is a great pain in my being when I recall all these
things….In spite of my commitment, they abused me, they trampled my human
dignity. And above all, they did not understand that I was a child and that I
had rights." - From
a Honduras case study, cited in United Nations, Impact of Armed Conflict on
Children: Special Concerns, 1998. Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 8 February
2011] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61732.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Women and children were trafficked into Most trafficking
victims were young women and girls, who were trafficked to The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/honduras.htm [accessed 8 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 - Honduras serves as a source and transit country for
girls trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. Honduran girls are
trafficked internally and to the All
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