LegiStorm

Summary:

Trafficking in persons (TIP) for the purpose of exploitation is a lucrative criminal activity that is of major concern to the United States and the international community. According to the U.S. State Department, there may be as many as 20 million trafficking victims around the world at any given time. In recent years, the largest numbers of trafficking victims have been identified in Africa and Europe; however, human trafficking is also a major problem in Latin America. Countries in Latin America serve as source, transit, and destination countries for trafficking victims. Men, women, and children are victimized within their own countries, as well as trafficked to other countries in the region. Latin America is also a primary source region for people trafficked to the United States, increasingly by transnational criminal organizations. In FY2013, primary countries of origin for foreign trafficking victims certified as eligible to receive U.S. assistance included Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador (along with Thailand, the Philippines, and India). Smaller numbers of Latin American TIP victims are trafficked to Europe and Asia. Latin America serves as a transit region for Asian TIP victims. Since enactment of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, P.L. 106-386), Congress has taken steps to address human trafficking by authorizing new programs, reauthorizing existing ones, appropriating funds, creating new criminal laws, and conducting oversight on the effectiveness and implications of U.S. anti-TIP policy. Most recently, the TVPA was reauthorized through FY2017 in Title XXII of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (P.L. 110-457). According to CRS calculations, obligations for U.S.-funded anti-TIP programs in Latin America totaled roughly $10.9 million in FY2012. On July 27, 2015, the State Department issued its 15th annual, congressionally mandated report on human trafficking. The report categorizes countries into four "tiers" according to the government's efforts to combat trafficking. Those countries that do not cooperate in the fight against trafficking (Tier 3) have been made subject to U.S. foreign assistance sanctions. Chile and, for the first time, the Bahamas received the top Tier 1 ranking in this year's report. Belize and Venezuela are the only Latin American countries ranked on Tier 3, as Cuba upgraded its ranking. Cuba joined nine other countries in the region—Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago—on the Tier 2 Watch List. Unless those countries make progress, they could receive a Tier 3 ranking in 2016. The 114th Congress is likely to continue oversight of TIP programs and operations, including U.S.-funded programs in Latin America. Congress is likely to monitor trends in human trafficking in the region, such as the involvement of organized crime groups in TIP, the problem of child trafficking in Haiti, and the vulnerability of unauthorized child migrants from Central America to trafficking. Congress could consider further increasing funding for anti-TIP programs in the region, as was provided for forensic technology to combat TIP in Central America and Mexico in P.L. 113-235, possibly through the Mérida Initiative, the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), or through other assistance programs. For more information on human trafficking, see CRS Report RL34317, Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues for Congress, by Alison Siskin and Liana W. Rosen.