doi: 10.1111/imig.12179
Prevent, Protect, and Prosecute Human
Trafficking in Mexico: Policy and Practical
Recommendations
Victoria Rietig*
ABSTRACT
This article presents original research findings on the state of anti-trafficking efforts in Mexico.
Based on quantitative and qualitative interviews with stakeholders from government, civil society, and United Nations organizations, this article provides data on the challenges these actors
face, especially regarding corruption and violence. It argues for eight actions to improve prevention, protection, and prosecution: 1. Collect more and better data; 2. Retain officials; 3.
Support shelters; 4. Employ better evaluation measures and use multipliers; 5. Provide technical help to NGOs; 6. Design a coordination platform; 7. Increase the rule of law, and 8. Promote high-level interest to push the topic of human trafficking on the political agenda in
Mexico. In sum, these eight actions address the deficiencies this research found, and outlines
concrete steps each actor can take to improve the current anti-trafficking regime in Mexico.
INTRODUCTION
Human trafficking is a growing criminal business. In Mexico, it is the third most profitable
crime after drugs and arms trafficking. Penalties for trafficking human beings are much lower
than for trafficking drugs, so trafficking persons for the purpose of exploiting them is an activity with low risk and high rewards. Investigation rates are low, and the number of sentenced
human traffickers remains stubbornly low, in spite of a host of new laws in Mexico in the last
years.
Many organizations have begun to fight human trafficking. Government offices, civil society, and
law enforcement entities have taken up the threefold mission: to prevent the crime through raising
awareness and knowledge, to protect victims of trafficking through providing support services such
as medical and legal advice, and to prosecute the perpetrators of this crime that affects men,
women, and children alike.
How is anti-trafficking work in Mexico organized? Who are the main actors and what challenges
do they encounter? Most importantly, what steps are needed to increase the success of existing
efforts–and who can take them most effectively?
This article aims to answer these questions, by drawing on the results from a field research project conducted in 2012 in Mexico. Following an overview of human trafficking in Mexico, and a
brief stakeholder analysis, this article presents the project’s research results, covering the main challenges interviewees identified, actors’ perception of corruption as a hindrance to anti-trafficking
work, the experience of violence as a result of working in anti-trafficking organizations, and a list
* Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government (HKS).
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
© 2014 The Author
International Migration © 2014 IOM
International Migration Vol. 53 (4) 2015
ISSN 0020-7985
10
Rietig
of specific needs actors in the anti-trafficking field voiced. The conclusion puts forward eight
concrete policy recommendations and proposes which actors might be best suited to propel the
changes forward.
OVERVIEW OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN MEXICO
Mexico is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking victims. Statistics are
notoriously unreliable, but some estimates suggest that 250,000 people are trafficked each year
in Latin America (UNODC, 2008:6), and 16,000 children in Mexico alone (ECPAT, 2010).
Typical entry points for victims of trafficking into Mexico are dotted along the southern
border with Guatemala and Belize. A recent IOM report identified 11 entry points, most of
them in the state of Chiapas (LeGoff and Weiss, 2011: 70). Victims are then transported
through the country following established routes of drug traffickers with hubs of trafficking
found in big cities such as Mexico City or other tourist destinations, such as Canc
un, Acapulco, or Puerto Vallarta. Victims who are trafficked further north often pass through border
cities such as Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo, and Matamoros, and into the United
States (CEIDAS, 2009: 65).
A recent victim profile published by IOM Mexico paints a more detailed picture. Of the
small sample of victims to whom IOM workers had provided assistance, around 80 per cent
were women, mostly between the ages of 8 and 22, but with an age range of babies of a few
months to 50-year old women. A clear majority (70%) of victims were minors, and educational
levels were low, averaging three years of schooling. Most victims came from Latin American
countries, with only a few cases from Africa, Asia, and Europe (LeGoff and Weiss, 2011: 4957).
Mexico’s legal anti-trafficking framework has improved substantially since 2007, when the first
national law on human trafficking was passed. Since then, all Mexican states have adopted some
form of legislation to address this crime in their territory. As a result, the Trafficking in Persons
Report, published annually by the United States Department of State, raised Mexico’s ranking to a
so-called “tier two” country, assigned to countries that are not in full compliance with the minimum
standards set by the report, yet are making significant efforts to do so (US Department of State,
2012: 247-249). However, the latest report notes that “the number of human trafficking investigations, prosecutions, convictions, and sentences remained low” (US Department of State, 2012) in
spite of the legal changes in the last five years.
A new national anti-trafficking law was passed in June 2012, but interviews with anti-trafficking
advocates have shown that the law may be too complex to be applied consistently, and that the
complete overhaul of the legislation may have been unnecessary (Rietig, 2012).
Two recent developments are of importance for anti-trafficking efforts in Mexico. One is the publication of the first nation-wide overview of human trafficking in the country. This report, commissioned by the Mexican government and conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC), was commissioned to provide the most comprehensive compilation of data on
human trafficking in Mexico to date. It was scheduled to be presented to the government in
November 2012, in the hope that the report would enable better-targeted policies in the future. The
second development is the ambitious reform agenda of President Enrique Pe~
na Nieto and his Party
of Institutionalized Revolution (PRI). Since taking power in January 2013, Pe~
na Nieto has pushed
for long awaited reforms in education, energy, financial regulation, and fiscal affairs. He also has
no Morales, the
profiled himself as tough on organized crime. The arrest of Miguel Angel Trevi~
head of the Zetas cartel, in July 2013 was widely published and hailed as a major achievement in
the new president’s fight against the country’s powerful cartels (Shoichet, 2013). His national
development plan, which outlines Mexico’s five major policy priorities from 2013 to 2018 lists
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Prevent, Protect, and Prosecute Human Trafficking in Mexico
11
security as his first priority, next to equality, quality education, prosperity, and global responsibilities (Resendiz, 2013).
Without a doubt, Mexico has made great strides in the fight against human trafficking. Yet the
decisive questions remain: how will Mexico’s reforms impact the security situation in the country,
and how much political and financial capital will the administration invest in the anti-trafficking
agenda?
RESEARCH QUESTION AND METHODOLOGY
The results presented in this article are based on a research project which consisted of desk
research at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (March to May 2012), and interview-based
research in Mexico (June to August 2012). The researcher conducted 17 in-depth interviews,
around two hours each, with representatives from key actors in three sectors: Government,
International organizations/UN organizations, and civil society organizations. Three themes guided
the interviews. First, who are the main actors working on human trafficking in Mexico, and how
do they cooperate? Second, what are problems they encounter, especially regarding corruption and
violence? Third, how can these problems be addressed, and who can address them most effectively?
The geographical focus of the project was Mexico City, where the largest number of antitrafficking actors are located, and the two border cities Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in the north
(border with the USA, opposite El Paso), and Tapachula, Chiapas, in the south (border with
Guatemala, opposite El Carmen), in order to gain insights into regional variation of anti-trafficking challenges.
Each interview consisted of qualitative and quantitative questions. Qualitative questions were
designed to gather information on the main challenges actors encountered in their daily work, their
perception of other relevant anti-trafficking actors, and experience with inter-agency cooperation.
Also, they were asked about their views regarding the new general anti-trafficking law that had
been passed in early June 2012, about tools and information they were lacking that would be helpful for their work, and who might be able to provide these tools.
Quantitative questions were designed to construct a ranking of perception of corruption and violence among the actors. Each interviewee was asked to rank on a five-point scale how often they
encountered corruption in their daily work, and how much corruption impeded their work. They
also ranked on a scale from one to ten the level of corruption for federal, state, and municipal level
of government. Perception of violence was assessed by asking interviewees whether they thought
that working on anti-trafficking and human rights issues in Mexico was dangerous personally, and
whether they personally had been victims of violence as a result of their work. The complete Spanish language questionnaire can be found in the appendix.
Of the 17 organizations interviewed:
•
•
•
Seven were located in Mexico City, five in Tapachula, and five in Ciudad Juarez.
Seven were Government organizations (five Mexican federal or state entities, two non-Mexican consulates of bordering countries), two were International Organizations / UN, and eight
were civil society organizations/NGOs.
Twelve were represented by women, four by men, and one by both a man and a woman.
Of the seven organizations interviewed in Mexico City:
•
Three were Government organizations (all Mexican federal entities), two were International
Organizations/UN, and two were civil society organizations/NGOs.
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Of the five organizations interviewed in Ciudad Juarez:
•
four were civil society organizations/NGOs, one was a non-Mexican consulate.
Of the five organizations interviewed in Tapachula:
•
Three were Government organizations (two Mexican state entities, one non-Mexican consulate), and two were civil society organizations/NGOs.
The most serious limitation of this research is the small number of interviews (n=17), which
makes the results susceptible to sampling fluctuation. Due to the method of determining interview
partners, randomized sampling was also not possible. Desk research and exploratory interviews
resulted in a list of about 50 organizations that had been recommended or had appeared often in
newspaper articles and reports. About half of these organizations were approached via email or
phone, and more than 20 interviews were conducted. Out of these, 17 were in-depth interviews,
which yielded the results presented here.
While sampling fluctuation cannot be excluded, there is no reason to assume that the sample was
particularly unusual or suffered from an inherent bias. Therefore, the results do allow us to see
trends. As the quantitative data is supplemented with qualitative comments, some patterns emerge,
and extreme variations in quantitative questions allow us to see whether answers vary according to
sector or geography.
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
The list of organizations, initiatives, and activists working on anti-trafficking in Mexico is long.
Government agencies on federal, state, and municipal level working in trafficking related areas are
manifold. The entity responsible for coordinating the work of all ministries is the Inter-secretarial
commission, housed within the Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB). The attorney general’s office
(PGR) dedicates a specialized federal office for violent crime against women and human trafficking
(FEVIMTRA), and some states have similar offices, specializing in human trafficking on the state
level.
There are also in-between roles connecting two sectors, such as the National Commission for
Human Rights (CNDH), which is government funded, but close to civil society as it functions
essentially like an ombudsman and watchdog: Citizens can bring their cases to the CNDH to file
complaints for government negligence or misconduct.
International organizations and organizations belonging to the UN family abound as well,
although only a handful of them are actively involved in anti-trafficking efforts. Most notably,
UNODC and the IOM lead these efforts. The ILO is involved to a lesser degree, and other organizations with related missions (such as UNICEF, UNHCR, and UNOHR) are surprisingly mute.
The missions of civil society organizations are diverse, including women’s NGOs, human rights
NGOs, and migrants’ organizations. Their approaches range from providing practical services, such
as shelters, victim protection, information and campaigns, to conducting studies and research on the
policy level, for instance through think tanks and research institutes.
The private sector, unions, and academia also play their role: Hotels in tourist areas are hot spots
where sexual and labour exploitation of victims occur, and efforts have been made to educate hotel
employees how to spot and report potential trafficking cases. Labour unions provide valuable information through their connection with workers on the ground. Union workers may have an interest
to counter labour exploitation in sectors where competition through forced labour might lower their
earnings or position. Finally, academia provides studies mapping the problem as a whole, but
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Prevent, Protect, and Prosecute Human Trafficking in Mexico
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opinions here about how best to address the problems of the country are as diverse as in the other
groups sketched here.
In a field with such a multitude of actors it is not surprising that tensions between stakeholders
of anti-trafficking efforts abound. Conflict potential exists not only between sectors, for instance
between government and civil society, but also between federal and state government, or between
NGOs promoting or opposing the legalization of prostitution as a means to fight trafficking. These
tensions are visible in the research results presented here.
RESULTS
The main research results presented here (1) cover the five biggest challenges actors identified as
hindering their anti-trafficking work, (2) provide quantitative information about the levels of corruption perceived by the different actors and how this perception varies according to sector, (3) compare the impact of violence on actors in the different sectors, and (4) list specific needs antitrafficking actors named.
Main challenges
Interviewees named the following five challenges most frequently, in response to the question
“Which are the biggest obstacles in your work?”
Corruption
Seven out of 17 interviewees (41%) named corruption as the biggest obstacle in their work, defining corruption broadly including negligence of a person’s public responsibility (for a more detailed
definition, see the following part on perception of corruption). Of those naming corruption, five
were NGO workers, and two were government representatives.
Lack of funds
Seven out of 17 interviewees (41%) named a lack of funds, either in their own organization, or in
the anti-trafficking sector as a whole, as one of the most severe obstacles in their work. Of those
naming lack of funds, four were NGO workers, one represented an International Organization, and
two were government representatives.
Mexican officials’ lack of knowledge
Five out of 17 interviewees (29%) stated that Mexican officials (such as judges, law enforcement
agents, but also higher level officials) often lacked specialized knowledge about human trafficking,
which complicated prosecution efforts. Interviewees mentioned that trainings to educate officials
abound, but the extremely high turnover (due to sometimes dangerous working conditions and relatively low pay, for example of police officials or state attorneys) made training officials seem like a
bottomless pit.
Another complicating factor is that large numbers of Mexican administrative personnel lose their
positions every six years following the elections. The loss of institutional memory was lamented as
a great obstacle to consistent public policies in general.
Of those naming Mexican officials’ lack of knowledge as an obstacle, three were government
workers, and two were representatives of International Organizations.
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Lack of cooperation between actors
Three out of 17 interviewees (18%) described inter-agency conflicts and insufficient cooperation
between stakeholders as one of the biggest obstacles to their work. Of those naming lack of cooperation as an obstacle, two were representatives of International Organizations, and one was an
NGO worker.
Violence
Three out of 17 interviewees (18%) named the extreme violence in the county as one of the main
obstacles. Notably, all three of those naming violence as an issue were NGO workers, which is in
line with the findings below on experience of violence.
Other obstacles that were mentioned included lack of data, lack of human rights protection in general, lack of an independent judiciary, and lack of political will to prioritize human trafficking.
Perception of corruption
The interviews included three questions about actors’ perception of corruption, namely (1) How
often do you encounter corruption in your work?, (2) In your view, does corruption impede your
work?, and (3) How would you evaluate the level of corruption in federal, state, and municipal
government on a scale from one to ten?
The interviewer employed a broad definition of corruption for the purpose of this research. Corruption was defined as a continuum of crimes, ranging from a government employee accepting payment or willingly and repeatedly abusing his or her position of power, to being negligent and
turning a blind eye on a single occasion.
Four findings merit mention:
Trend throughout all sectors: Municipal level perceived as most corrupt
Table 1 shows a clear trend: All interviewees, independently of their sector, perceive the highest
level of corruption at the municipal level (8.47 out of 10), followed by the state level (7.33 out of
10), and finally the federal level, which is perceived as least corrupt (6.4 out of 10).
TABLE 1
PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION, AVERAGE
Perception of corruption
(1 = least corrupt; 10 = most corrupt)
Average perception of all interviewees
Federal level
State level
Municipal level
6.4
7.33
8.47
NGOs’ higher corruption perception: Corruption greatly hinders work, government highly
corrupt on all levels
Equally clear is the trend illustrated by Table 2: On average, NGOs perceive the highest level of
corruption, followed by representatives of International Organizations. Government representatives
perceived the lowest levels of corruption.
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Prevent, Protect, and Prosecute Human Trafficking in Mexico
While this general trend may be not surprising, the size of the perception gap between government and NGOs is notable: When asked to rank how much corruption impeded their work on a
daily basis, four out of five Mexican government representatives chose “Not at all”, while all eight
NGO representatives chose “A lot”.
We see a similar picture emerge when we look at the perception of corruption on a ten-point
scale. Broken down by sector affiliation, we see in particular the big gap in perception of federal
government corruption, (bold in the table): Government representatives perceive federal government
at a corruption level of 4.2, compared with NGO workers perceiving a level of 8.3.
TABLE 2
PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION, BY AFFILIATION
Perception of corruption
(1 = least corrupt; 10 = most corrupt)
Federal level
State level
Municipal level
4.2
5
8.3
5.8
6.5
8.5
7.4
8
9.25
Perception of Government
Perception of Internatioanl Organizations
Perception of NGOs
Government aware of its bad image with NGOs
All government representatives were asked an additional corruption perception question: In
order to assess how aware government representatives would be of their reputation among civil
society, the question was asked “How do you think a person working for an NGO would
rank the level of corruption in government, on a scale from 1 (least corrupt) to 10 (most
corrupt)?”.
Table 3 shows that government representatives were indeed very aware of the negative view
NGO workers held. These high levels also show the extreme frustration with corruption in
Mexico.
TABLE 3
NGOS’ PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION, REAL VS. ESTIMATED
Perception of corruption
(1 = least corrupt; 10 = most corrupt)
Government estimation of NGO perception of corruption
Actual NGO perception of corruption
Federal
level
State
level
Municipal
level
8.7
8.83
9
8.3
8.5
9.25
No notable geographical differences in corruption perception
In spite of the oft-heard assumption about NGO work in Mexico that NGOs in areas more affected
by cartel influence hold more extreme views than those in areas less affected, this research did not
find any variation in the negative view of government based on geographic location. Table 4 shows
that NGOs in Mexico City – a city seemingly less impacted by cartel influence – had a similarly
negative view of government as NGOs in Ciudad Juarez and Tapachula, cities where cartel influence is more palpable in daily life.
© 2014 The Author. International Migration © 2014 IOM
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TABLE 4
PERCEPTION OF CORRUPTION, BY GEOGRAPHY
Perception of corruption
(1 = least corrupt; 10 = most corrupt)
Federal level
NGOs in Mexico City
NGOs in Tapachula
NGOs in Ciudad Juarez
7
N/A1
8.5
State level
Municipal level
8.5
8
8.75
9.5
9.5
9
Experience of violence
Violence was among the main obstacles interviewees mentioned as impeding their work, and especially NGO workers reported a high perception of violence, backed by personal stories illustrating
the conditions of high danger and fear in which they conduct their work.
The interviews included two questions about actors’ perception of violence and danger: (1) In
your opinion, is it dangerous personally to work in the area of human rights and human trafficking?, and (2) Have you been a victim of violence because of your work?
Four findings merit mention:
Government perceives very little personal danger, NGO very high personal danger
When asked whether it was dangerous personally to work on human rights and human trafficking,
three out of five Mexican government workers chose “No, not dangerous at all” (one chose “Yes,
very dangerous” and one declined to respond). In contrast, all non-Mexican government representatives, International Organization workers, and NGO workers chose either “Yes, a bit dangerous” or
“Yes, very dangerous”.
Nearly all NGO workers, but hardly any government and International Organization
workers reported having been victims of violence because of their work
Only one of the interviewed government representatives (11%) reported having been a victim of
violence herself. In stark contrast, all but one NGO representative (88%) reported having been targeted for their work and experienced violence. The one NGO representative who reported not having experienced violence himself noted that he was an atypical case.
Violence most often reported: Death threats and murder attempts
The violence reported by interviewees ranged from intimidation, threats and nightly phone calls to
break-ins, kidnappings and repeated murder attempts of the workers or their immediate family members.
Death threats and threats to harm family members, usually the workers’ children, were most
commonly reported. Two interviewees reported that cars without licence plates had followed their
children. Three interviewees reported they had been shot at from another car while driving; one of
them survived multiple bullet wounds; her relative in the passenger seat remains paralyzed. Two
cases of break-ins of offices, sexual harassment of authorities, and kidnapping of a close colleague
were reported. Two of the interviewees have hired bodyguards, and one had to leave Mexico permanently after being the victim of repeated murder attempts.
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No notable geographical differences in violence experience
As with corruption perception, there were no notable differences between regions: NGO workers in
Ciudad Juarez did not report substantially more or more grave cases of violence directed towards
them as result of their work than did NGO workers in Tapachula or Mexico City.
Obviously, workers in Ciudad Juarez reported more cases of general violence and murder that
marked their daily lives as citizens of a hot spot of organized crime, but the violence they had
experienced as a direct consequence of their work was not more or less extreme than the violence
their colleagues reported in other parts of the country.
Specific needs of the interviewed actors
Some overarching needs of actors are obvious, and it goes without saying that most organizations
would appreciate more funds, less corruption and violence, and better cooperation. However, there
are other, more specific needs actors mentioned which aim to create a catalogue of small steps that
may be easier and faster to advance than global needs.
To assess these, each interviewee was asked “What would be tools, methods, or information that
would make your work easier? Who could provide these?”
Four specific needs emerged:
More reliable data and statistics
Seven out of 17 (41%) mention that more reliable data would be needed on all aspects of
human trafficking. Many complained that it was difficult to get even basic reliable data, such
as the number of trafficking victims in each state, and the corresponding number of prosecutions and sentences. These numbers can be requested from different attorney’s office (“fiscalias”), but nation-wide numbers are hard to find, and their reliability was doubted by many of
the interviewees.
In addition, studies on different forms of human trafficking were said to be lacking. While trafficking for sexual exploitation receives a comparatively large amount of attention, other forms of
trafficking remain under-researched, such as trafficking for the purpose of labour exploitation, organ
trafficking, domestic servitude, and forced begging.
Many interviewees reported that they kept their own set of records, but that there was no
reliable and neutral platform where this data could be shared or collected on a larger scale.
Data given out by government was regarded with skepticism by civil society organizations, and
even government officials themselves lamented that some of their entities had to create policies
without a solid base of data on scope, geographic differences, and gravity of human trafficking
in the country.
Technical needs of NGOs
Many NGO representatives listed concrete needs for their daily work, mostly for tasks that
required technical or specialized knowledge. Hampered by a lack of financial resources, the
overarching theme was that help from experts with specific knowledge and skills in IT, law,
and statistics was a daily unmet need. Concretely, interviewees were seeking help with webpage
design and maintenance, IT support for providing online training and awareness raising courses,
legal help to bring cases to national or international courts, and basic statistical analysis and
evaluation methods.
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Retention of officials (for better prosecution) and support of shelters (for better protection)
Great need was reported for increased numbers of prosecution of perpetrators and better protection
of victims. Specifically, it was mentioned that the government should make more effort not only in
training officials and judges but also in retaining them and reducing their high turnover. This alone,
some interviewees emphasized, could lead to a better judiciary system and higher conviction rates.
Regarding protection, two interviewees mentioned that more shelters were needed with a specialization for victims of human trafficking, and that the current situation was deemed unfair. The vast
majority of shelters in Mexico are run by civil society organizations; government entities rely on
them and send identified victims of trafficking to these shelters where they can stay for example
for the duration of their trial or until it is safe for them to return to their home. Yet government
funding for these shelters is scarce.
Use of multipliers to decrease duplication (for better prevention)
A number of interviewees emphasized that it was time to look critically at the prevention work that
is being done, and find ways to decrease duplication, and make training and awareness raising programmes more efficient by training multipliers rather than the general public.
It became clear that many entities offering training, sometimes even to the same people, did not
exchange training materials or coordinated overlapping efforts.
While some duplication seems inevitble due to competing mission statements and different angles
of the training organizations, it seems that the more technical training (such as legal training for
attorneys or judges) could be more streamlined and targeted.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This research identified the serious challenges Mexico faces in its attempt to fight human trafficking: high levels of corruption and violence, a general sense of lacking rule of law, pervasive human
rights abuses, flawed cooperation between actors, lack of funds, the absence of reliable and comparable data, and NGOs with valiant goals held back by technical needs. In sum, the research found
room for substantial improvement in all three areas of prosecution, prevention, and protection.
The following eight proposed actions are not exhaustive, yet they can serve as a list of steps that
can reinforce each other, but can also be implemented individually. Each action comes with a recommendation and names the actors best situated to implement it.
Action # 1: Collect better data, conduct statistical analysis
Who can do it: Government, UN organizations, academia, private sector
Actors from all sectors called for more reliable data on human trafficking in Mexico, and first steps
have been taken to address this. At the end of 2012, UNODC finalized a national assessment on
human trafficking, commissioned by the Mexican government as part of its 2010 National Programme to Fight Human Trafficking. This report aimed to give reliable and neutral data to all
actors, but more action is needed.
A priority that remains unaddressed today is to build a database with comparable and reliable
trafficking data that is open to the public. The ideal database would provide information to the
public in a way similar to the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI),
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Prevent, Protect, and Prosecute Human Trafficking in Mexico
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which provides an easily navigable webpage for data on employment and the economy. A main
challenge to this idea is that data is usually treated rather territorially. Those who collect it may not
be willing to share it readily. Privacy concerns, especially regarding identifying data of victims,
also would need to be addressed carefully. Crucially, a trusted entity to build and maintain such a
database is difficult to determine. Ideally, data from multiple sources would be collected, not just
limited to data of attorney’s offices, but also drawing from data of international organizations (such
as ILO and IOM who keep their own limited databases), as well as from open source media such
as webblogs specialized in collecting information on organized crime (e.g. Blog del Narco).
Who could be this trusted entity? Various candidates come to mind. The Mexican government
itself could make it a priority and work with INEGI experts on building such a database. A UN
organization could also be approached, most likely UNODC or the IOM, due to their already
strong presence and their track record on trafficking in the country. Academic institutions could
also play their role, as they might have greater credibility to act as a neutral moderator of the platform than government. Funds would always be an issue, which is why one should also consider
that some private enterprises have shown interest in the topic, most notably Microsoft, which is
currently dedicating funds to research projects using technology to fight human trafficking (Microsoft, 2012)2 .
Action #2: Retain officials and support shelters
Who can do it: Government
Two measures might address the need for better retention of Mexican officials (esp. attorneys and
police officers): One is better pay, the other is higher security. Higher pay is often seen as an inoculation against bribes and an important factor in reducing corruption as a whole. Offering higher
security, for instance bodyguards, would be particularly needed for those state attorneys that bring
human trafficking cases to trial and are threatened by organized criminal networks as a consequence of their work.
Better support of shelters was also a frequently voiced concern. The current system in which
shelters are run by civil society organizations, yet relied upon by state and local government to provide shelter and medical support for the victims, was lamented as unfair and unsustainable. The
government itself only runs a limited number of shelters (most notably, one high security shelter
for victims of trafficking in Mexico City), and gives some funding through its different branches,
for example the Ministry for Health. A possible solution could be more support for the national
networks of shelters (“Red nacional de refugios”), an umbrella organization containing more than
50 shelters nation-wide. It might also be advisable to look for best practices abroad and how the
responsibilities for victim protection are shared in other countries.
Action #3: Increase cooperation across sectors: Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)
Who can do it: All actors, with a focus on the private sector
While private enterprises were not a direct focus of this research, the private sector can play an important role in the prevention of trafficking and in the successful reintegration of victims. Numerous initiatives exist that may serve as blueprints for future action, especially in the tourism industry.
For instance, the Youth Career Initiative (YCI) works with Marriot Mexico to connect former
victims of trafficking with career opportunities in tourism, thereby supporting the long-term
reintegration and rehabilitation of trafficking victims in Mexico (Marriot, 2012: 21f). This
programme, supported through a 2010 grant from the US Department of State’s Trafficking in
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Persons Report Office, is managed by the International Tourism Partnership (ITP), a partnership
which brings together leading companies of the tourism industries (such as the Marriott, Hilton,
Kempinski, Hyatt, and other global hotel chains). The ITP also founded a working group for its
members and published a position statement on human trafficking, whose signatories pledged to
conduct awareness raising trainings for their employees and to develop corporate anti-trafficking
strategies (ITP 2014).
Another industry-led initiative for responsible tourism is the Code of Conduct for the Protection
of Children for Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism, which encourages its signatories to
adopt voluntary standards against exploitation of children. Founded in 1996 in collaboration with
the United Nations, more than 1,300 members in the tourism sector have joined the code worldwide, including around twenty hotels, tour operators, and travel agencies in Mexico (The Code
2014). While these are voluntary commitments, private sector initiatives like these hold potential
and merit further attention and support in Mexico and beyond.
Action #4: Employ better evaluation measures and use multipliers
Who can do it: All actors
Information campaigns to prevent human trafficking have flourished in the last years in Mexico
and have helped draw attention to this topic that was subject of little debate in the country before
the passing of the national trafficking law in 2007. Yet numerous interviewees criticized patchy
evaluation and the lack of impact measurement of campaigns.
To address this problem and improve prevention, actors working to raise awareness should be
sure to invest in effective targeting of information campaigns on the one hand, and a rigorous
impact evaluation on the other hand. To mention just one example: UNODC has been conducting
the Corazon Azul (“Blue Heart”) campaign in Mexico since 2010; this large scale effort included
international stars and government officials of the highest rank including the Mexican president.
The PR around this campaign was extensive, but interviewees said that no consistent evaluation
measurement has been included in the programme, and that targeting remained unclear. The Mexican National Programme to Fight Human Trafficking, launched in 2010, was also criticized for failing to establish success measures. Better evaluation measures, including measurement indicators
not just of outputs but also of outcomes and impacts, would be helpful.
A focus on educating multipliers instead of the general public could be another way to improve
prevention and to generate more impact with limited funds. Similarly, any actor looking into providing trainings (be it for students, minority groups, government officials, judges, policemen, or
any other group) should take the time to connect with those entities already conducting trainings
and ensure that duplication of efforts remains as small as possible.
Action #5: Provide technical help to NGOs
Who can do it: Academia (law schools, statisticians, marketing / communications, computer
science), other NGOs
Many NGOs lack in-house expertise on key areas such as law, IT, marketing, or statistics, as the
interviews have shown. Many academic institutions train students in these areas and are increasingly looking for real-life client organizations their students can work with to put their skills to
practical use. Bringing these two sides together seems like an obvious win-win situation. Presenting
the specific problems some NGOs are facing at large student gatherings, such as social business
conferences (e.g. the HBS/HKS Social Enterprise Conference, the Harvard Innovation Lab, or
© 2014 The Author. International Migration © 2014 IOM
Prevent, Protect, and Prosecute Human Trafficking in Mexico
21
equivalents at Mexico’s UNAM) might result in valuable volunteer work for these NGOs. One
caveat is of course ownership and professionalism. Over-eager students may do more harm than
good, and involvement of other countries’ academic institutions should be treated with great care.
Yet considering trends towards overeducated and underexperienced university graduates on the one
hand, and the potential value social enterprise initiatives can generate for civil society organizations
on the other hand, the idea to connect academia and NGOs through concrete projects like building
a webpage or setting up a database should be explored further.
Alternatively, technical help could be provided by other NGOs (both national and international)
with a similar focus. Shelters of human trafficking victims could share information with other shelters on how to collect data in a consistent way, or how to organize medical treatment of shelter
residents (a topic that most shelters spend great amounts of resources on).
In sum, it seems a lot of technical expertise exists, but is often not shared because it is not clear
where it is needed. Matching supply and demand and creating connections between these actors
across sectors would be highly desirable.
Action #6: Design a coordination platform
Who can do it: Government
Mexican anti-trafficking efforts are numerous, but need better cooperation. Finding best practices of
other countries on how to design an anti-trafficking platform would be a first step. A recent attempt
to coordinate anti-trafficking work on a global level is the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight
Human Trafficking (UN GIFT): The mission of this organization is to bundle anti-trafficking efforts
made by the UN system. For several years, UN GIFT worked towards that aim with valuable results,
yet it seems that the organization did not manage to secure a long-lasting buy-in of its members. The
number of staff has been reduced continuously, and it has been struggling to live up to its theoretical
potential. This development is regrettable, but not unusual. Finding a way to build a platform – and
making it relevant enough to its members to make it last – is a long-term challenge.
Action #7: Increase rule of law
Who can do it: Government
For a number of years, Mexico had been making headlines with increasing violence and decreasing
rule of law, especially during the administration of Felipe Calderon (2006-2012), during which
Mexico saw around 50,000 drug-related homicides (Cave, 2012). Yet recent developments have
pointed towards an improvement of the situation, including a decrease in the murder rate in 20 out
of 31 states (Economist, 2012: 8). But it is still unclear whether this decrease is just a dip in an
unchanged trend, or signals the end of the wave of organized crime related violence in Mexico.
Either way, it remains a fact that investigation rates into trafficking crimes have been extremely low (Cave, 2012). The populist strategy to increase the penalties for some crimes (e.g. lifelong jail for kidnappers) seem to not have helped deter these crimes notably; some argue that
only the knowledge that a high sentence will actually get implemented might have a deterrent
effect (De la Barreda, 2011: 46). Throughout the interviews of this project, citizens’ lack of trust
in the country’s legal system was apparent. Their assessment is mirrored in a recent large-scale
survey of 200,000 Mexicans which showed that a full 56 per cent of surveyed Mexicans considered impunity as one of the central problems of the judicial system (Resendiz, 2013). Without
improvements to the rule of law in general, structural improvement of anti-trafficking efforts will
remain elusive.
© 2014 The Author. International Migration © 2014 IOM
22
Rietig
Action #8: Promote high level interest in human trafficking
Who can do it: Government
While Mexico’s anti-trafficking law, overhauled in June 2012, prescribed that a new National
Programme to fight human trafficking has to be launched, binding the new government to continue its work on trafficking, it has been unclear how high a priority human trafficking has been
for Pe~na Nieto’s administration. So far, the president has not shown much involvement in the
topic, according to a number of public criticisms. For instance, Amnesty International reproached
Pe~
na Nieto for his lack of attention to continued human rights violations, and lamented his
choice to appoint a former police chief to lead the Instituto Nacional de la Migraci
on (INM), an
institution sometimes perceived as a symbol of corruption in the public narrative (Amnesty International, 2013).
It is unclear to what extent the challenges of the first National Program of Trafficking have been
remedied by the new National Programme, which the new administration launched in 2013, and
whether the last administration’s programme was evaluated before the next was started. Institutional
memory is essential for a long-term increase in effectiveness, and the use of new data, such as that
gained from the 2012 UNODC report (“Diagn
ostico”) on human trafficking, to inform policies
would be desirable.
Today, Mexico is at a crossroads. Shortly after Enrique Pe~
na Nieto and his PRI took over power
in 2013, a special report in the Economist mused “Mr. Pe~
na must decide whether he wants to be
the frustrated king of an old, unreformed country or the president who set its vast potential free”
(Economist, 2013: 16). While the President’s reform agenda has been bold, it remains to be seen
whether Mexico’s administration will be able to deliver on its claimed goal to stem organized crime
and human trafficking.
The research presented here shows that all actors have their part to play in the fight against
human trafficking, be they government, civil society, the United Nations, academia, or the private
sector. Concerted efforts, guided by the policy recommendations this article outlines, are needed to
confront the challenges Mexico is struggling with today. Mexico has come a long way in fighting
the crime of human trafficking; but it still has an equally long way to go.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article was written with support of the Carr Center for Human Rights, the David Rockefeller
Center for Latin American Studies, El Colegio de Mexico, and the Center for International Development at Harvard University. The views expressed in this article are those of the author only and
not those of Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government (HKS), where the author was a
McCloy fellow with a research focus on forced migration and international development.
NOTES
1 Because only one NGO in Tapachula ranked the federal level (the other declined), no average can be given
here.
2 For a longer paper describing Microsoft’s key areas of interest, see Human Trafficking and Technology: A
framework for understanding the role of technology in the commercial sexual exploitation of children in
the U.S. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/collaboration/focus/education/htframework-2011.pdf (accessed 15
November 2012)
© 2014 The Author. International Migration © 2014 IOM
Prevent, Protect, and Prosecute Human Trafficking in Mexico
23
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