How inflation in Mexico is pushing sex workers into destitution

Written on 14 October 2022.

Noti Calle AGOSTO2022 Like other countries, Mexico is facing high inflation, as the consumer price index reached 8.7% in September, the highest level in 22 years. The high prices of goods and services will continue for the rest of the year, according to estimates by the Bank of Mexico. Inflation of course affects all sections of the working population, but how is it impacting sex workers in particular? Our member Brigada Callejera held a workshop to understand how sex workers are coping with this financial crisis.

In the workshop, sex workers shared that their economic situation now is even worse than during the Covid-19 lockdowns. Food prices have risen markedly. Eggs, meat, potatoes, limes, tortillas, and other basic products are often impossible to afford.

Montse, a trans sex worker, said, “I feel destitute at this time of inflation”. Her cupboard and refrigerator have been empty for months. Before the pandemic she would buy groceries regularly. Inflation has caused the expenses for her basic needs to increase every day. She no longer has a reserve pantry or sack of food for her pets. Transgender sex workers are often stigmatised as earning a lot of money through sex work, but Montse points out how this is a hollow assumption, given her current situation. The increase in hotel prices where they carry out their work has also impacted Montse and other sex workers. In less than a year the cost of hotel rooms rose from 120 to 150 pesos.

The last three years have had a devastating impact on the health of the workers but in the face of adversity they have tried to diversify their income sources. Rubí had never faced such a severe economic crisis in her work. “There are no longer any clients, they say they don't have money. This situation has affected my diet because I no longer eat three meals a day, while I wait for a client to arrive. Sometimes I eat just two meals, although it is more frequent that I eat once a day, so as not to spend much money”, Rubí explained in an interview. She has started selling cosmetics to supplement her income. To save expenses, Rubí rents a house between three families for which she has to pay 2,500 pesos. Lately, it’s been difficult for her to collect even that amount. Her health has suffered due to this constant stress. Her daughter also got sick and since she did not have social security, the expenses have increased.

With the reopening of schools, Rubí had to confront inflation even more, because of the steep rise in the cost of school supplies, uniforms, and shoes. Before this economic crisis, Rubí was able to cover her daughter’s school expenses in two days of work; now it takes her 15 days of work to earn the same amount.

The economic situation for Montse, Rubi, and hundreds of women who work in the sex industry has become precarious, given the lack of income. The support provided by organisations like Brigada Callejera, such as food and other essentials, has been crucial in facing the health crisis and now the economic one.

This has driven home the point that crises are better faced as a community, and through teamwork and collaboration.

(Summarised from reports in Brigada Callejera’s August 2022 zine.)

Report on actions of public institutions on human trafficking in Peru

Written on 14 October 2022.

CHS Alternativo and the Peruvian Ombudsman presented the VIII Alternative Report, a document that analyses the actions of public institutions against human trafficking during the 2020-2021 period.

It shows that the budget for combating trafficking has been substantially reduced in the last eight years, reaching just 0.12 Sol per person, which is minimal. "In terms of practicality, this means that the State invests less per person than what a piece of bread currently costs," said the Ombudsman Eliana Revollar Añaños. The document also points out that the COVID-19 pandemic and the political crisis have had an impact on human trafficking. Traffickers have innovated in their recruitment methods and have moved to the digital space, through social media networks. In addition, they have taken advantage of the vulnerability of those who have lost their jobs, live in situations of violence, or require urgent economic assistance.

On the other hand, during the state of emergency, state services that were not considered essential were left neglected, which is why arrests, investigations, prosecutions, and convictions for trafficking were postponed, leaving a climate of impunity that allowed criminals to operate with lower risk of detection and sanction.

The report pointed out that there is no single registry of victims with information on the complaints, legal status of the persons under investigation, protection measures, sentences, methods of recruitment, transit and destinations, and it is not known what happens to the victims when they are rescued. This is information of vital importance to generate the appropriate measures to combat exploitation. Another point of concern that the report highlights is that the channels for reporting cases of human trafficking are not known to the public or the victims.

The VIII Alternative Report also indicates that there are a large number of male victims of labour exploitation or forced labour, apart from young women trafficked for sexual exploitation.

A virtual resource to challenge stereotypes and myths about human trafficking in Colombia

Written on 14 October 2022.

Maleta de viaje logos Espacios de Mujer 1 Corporación Espacios de Mujer, Colombia launched the Virtual Travel Suitcase, an innovative pedagogical methodology that, in an audiovisual way, aims to challenge stereotypes and myths about human trafficking, raising awareness in the community about the importance of combating this serious violation of human rights.

The “Suitcase” has three sections:

Trataguía (“trafficking guide”). This section presents concepts and definitions related to human trafficking (migration, smuggling of migrants, commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, prostitution), provides key elements for the identification of cases and the deconstruction of myths surrounding human trafficking, provides tips for self-care, and informs about the assistance routes within the existing regulations and services in Colombia for the restoration of the rights of victims.
Tratamundi (“trafficking world”). This section consists of an Interactive game which provides key elements for the prevention, identification of human trafficking and support to victims.
Cibertrata (“online”). This section provides documents, video clips, studies, and audio resources, that are useful to deepen one’s knowledge about human trafficking.

TWC2 responds to Singapore’s classification as Tier 1 in the TIP report

Written on 14 October 2022.

TIP2022 US Department of State, in its 2022 Trafficking in Person Report, has classified Singapore as Tier 1 and the government as meeting the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Responding to this report, TWC2 pointed out that even as Singapore has protections against human trafficking, its own law is more limited than the UN TIP protocol. In contrast to the UN Protocol which focuses on empowering victims of trafficking by providing them with “employment, educational and training opportunities”, the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act’s emphasis is on the “prosecution of traffickers, and it is weak in its provisions for the protection and support for victims of trafficking… Its protective measures tend to emphasise protection for individuals trafficked into sexual exploitation, rather than other forms of labour exploitation.” This overlooking of trafficking and exploitative conditions faced by migrant workers is pervasive. Even the TIP Report highlights that during the pandemic, the government “implemented regulations that allowed employers to limit the movement of migrant workers and kept these regulations in place longer than restrictions on the general public, thereby possibly increasing forced labour risks for migrant workers”.

The case of a manager of a club who was convicted in February 2022 by the government for trafficking highlighted some of the problems in countering trafficking in Singapore. It showed that there can be a fine line between what people recognised to have been trafficked may face and what “ordinary” migrant workers in the worst employment situations may experience. TWC2 reiterated its view that a significant improvement in the conditions of employment of migrant workers would help to make trafficking cases more visible and thus assist in combatting human trafficking.

LIBERA Foundation at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Written on 14 October 2022.

Audiencia CIDH Libera Libera Foundation, Chile, together with other organisations working against human trafficking in Latin America, attended a public hearing on access to justice and gender stereotypes before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Their intervention highlighted that gender stereotypes in the criminal justice system result in widespread impunity for human trafficking and forced labour. This is because the state actors involved, particularly law enforcement, inspectors, judges and security forces, have prejudices linked to gender, age, national and ethnic origin among others, which have a disproportionate negative impact on women and girls. These gender and racial stereotypes and prejudices impede the timely detection and adequate protection of victims of trafficking, and the way in which the justice system interprets the crime of human trafficking.

Libera also underlined their concern about the delays in the investigation processes, with cases that have been waiting for a judgment for nine years or more. Lastly, they demanded that states comply with their duty in terms of due diligence and training public officials to respond adequately, and denounced the impact of restrictive migration policies that cause the displacement of people in clandestine and insecure conditions.

Libera highlight two cases in which the Chilean justice system acquitted all the suspects: the case of 40 Paraguayan workers who were captured and taken to work on the farm of an important national businessman under forced labour conditions, and the case of an Asian woman who was subjected to domestic servitude within a family.