According to information by the Quick Response Team of the Technical Secretariat of the National Coalition against Illicit Immigrant Traffic and Human Trafficking (CONATT), between 2010 and September 2018 there have been a total of 211 victims in Costa Rica.

“In Costa Rica we defend citizens reports as the indispensable base to detect possible cases, however, thanks to the efforts carried out by all institutions involved we have been able to detect a larger number of cases. For instance, in 2017, we processed 34 reports of human trafficking, 2 of them relating irregular adoption processes, 3 related to labor exploitation, and 29 relating to sexual commercial exploitation, and so far in 2017 we have received 41 reports”, explained Freddy Chacón of the Section of Crimes against the physical integrity, human trafficking and human smuggling of the Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ).

The information gathered by OIJ shows that among the victims registered in Costa Rica the most predominant nationalities are: Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans, Dominicans, Colombians, Salvadorians, Chinese and Hondurans but there are also victims of other countries such as: Haiti, South Africa, Ghana, Congo, Venezuela, Panama, Albania and Guatemala. “Costa Rica is a migratory bridge due to its geographic position, for this reason, we require he population to be aware of how they can contribute by reporting these cases, they can do so anonymously, and this could help save many lives, we need to activate our intuition to prevent this from happening”, commented Chacón.

“We do not have established profiles because we all can be victims of human trafficking and any person can be tricked or trafficked, however, we can identify groups that are more vulnerable, and this include woman, or people that live in conditions of poverty”, stated Eugenia Salazar, from the District Attorney Office Specialized in Human Smuggling and Human Trafficking of the Public Ministry.

Coastal areas of high tourist density and the center of San Jose are the places with higher incidence of these crimes, in addition, new modalities such as fake profiles in social media capture a younger population.

Costa Rican authorities received training this Monday in new modalities of investigation of these crimes as well as new modalities of operations.