An agreement signed this week between IOM and a Mexican
non-governmental organization (NGO) Sexualidad Responsable (SERE by
its Spanish acronym) based in the northern border city of Ciudad
Juarez, will help to shed light on human trafficking trends in the
area.

Human trafficking has received little attention in Ciudad Juarez
with the result that there is little awareness of it among the
general population. It has mainly been overshadowed by the
disappearances and murders of women which have monopolized the
attention of the authorities, civil society organizations and the
media during the last decade.  However, the border State of
Chihuahua has been identified by Mexico's National Commission on
Human Rights (CNDH by its Spanish acronym) as a destination point
for trafficking victims in a country where more than 20,000 people
are estimated to be trafficked each year.  Between 2005 and
2010, IOM has assisted more than 175 victims of trafficking in
Mexico, most of them from Central America.

A surveyed carried out by SERE in 2009, based on its years of
experience working in the field of sexual health, revealed that
some 5,000 women work as prostitutes in Ciudad Juarez.  Many
of them are from other Mexican states such as Veracruz, Oaxaca,
Zacatecas, Coahuila and Chiapas, and others are foreigners, mainly
from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The nine-month initiative between IOM and SERE, funded by the US
Agency for International Development's Program for Security and
Justice, aims to produce additional information about human
trafficking along the northern border with the aim of informing and
raising awareness on human trafficking amongst at-risk populations
and the public in general. The project also involves strengthening
government and civil society's capacities to detect and assist
victims of human trafficking.

"It is important to foster joint initiatives in order to bring
together experiences and strengths from different sectors to combat
human trafficking in areas where this crime has lacked the
attention it deserves," explained IOM Mexico Chief of Mission,
Thomas Lothar Weiss.

For more information please contact:

Jeremy Mac Gillivray

IOM Mexico

Tel: +52 55 5536 3922

E-mail: "mailto:jmacgillivray@iom.int">jmacgillivray@iom.int