IOM Peru Trains Healthcare Teams Working with Victims of Human Trafficking in Remote Amazon Region
Analysis:
Human trafficking normally goes hand in hand with other illicit activities which require forced labor and/or sexual exploitation. In the past few years illegal gold extraction in the Madre de Dios region of Peru has contributed to an increase in human trafficking. This remote region in the Amazon has displaced the capital, Lima, as the number one destination for internal migration.
These dreams of gold and wealth have not only prompted thousands of Peruvians to migrate to the region, but have created a series of informal and illegal economic activities where human trafficking plays a principal role.
Girls, teens and adult women are being trafficked from different parts of the country and taken to Madre de Dios where they are forced to work in the sex industry in the makeshift camps that have been set up near gold mining sites.
As part of its capacity building activities in Peru, IOM is working with the central and regional governments, as well as civil society, to combat human trafficking and provide assistance to its victims.
Taking into account the unique needs of the Madre de Dios region, where the informal and illegal economy have generated special security and governance issues, the IOM strategy included boosting existing health services with the mobile clinic Caravana de la Vida.
This week’s workshop will provide the knowledge and tools necessary for health care workers in the region to enhance their coordination with other actors working to combat human trafficking by providing targeted assistance to victims while potentially increasing the prosecution of traffickers.
Cesar Estrella
Programme Coodinator
IOM Peru
Peru - IOM Peru is this week holding a training workshop for healthcare workers in the remote Madre de Dios region in the Amazon who provide assistance to victims of human trafficking.
Some 30 specialists and technicians who work in the mobile health care unit Caravana de la Vida (Life Caravan) will attend the two-day workshop starting today in the city of Puerto Maldonado. IOM Migration Health experts will focus on the special health needs of victims of human trafficking.
Discussions will also focus attention on reporting cases of human trafficking to the authorities and how to refer victims in need of more specialized care, additional assistance and protection.
IOM partners from the Ombudsman’s Office, the Office of Victim Assistance and Witness Protection of the Ministry of Interior, the Prosecutors Office and the Multi-Sectorial Commission against Human Trafficking of Madre de Dios will provide their expertise and analysis.
In the past few years the Madre de Dios region has experienced a dramatic increase in internal migration; it is estimated that some 40,000 people have migrated to the area to take part in illegal gold mining activities. Many of them are living in haphazard camp sites and small mining settlements that lack basic hygiene and health services.
The majority of trafficking victims are women, many of them minors, who are forced to work in the sex industry.
The mobile clinic, Caravana de la Vida, launched in July 2012 and implemented by the Regional Government of Madre de Dios, with support from IOM and the President’s Office for Welfare and Social Action, has brought much-needed health care, including basic health services, triage, obstetrics, and dental care, to vulnerable and displaced populations living in remote towns.
The project is staffed by a doctor, an obstetrician, a dentist, a nurse, a laboratory technician and a driver. The clinic travels around the area and, since its launching, has provided vital health care to more than 15,000 people.
“This mobile health clinic is a true pioneering effort in Peru. It is providing a much-needed service to poor and remote communities, but is also identifying and assisting victims or potential victims of human trafficking,” said José Iván Dávalos, IOM Chief of Mission in Peru.
For more information, please contact
Cesar Estrella
IOM Lima
Email: cestrella@iom.int
Tel: + 5116330000, Ext. 123