IOM has welcomed this week’s first ever conviction in the
Dominican Republic of two child traffickers who received 15-year
prison sentences for the smuggling, trafficking and labour
exploitation of Haitian children in Santo Domingo.

"IOM is pleased to see justice served on these traffickers. We
also recognize the good Samaritan act of a Dominican woman who,
seeing the same three children begging on a street corner day after
day, decided to intervene on their behalf and take them to a
government-run shelter,” said IOM Santo Domingo Chief of
Mission Cy Winter.

The traffickers were arrested in a raid by the Dominican
authorities in the Los Alcarrizos neighbourhood of Santo Domingo in
February 2011, during which 44 children were discovered and
rescued. 

Twenty-two of the children were identified as victims of human
trafficking and taken into Dominican custody.  They had been
trafficked to the Dominican Republic to beg on the streets of Santo
Domingo or to carry out menial labour.  All money they earned
had been taken by their traffickers. 

IOM supported the Dominican authorities by providing food,
clothing, medical and psycho-social care, recreational activities
and transportation for all the rescued children. It also provided
technical and operational assistance.

IOM Haiti then undertook family tracing to identify their
biological families or legal guardians. The families were evaluated
by IOM social workers to assess their needs and their ability and
willingness to receive their children. Subsequently, a pre-return
risk assessment was compiled for each child and reviewed in
cooperation with the Haitian Child Protection Authorities
(IBESR).

Following successful pre-return risk assessments, the children
were subsequently moved by IOM from the Dominican Republic to
Haiti, in cooperation with the Haitian Embassy in Santo Domingo and
the Dominican and Haitian Migration and Child Protection
Authorities.  

The 22 returned children and their families received
reintegration support, including education and income generation
assistance, as well as monitoring to ensure the sustainability of
the returns. 

Over the past two years IOM Santo Domingo’s
counter-trafficking work with Haitian children and adolescent
victims of forced and exploitative labour and sexual exploitation
has increased dramatically.   It has assisted over 60
male and female Haitian minors trafficked to the Dominican
Republic.  

During the same period IOM has also helped nearly 100 Dominican
victims of trafficking to return home from countries including
Trinidad and Tobago, St. Martin, Haiti, Argentina, Morocco, Lebanon
and Switzerland.  

IOM Santo Domingo’s counter trafficking projects are
supported by the US State Department’s Bureau of Population,
Refugees and Migration (PRM) and the Office to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP).

For more information, please contact

Zoë Stopak-Behr

IOM Santo Domingo

Tel: 809 688 8174

Email: "mailto:zstopak-behr@iom.int">zstopak-behr@iom.int