SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 24 May. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Canary Islands Institute for Equality (ICI) has established an agreement with the Foundation of the University of La Laguna (ULL) to prepare a diagnosis on the incidence and characteristics of trafficking in women for sexual exploitation in the Canary Islands.
As described by the director of the ICI, Kika Fumero, the ultimate goal is “to make trafficking for sexual exploitation visible as a form of violence against women that violates Human Rights and, above all, to know the reality that usually remains in the shadows , to define how to improve current detection and protection systems and propose alternatives”.
“Trafficking in human beings -continues Fumero– is one of the forms of slavery that persists today, and the reality is that it is preyed upon with women and girls who are captured by deception, taking advantage of their situation of extreme vulnerability, transported and housed by the mafias that profit at their expense in appalling conditions”.
The work team will be made up of a team of research professionals, with university degrees, who will be coordinated by professionals from the ULL.
The work contemplates carrying out an exhaustive analysis of the current regulations on sexual exploitation, as well as secondary data on the incidence of this crime at the state level and specifically on the islands. It will also analyze the current detection and intervention protocols with victims of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, as well as the practice of public and private institutions that intervene in this phenomenon to assess their degree of effectiveness and alternatives for improvement.
The methodology will combine quantitative and qualitative techniques to collect information on the incidence on the islands and on the reality of the victims. To this end, in-depth interviews will be carried out with women victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation who have been detected in the archipelago and discussion groups will be organized with professionals who work with them. In this way, exhaustive information will be collected on the collection networks, detection protocols, interventions and alternatives. From this field work, the structural causes and the social context where this phenomenon occurs in our territory and the detection and intervention alternatives will be analyzed.
This assignment is part of the first agreement that the ICI established in 2020 with the two public universities of the Canary Islands, with the aim of planning training and research on equality between women and men and the eradication of gender violence.
As stated in the agreement, in addition to the specific actions of the two public universities through the Strategic Subsidy Plan established annually by the ICI, one of the priority lines of research established by the agreement was to address and carry out a diagnosis of human trafficking. of women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
