SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The director of the Canary Islands Institute for Equality (ICI), Kika Fumero, has presented today Thursday the study ‘The data and the story in the sexual exploitation of women and girls’, which aims to know the incidence and characteristics of trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation in the Canary Islands and from which it can be deduced that more than 200 women on the islands are at risk of trafficking or sexual exploitation.
This study has been financed by the Canary Institute for Equality and has been carried out through the General Foundation of the University of La Laguna, under the agreement that the ICI maintains with the two Canarian public universities. Likewise, it has been directed by Esther Torrado, professor of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the ULL.
The director of the ICI explained that this study aims, on the one hand, to find out the incidence and characteristics of trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation in the autonomous community and, on the other, to make visible trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation as a a form of violence against women that violates human rights.
Thus, to carry out this report, 22 women victims of sex trafficking in the Canary Islands have been interviewed in both provinces. Of the women interviewed, 5 are from the Canary Islands and 17 are foreigners (Africa, South America and Central America), aged between 19 and 57 years. Likewise, 10 of the 22 women interviewed were victims of sexual violence when they were minors, which is a risk factor for later being treated for the purpose of sexual exploitation or ending up in a situation of prostitution or human trafficking for this purpose.
According to official data, more than 90% of women in prostitution come from being trafficked and some are trafficked for that purpose. Specifically, of the 6,030 people who are sexually trafficked in the world, 5,449 are women (64%) and girls (23%). These crimes of sex trafficking are committed mostly by men (70%), according to the 2020 European Commission report.
Regarding the data registered in the Canary Islands, the cases of sexual trafficking identified on the islands went from 13 cases in 2018 to just 4 in 2021, while administrative inspections related to sexual trafficking in the Canary Islands went from 186 in 2017 to 81. in 2021, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior. In addition, in 2019 there were 9 victims of trafficking on the islands and from 2020 to 2021 zero victims, according to official data.
However, Kika Fumero specified that this decrease is due to circumstances such as confinement or the pandemic, where there is “more than enough” evidence that shows that cases of violence increased, adding that the women interviewed in this study are only a small sample of women who suffer trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation and prostitution in the archipelago.
On the other hand, from the ICI, in collaboration with the seven councils and the State Government, a total of 11 administrative accreditations have been granted, from June 1, 2022 to January 15, 2023, to women at risk of vulnerability due to being victims of trafficking or sexual exploitation, which clashes with official data, according to Kika Fumero.
Sex trafficking and prostitution are interconnected through debt. Thus, most of the women recruited continued in prostitution after paying off the debt and the majority did not report being victims of sex trafficking because they distrust the security forces and bodies of the State and institutions in general, which is “a dead end.” with no way out that makes them feel more and more trapped and that they see themselves with fewer resources to get out of the situation they are in,” said Fumero.
RECRUITMENT FACTORS.
Regarding recruitment factors, many were recruited with the complicity of their families and surroundings; all had suffered sexual violence from relatives and close people and were minors, which makes the post-traumatic shock much greater; all had physical and mental health problems; a minority of the women interviewed (6) continue in the prostitution system; and no woman has expressed the intention of wanting to continue in prostitution. “Therefore, prostitution is not a job, it is exploitation, violation of human rights and torture,” Fumero stressed.
Finally, the director of the ICI pointed out that from the study it can be concluded that the official data does not coincide with those obtained through the qualitative research carried out in this study with the victims residing in the Canary Islands, with the Report on Prostitution of the ULL of the 2016/2017; nor with the Cunina I and Cunina II Reports, which alert about the recruitment for prostitution of women and girls within the institutional system, therefore, far from diminishing, cases of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and prostitution in the Canary Islands have been on the rise, Fumero said.
In this regard, Professor Esther Torrado explained that the cuts in resources, especially prevention resources, are facilitating the absence of detection of cases of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. In this sense, he affirmed that if the resources of the State security forces and bodies and social resources for the protection and refuge of these women were increased, and there were also migration policies more focused on human rights and with a gender perspective , possibly the victims would trust and denounce more.
