February 2004
Judge for Children:
The trafficking of children is on the rise in this country
Sandra Quiroz
Sandra Quiroz, Judge in the First Court for Children in Tegucigalpa, reported that the number of cases of children disappearing has risen since March of last year. Child disappearances are a strong indicator that the children are being used for commercial sex trafficking.
Has the number
of cases of sexual trafficking of minors gone up?
Since last year at this time, the number of cases of minors being trafficked
for sex has risen. You can see from news reports that girls disappear
from their homes and the parents report them missing. Some are found,
but others are not, because we do not know where they are taken.
How much have these
cases increased?
In the last year my court received more than 120 reports of boys and girls
who disappeared from their home or were taken out of the country by other
people
Have all these
children left the country?
Some have left the country, and some have been rescued outside of the
country.
Do you have clear evidence of the existence of networks operating in Honduras?
I believe there are networks because this did not happen before-children
did not just disappear from school. But lately, many children have disappeared.
Is this happening in specific cities or in all of the country?
This is happening on a national level, but more reports do come from Tegucigalpa
and San Pedro Sula.
In what year did these cases start to increase?
The increase was detected since March of last year. We started to suspect
that the children who disappear are victims of trafficking, although there
are not direct reports of sexual trafficking. But why else do you think
they would leave the country and their parents find that later they have
been sold to brothels or have been sexually abused?
How many of these children are you able to rescue?
Well, at least 70 percent.
Where do you find the children you have rescued?
In different places--some had left Honduras, others were on the border.
Many are in El Salvador and Guatemala, probably the majority. Some are
in brothels and others are found on the way with the person who is taking
them.
What have you done with these cases?
The cases are reported to the other country's authorities and the proper
steps are followed. Furthermore, all the cases are reported to the Public
Prosecutor.
Why do you think the number of children being trafficked for sex is rising?
I think one reason is that parents are not worrying about their children.
They send them to do errand or to go to school alone. They do no report
the child missing for up to two or three days, when it is often impossible
to rescue them. I would say also that any parent who finds themselves
in this situation should report the child missing immediately to the authorities,
because the faster it is reported, the easier it is to rescue the child.
So I think parent have responsibility in this.
How old are these missing children?
They are between nine and 17 years old, both boys and girls.
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