PANAMA (Tier 2 Watch List)
Panama is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution. Although some Panamanian women and girls are found in forced prostitution in other countries in Latin America and in Europe, most Panamanian trafficking victims are exploited within the country. Although statistics were lacking, both NGOs and government officials anecdotally reported that commercial sexual exploitation of children was greater in rural areas and in the city of Colon than in Panama City. NGOs report that some Panamanian children, mostly young girls, are subjected to involuntary domestic servitude. Most foreign sex trafficking victims are adult women from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and neighboring Central American countries; some victims migrate voluntarily to Panama to work but are subsequently forced into prostitution. Weak controls along Panama’s borders make the nation an easy transit point for irregular migrants, from Latin America, East Africa, and Asia, some of who may fall victim to human trafficking.
The Government of Panama does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. During the reporting period authorities increased public awareness about the prostitution of children through seminars in schools and an outreach campaign with the tourism sector. Despite such efforts, the government showed little evidence of progress in combating human trafficking. Law enforcement efforts remained weak, the Panamanian penal code did not prohibit trafficking for forced labor, and the government failed to provide adequate assistance to victims and to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations; therefore, Panama is placed on Tier 2 Watch List.
Recommendations for Panama: Amend anti-trafficking laws to prohibit forced labor, including involuntary domestic servitude; intensify law enforcement efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and convict and sentence trafficking offenders, including any public officials complicit with trafficking activity; train government officials in anti-trafficking laws and victim identification and care; dedicate more resources for victim services; and develop a formal system for identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, particularly women in prostitution.
Prosecution
The Government of Panama maintained its law enforcement efforts against trafficking crimes during the reporting period. Article 178 of the Panamanian penal code, which was updated in 2008, prohibits the internal and transnational movement of persons for the purpose of sexual servitude or forced commercial sexual activity. The prescribed sentence is four to six years imprisonment, which is increased to six to nine years if trafficking offenders use deceit, coercion, or retain identity documents, and is further increased to 10 to 15 years if the victim is under 14 years of age. Article 177 prohibits sexually exploiting another person for profit. Under aggravated circumstances of threat, force, or fraud, this constitutes human trafficking as defined by international protocol, and carries a sentence of eight to 10 years. Article 180 prohibits the internal and transnational trafficking of minors for sexual servitude, prescribing prison terms of eight to 10 years imprisonment, and Article 179 prohibits subjecting an individual to sexual servitude using threats or violence. Prosecutors may also use other statutes, such as anti-pimping laws, to prosecute trafficking crimes. The above punishments are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for rape. Panamanian law, however, does not specifically prohibit human trafficking for the purpose of forced labor, including domestic servitude. During the reporting period, the government investigated eight human trafficking cases and seven cases of commercial sexual exploitation of a child, which is comparable with last year’s efforts. During the year, however, authorities achieved only one conviction, compared with two achieved during the previous reporting period. The trafficking offender was sentenced to 72 months for pimping a child, which was reduced to 48 months incarceration for unreported reasons. This sentence does not appear to meet the standards established in the Panamanian penal code for this crime.
Authorities maintained a small law enforcement unit to investigate sex trafficking and related offenses, and Panamanian law required that one prosecutor in each of Panama’s 13 provinces be trained to prosecute trafficking crimes. One prosecutor based in Panama City was dedicated exclusively to prosecuting trafficking crimes. There were no reports of partnerships with foreign governments in joint investigations of trafficking crimes during the reporting period, although Panamanian authorities met with Colombian officials to exchange information. The government opened no formal trafficking-related corruption investigations during the reporting period. Some judges received training on sex trafficking. There were no reports of training for the members of the diplomatic corps abroad.
Protection
The Panamanian government sustained limited efforts to assist trafficking victims during the reporting period, though overall victim services remained inadequate, particularly for adult victims. Authorities did not employ systematic procedures for identifying trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, such as women in prostitution or detained irregular migrants. Panamanian law requires the National Immigration Office’s trafficking victims unit to provide assistance to foreign trafficking victims. During the reporting period, however, authorities did not report extending victim services to repatriated Panamanian victims or foreign victims of trafficking, and the Immigration Office indicated that there were no foreign victims of trafficking over the past year. The government continued to provide partial funding to an NGO-operated shelter with dedicated housing and social services for child trafficking victims. This shelter, in addition to another NGO shelter working with at-risk youth, and the government’s network of shelters for victims of abuse and violence could provide services to child victims of trafficking, although the government did not report assisting any child victims last year. A shelter for child trafficking victims, funded by a foreign government, was in the process of being constructed. There was no shelter care available exclusively for adult victims of trafficking. The government could house adult victims in hotels on an ad hoc basis but did not report doing so or providing any legal, medical, or psychological services or long-term care to adult trafficking victims during this reporting period. In past years, Panamanian authorities encouraged victims to assist with the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenders, although few victims chose to do so. The government did not provide foreign victims with legal alternatives to their return to countries where they may face hardship or retribution, although in past years foreign victims were allowed to remain in country during investigations. Trafficking victims were not penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; however, due to the lack of victim identification strategies, not all foreign victims may have been identified before deportation.
Prevention
The government maintained efforts to prevent human trafficking during the reporting period. To raise awareness about commercial sexual exploitation of children, the government conducted seminars in 84 schools, reaching 6,900 students, 230 teachers, and 140 parents. In collaboration with the ILO, the National Commission for the Prevention of Crimes of Sexual Exploitation, a multiagency task force, sent 300 letters to the tourism sector to raise awareness of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism is prohibited by law, though there were no reported prosecutions of sex tourists during the reporting period. During the reporting period, the government implemented its National Plan for Prevention and Elimination of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents by publishing a comprehensive guide on health care of children and adolescent victims of commercial sexual exploitation and through supporting a study of sex trafficking in Panama. The government undertook no initiatives to reduce demand for forced labor.
This was taken from a Department of State Report on Human Trafficking
I thought I would put this out there since I read a post by BEC that made mention of preventing future issues. From what I hear around Boquete, most people are naïve or simply in denial. It is common around the world even in quiet Boquete. I love to point out statistics and facts, and this would be a primary reason this particular popular tourist destination was most likely selected. Keep in mind that this is the 4th case in the last 10 years, which is extremely low by most agency or country standards. However it does lend credence to the fact that it's here. There are many steps that can be taken to prevent or slow the rate of Human Trafficking, I would suggest that training be attained from Qualified Professionals in the field. And the neighborhood watch does not count, well... unless it involves the responsible use of a boat horn.
If Ning users want to be proactive, and personally contribute to the search for these young ladies I would suggest going to a website named Backpage.com and breaking it up by country and compare the pictures of the escorts to those of the missing girls. I have personally worked 4 recovery missions that were given actionable intel from this site. Start with the middle east, UAE being my first choice.
Replies
I have thought a lot before taking the action of closing this thread. It was of interest although the information cited was years out of date. Panama is a tier 2 country as are most non "first world" countries that do not fall into tier 3. Panama is not great on protection of victims of human trafficking in fact they offer Colombians a special sex trade Visa. None of this except the claim of four possible abductions in all of Panama is relevant.
Since the one I know about, and the only other case in Boquete was a 29 year old British male. I doubt he was abducted for sex trade so that tragedy is probably not related to the content of this thread.
I do not want to discount the problem nor the risk of abduction or being lost in the wilderness surrounding Boquete. I realize closing the barn door after the horses have escaped is important as a precaution for others still inside. There are people trying to do that now, Fran, Lori and the Spanish Language Schools are all trying to prevent this from occurring again.
We are all hoping for a positive event and positive ending of this horror for Lisanne and Kris but this thread has become shopworn and is now closed.
don't believe me then! keep skipping around town pretending everything is la di la. go check yourself. it's public record. go to the dij and the sala judicial and ask them for files about the child porn case in boquete. i don't need to give you specifics, do the work yourself if you want verification. i was there. i saw the kids and the perps. i don't need verification that boquete is about to go the way of costa rica.
isn't the sex traffic theory speculating as well? give me a break. this is reality. i can't sugar coat this nor it shouldn't be. my heart goes out to the family, but this is the real world, the 3rd world. this idea, you call it speculating, should have been investigated on day one. many investigations and crimes are solved in the first 48 hours, after that, the odds of solving drop exponentially. you can read about the 2007-8 case, i don't know the exact date in the prensa archives. there is also a youtube video about child porn that mentions boquete and that case. the dij has info as well. you won't read about it in any boquete welcome center
Linch Your lack of professionalism is evident to many who read this forum; as to your brutal honesty you can not even be honest that you have an ax to grind with A.A.C. You can lie to yourself and continue to deny you have an ax to grind with A.A.C. but it is clearly there for everyone else to see.
You stated A.A.C. has no business being involved in a case like this -- Who are you to make that determination? Perhaps you should stay in your lane and mind your own business -- Unless of course you can show something from the family where they asked you personally to intervene on their behalf; or possible you have something from the Dutch Ambassador asking you to intervene on behalf of the Netherlands to get A.A.C. removed from participating in this issue. Wait the family mentioned being assued of full cooperation with A.A.C. in their letter to the community as well as local police force.
No need to reply I'm done with this discussion. It is just a shameful that you chose to use an event such as this to attack a valuable organization in the Boquete Community!
Susan,
I gave credit where it was due, the call center is a good thing even though I personally disagree with it. I feel if you chose to live in a Spanish speaking country then you should be able to communicate in said language. I have no axe to grind other than AAC has no business involved in a case such as this. They should know their place and stay in it. As far as being a true professional brutal honesty just comes with the territory, sorry my chosen profession does not afford me the privilege to hug a tree every time my feelings are hurt. Fraud and a wannabe? I am not employed by AAC sorry. So just out of curiosity what is your vested interest? Very defensive! I tell you what, when everyone involved with AAC produces some credentials that validate their existence, I will close my ning account and leave the neighbor hood watch alone.
WOW! Your post - your novella - is so wrong on so many different levels it's actually quite sad. I mean WOW. Good luck with that.
why argue with these people? they're nothing but hero complexed ex pats with no achievements. ask for credentials, you get silence. ask them for schools, nothing. all they do is brag, and brag about what they know is good for other people just to reprimand them later. you can't praise and scold in the same paragraph. just leave them alone. let them waste their energy.
Professional -- no sorry he doesn't come off that way at all. A true professional wouldn't have come on a site such as this and put down an organization which has done so much for the community and continues to do so much. This individual clearly has an ax to grind with A.A.C. and is using this has his opportunity -- A true professional would never do such a thing.
He certainly is a fraud and a wannabee -- his actions/posts on here clearly demonstrate this.
Keith deleted his comment, but here is what I answered to his post.
Negative in the terms that "nothing" was done and my post was compared to seeing a Chupacabra and some other negative comments, see below:
It reminds me a decade ago when the story of the Chupacabra appear in the Panama's scene.
No one did a damn thing to research human trafficking/kidnapping or think about "what if there is one ounce of merit to the stories and the mayors warning". Hey "we have many young people that visit here maybe we should have the hostels, and other venues have some basic warnings and guide lines for our young visitors".
Thankfully my kids school did up the security and protocol for pick up at the time of the reports.
We are all aware of the evil in the world, especially to young women but most made the choice to dismiss the mayors warning and media coverage in Oct 2013. Instead of being pro-active the warnings I posted were considered rumors and made fun of. I just feel bad, if our community would have used common sense maybe two young women would be home with their families.
Hopefully in the future, young visitors that vacation in Chiriquí will be given some safety advise on their arrival.
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