The government decreased victim protection efforts. Although authorities identified more victims, they did not provide direct services or referral to the majority of identified victims. The government identified 95 sex trafficking victims, 60 women and 35 girls, and two forced child labor victims, gender not specified. In comparison, authorities identified 37 victims in 2020 and 124 victims in 2019. Three female victims were from Colombia, one was from Guatemala, and the remainder of identified victims were from El Salvador. NGOs identified two additional sex trafficking victims, both girls. The government provided services to 24 victims (12 women, 10 girls, and two men) and referred 11 additional child sex trafficking victims, all girls, to NGOs for support. In 2020, the attorney general’s office provided psychological care to 27 victims and collaborated with NGOs to provide financial assistance for lodging, food, basic necessities, and job placement to 36 victims; in 2019, the government assisted 111 victims. The government maintained one trafficking victims’ shelter, which had the capacity to house 12 girls between the ages of 12 and 18, and provided services to 11 residents in 2021. Officials required residents to quarantine for 15 days in a general-purpose shelter before they could be admitted to the trafficking victim shelter. The government repatriated two foreign victims to their home countries The government’s 2018 Inter-Institutional Action Protocol for the Immediate Comprehensive Care of Victims of Trafficking in Persons outlined the roles and responsibilities of government agencies in responding to trafficking victims. The protocol required all initial referrals to be made to police or prosecutors, without an option to refer potential victims directly to government or private sector service providers. In 2021, officials from the Protection Boards of Childhood and Adolescence, the National Hospitals of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance, and the Directorate General for Migration and Foreigners identified and referred nine suspected trafficking cases to the anti-trafficking unit of the attorney general’s office. Police received 20 trafficking-related calls to the 911 emergency division but did not report whether they identified any victims through these calls. Immigration agents had a manual to guide identification and referral of possible trafficking victims in border regions. However, the government lacked formal procedures to identify and refer trafficking victims among most vulnerable groups, including individuals in commercial sex and children apprehended for gang-related activity. Local experts reported police, immigration agents, and other first responders lacked sufficient training to properly identify, interact with, and protect victims, who were often mistaken for criminals and may have been punished for unlawful acts their traffickers compelled them to commit. In addition, experts reported authorities did not screen for indicators of human trafficking among families fleeing gang-controlled communities or other forced displacement victims; trafficking victims and at-risk persons among this population, particularly children exploited by gangs, remained uncounted in official statistics and without access to justice and specialized services.
The government provided limited assistance to victims. The government shelter provided residents with education and recreation, psycho-social care, and protective materials to prevent COVID-19 transmission. The government did not report the shelter’s budget for 2021. In comparison, the government allocated a budget of $167,375 to the shelter in 2020. There were no trafficking shelters that accepted victims who were adults, boys, and/or transgender individuals; women could access shelter and services designed for domestic violence victims, while male and/or transgender victims had little to no access to government services. The government offered few long-term support or reintegration services to trafficking victims following the conclusion of investigations, leaving them at risk of re-trafficking. Although judges ordered convicted traffickers to pay restitution to victims, the government did not effectively enforce these orders, and no victims received restitution or compensation payment in 2021. The government reported providing witness protection, relative to individual safety risks, for victims participating in prosecutions. Such measures included disguising victims’ identities in court and allowing victims to provide testimony by deposition or via teleconference, but this support was only available through the duration of a trial. Local experts reported a lack of adequate security measures and lengthy investigations and prosecutions led many victims to cease participation before the conclusion of criminal justice processes. Inadequate economic and livelihood assistance led victims and witnesses to leave the country in search of economic opportunity before authorities completed investigations; authorities reported the pandemic exacerbated this situation. LGBTQI+ individuals experienced discrimination within the law enforcement and judicial systems, which limited their access to justice.
Due to a lack of formal victim identification procedures for members of at-risk groups, authorities may have prosecuted or punished some unidentified victims for unlawful acts traffickers compelled them to commit. In 2021, authorities detained, jailed, prosecuted, and sentenced children for unlawful gang-related activity, including drug possession, aggravated homicide, and illegal firearms possession without screening for indicators of trafficking. The 2014 trafficking law provided foreign victims the right to seek residency status, which would allow them to work legally. A 2019 immigration law granted foreign victims the right to obtain residency—with multiple entry and exit permission and the ability to work—for an initial period of up to two years with the option to extend; no foreign victims received residency benefits during the year.