The government maintained protection efforts. Law enforcement and other entities could identify potential trafficking victims; separately, the government’s National Anti-Trafficking Commission (“the commission”) determined whether potential victims should be considered “preliminary” or confirmed victims. The commission reported authorities confirmed the identification of eight victims in 2022, compared with 16 confirmed victims in 2021 and six victims in 2020. Of the eight confirmed victims identified in 2022, five were Panamanian girls exploited in sex trafficking and three were Nicaraguan men exploited in forced labor. In addition, there were 11 preliminary victims awaiting a ruling on their status at the end of 2022; officials reported identifying 10 of these preliminary victims during an investigation into forced begging allegations associated with a religious group operating in Panama City. In 2022, the commission ruled on the status of 22 victims, compared with 23 in 2021; it granted eight of these potential victims full status as trafficking victims. The government reported it could take several months for the commission to confirm potential victims’ status. Victims could access shelter and other services while their status was pending.
The commission proactively supplied an identification form to assist officials who encountered potential trafficking victims, including law enforcement, border officials, and healthcare workers; due to an incomplete implementation of formal identification procedures, some victims may have remained unidentified within the law enforcement system. The government reported screening for trafficking indicators at locations where commercial sex was known to occur and among vulnerable populations, including irregular migrants; officials did not identify any trafficking victims during routine screenings in 2022. Despite screening efforts and law enforcement investigations, the government did not proactively identify most potential or preliminary victims; instead, officials frequently relied on victims to report their own exploitation. Observers suggested officials under-identified Indigenous trafficking victims due to the remote location and limited services within semi-autonomous Indigenous communities. Further, officials likely failed to identify some internal trafficking victims while operating under a legal framework that required movement to constitute a trafficking crime. The government had guidelines for victim identification and protection, which outlined the formal procedures, internal processes, and training materials used by referring officials and the Technical Unit for Attention and Protection of Victims and Witnesses (UPAVIT).
Officials referred all victims to UPAVIT, which provided immediate care to victims of all crimes and physical protection to victims, witnesses, and experts. Based on trafficking victims’ circumstances, UPAVIT could provide shelter, food, clothes, health services and medication, legal support, and psychological and social assistance; separately, the commission could provide victims with career training and assistance in changing migratory status. In 2022, UPAVIT provided services to 26 victims, including several identified in previous reporting periods, and 27 family members, mostly children, of victims; by contrast, UPAVIT provided services to 19 victims and 15 victims’ children in 2021. Eight of the 26 victims receiving services were preliminary victims identified in 2022; the government provided legal counsel, support for immigration regularization, and basic medical care while their victim status was pending. The government provided treatment to one victim suffering from a substance abuse disorder; 12 victims received therapy and counseling services, compared with 13 in 2021. The government provided trafficking victims deliveries of food and hygiene supplies on an ad-hoc basis. The government coordinated with a civil society organization to train officials from several ministries on victim-centered approaches and support for victims participating in law enforcement processes.
The government seized assets derived from human trafficking activities and allocated the proceeds to the commission to fund services and victim compensation and maintained the Special Fund for Victims of Trafficking in persons, as mandated by the anti-trafficking law, to house the funds; a commission sub-unit had responsibility for managing the fund, which contained $27,090 at the end of the reporting period. The commission received a deposit of approximately $19,750 in November 2022 following the liquidation of assets seized in a 2021 trafficking case; officials noted $9,883 in seized assets were pending liquidation at the end of the reporting period. However, the government did not allocate funding specific to the commission or victim services in its annual budget and seized assets were insufficient to fully fund victim service provision. As a result, ministries drew from their general budgets to fund the commission and the provision of food, shelter in hotels, transportation, and psychological and legal services for potential victims; officials indicated many agencies did not track or disaggregate spending to support trafficking victims. However, the Ministry of Public Security (MINSEG) reported $398,196 in expenditures tied to the commission, including victim assistance and staffing costs; UPAVIT reported spending at least $1,911 to fund shelter, food, and other basic expenses for trafficking victims, compared with $1,500 in 2021, $3,800 in 2020 and $54,540 in 2019. The government allocated $150,000 to two ongoing projects implemented by international organizations, restoring resources diverted from these projects in 2020 to fund pandemic-mitigation measures. The government continued to fund an NGO-administered program providing hospitality sector vocational training to trafficking victims; however, no victims participated in the program in 2022, compared with eight victims in 2020.
There were no dedicated shelters for trafficking victims. As a result, authorities commonly placed victims in hotels and covered the lodging costs. The government could also refer victims to migrant or women’s shelters run by NGOs. In 2022, the government did not provide or refer any victims to shelter, compared with providing shelter to one victim in 2021. Victims frequently elected to return to their home countries or reside with family or friends rather than stay in hotels, potentially inhibiting victim-witness support in pending trafficking cases. The government referred child trafficking victims to SENNIAF, which placed child victims with relatives or within its network of shelters administered by NGOs and religious organizations; in 2022, SENNIAF placed five child victims with relatives not associated with their exploitation. Credible allegations, substantiated by independent investigation, indicated children in SENNIAF facilities were at risk of abuse and low standards of care, which heightened their vulnerability to trafficking; no allegations of abuse specifically cited the SENNIAF shelter most commonly serving child trafficking victims.
Foreign national victims were eligible for short-term humanitarian visas, temporary residency permits extendable up to six years, and work permits. In October 2022, the government further extended trafficking victims’ visa eligibility to include victims’ dependents; commission officials reported input from trafficking survivors spurred the initiative. The government issued or renewed 20 provisional humanitarian visas and 18 work permits for trafficking victims, compared with 22 visas and seven work permits in 2021. Officials did not report issuing any permanent residency permits to trafficking victims for the third consecutive year, compared with 13 in 2019. The government coordinated with civil society organizations to repatriate two foreign victims to their country of origin in 2022, compared with supporting one repatriation in 2021. The government made available specialized interview rooms to allow victims to provide testimony privately to minimize the risk of re-traumatization and allowed prosecutors to request hearings be closed to the public. Prosecutors utilized these specialized interview rooms and other accommodations to facilitate advance testimonies in 2022 for four victims planning to return to their countries of origin before trial proceedings. The law allowed victims to obtain restitution from their traffickers during criminal cases or to file civil suits to obtain compensation; lawyers from the commission were available to assist victims seeking restitution or compensation. Labor trafficking victims could also claim compensation from traffickers through a separate administrative process overseen by the Ministry of Labor. The government reported courts ordered a convicted sex trafficker to pay $5,000 in restitution to one victim; the government did not indicate whether the payment was made within the six-month window specified by the ruling. No victims made new requests for restitution or compensation in 2022, compared with no new requests in 2021 and eight in 2020. The government reported prosecutors continued to support seven victims’ petition for compensation in an ongoing case from 2019. No labor trafficking victims claimed compensation via the Ministry of Labor’s administrative process, compared with zero victims in 2021 and 16 in 2020. The commission’s on-staff lawyers could also support trafficking victims in other legal matters; during the reporting period, commission lawyers advised a trafficking victim in a housing dispute.