Internal Trafficking of Women, Girls, Boys, and Adolescents in the Dominican Republic

OBMICA presents the study Internal Trafficking of Women, Girls, Boys, and Adolescents in the Dominican Republic, prepared with support from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) by renowned experts Tahira Vargas and Segundo Maldonado Abreu.

Although 70% of victims are women, the work by Vargas and Maldonado Abreu documents abuses affecting men as well, especially adolescent boys, such as forced labor in agriculture or delivery work and commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation was identified among both females and males, including adolescents and adults. Across both sexes, two recurring patterns were found: sexual exploitation by friends and sexual exploitation triggered by sexual abuse. Financial contributions and assistance from friends can function as ways of concealing abuse against young people.

The phenomenon goes beyond the sex trade. Rights violations identified among victims include labor exploitation of males, so-called respectable marriage and servile or forced marriage affecting females, insertion into criminal networks affecting both females and males, and labor exploitation in domestic work. Published during OBMICA's tenth anniversary, this book marks the observatory's first specific focus on internal trafficking after years of research on trafficking in relation to the island and the Caribbean region.