Authorities in Argentina receive a report denouncing sale of child every 17 days

A report denouncing the sale of a newborn or child was made to the authorities in Argentina every 17 days last year, according to a new report.

Twenty-one complaints regarding the potential sale of babies were made from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023.

The study, presented by a special prosecutorial unit set up to clamp down on human-trafficking, is based on calls made to Argentina’s 145 emergency trafficking hotline during 2023. 

The report by Argentina’s Procuraduría de Trata y Explotación de Personas, or PROTEX, showed that complaints to the helpline identified a total of 859 possible victims of human-trafficking last year.

Reports to PROTEX, headed by federal prosecutor Alejandra Mángano and general prosecutor Marcelo Colombo, showed a potential 846 cases of sexual exploitation, followed by labour exploitation with 468 potential complaints. Potential abductions totalled 180, with 135 reports filed for missing people.

In addition, there were 66 reports of deprivation of liberty, 22 complaints related to child pornography and the aforementioned 21 reports of possible sales of babies and children. 

In a sign of the times, there were 19 complaints of grooming – harassment of a child of teenagers for sexual purposes via electronic devices or the Internet, followed by 18 of sexual abuse, and 13 related to sexual advertising.

The data indicates that reports are increasing. While PROTEX’s 2022 report does not include the number of cases associated with the sale of babies or children, it does include the percentage of the total complaints received by Hotline 145 on the issue: 1.08 percent.

Data from 2021 did provide the numbers of investigated events: there were 11 reports in total, 10 fewer than in 2023, two years later.

“The Hotline 145 is an important way to get into cases of people-trafficking and crimes related to the federal and local court administration system. For that reason, this type of report, in addition to the quantitative profile, seeks to analyse the information from reports received through the hotline, in order to adapt and perfect the working method based on the new dynamics of the phenomena linked to people-trafficking and exploitation,” the report reads.

“The number of complaints in 2023 is stable compared with previous years, though we may note, in greater detail, that the number of reports in 2023 is the highest in the last five years,” the prosecutors highlighted. 

For the 145 helpline, the floor came in 2020 with 1,349 reports recorded, while the ceiling was hit in 2017 with a huge 2,215 complaints.

From 2019 to 2023, most reports are related sexual exploitation, followed by labour. The difference between the number of sexual cases (firstly, consistently since the start of Hotline 145) and labour exploitation decreases every year. In fact, out of the 1,941 reports recorded  last year, 846 (43.59 percent of the total) were related to sexual exploitation and 468 (24.11 percent) to labour exploitation. In 2019, out of the 1,797 complaints made, 865 (48.14 percent) were over sexual exploitation and 256 (14.25 percent) were over labour exploitation.

Overall, the crimes with the greatest number of reports recorded are those of sexual exploitation, a trend which persisted from 2015 to 2023. 

The data also indicates that the place of abuse has radically changed over the last few years. From 2019 to 2021, the highest number of denunciations were related to the existence of brothels, private venues, whisky bars or nightclubs. Starting in 2021, crimes in sexual exploitation in a private residence started exploding.

“A hypothesis to explain this situation is related to restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic and the increase of the dynamic whereby the streets once again became a site used to offer sexual services,” observed PROTEX in its report.

Another factor influences this new paradigm: the digitisation process as a generator of a new context or sphere for sexual exploitation.

The trend in the last few years highlights “an evolution in the ways of sexual exploitation, from traditional cases in brothels to new methods in digital spheres,” said PROTEX. 

This phenomenon “rose after the pandemic coupled with the exponential growth of platforms to sell sexual content.” According to the report, this allowed for new ways for people trafficking and sexual exploitation through digital media. 

Complaints over such issues have been registered both in Buenos Aires City and other jurisdictions across the country.