Peru is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Indigenous Peruvians are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Peruvian women and girls, and to a lesser extent boys, are exploited in sex trafficking within the country. Women and girls exploited near mining communities are often indebted due to the cost of transportation and unable to leave due to remoteness of camps and complicity of miners in their exploitation. Peruvian women and children are exploited in sex trafficking in other countries, particularly within South America, and women and girls from neighboring countries are found in sex trafficking in Peru. Child sex tourism is present in areas such as Cuzco, Lima, and the Peruvian Amazon. Peruvian men, women, and children are exploited in forced labor within the country, principally in informal gold mining and related services, logging, agriculture, brick-making, the informal sector, and domestic service. Peruvians working in artisanal gold mines experience forced labor, including through deceptive recruitment, debt bondage, restricted freedom of movement or inability to leave, withholding of or nonpayment of wages, and threats and use of physical violence. Forced child labor occurs in begging, street vending, and criminal activities, including cocaine production and transportation. The terrorist group Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path, recruits children and adults to serve as combatants and in the illicit narcotics trade. Peruvian men, women, and children are found in forced labor in other South American countries, the United States, and other countries. Peru is a destination for forced labor victims from other countries, including labor trafficking victims in the fishing industry. Third country migrants transiting through Peru to Brazil were reportedly vulnerable to trafficking. Government officials, NGOs, and victims report police extort nightclub and brothel owners using the threat of sex trafficking charges; falsely charge victims trying to escape bars or brothels with crimes such as theft; and force victims to sign declarations absolving their traffickers. Officials and NGOs report police officers extort women in prostitution, threatening to arrest them for trafficking; this intimidation serves as a disincentive for victims to report their exploitation. Some officials’ involvement in the mining industry poses a conflict of interest that impedes law enforcement action against trafficking in mining areas. Some officials reportedly accept money to drop charges or exonerate traffickers. There were reports police in the anti-trafficking unit accepted traffickers’ bribes.
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