U.S. Dep't of State, 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report: Aruba

ARUBA (Tier 2)* The Government of Aruba does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore Aruba remained on Tier 2. These efforts included adopting and training officials to implement a new SOP on victim identification and referral, modifying internal policy to decouple victims’ access to services from the associated criminal case, and amending the anti-trafficking law to facilitate prosecution of forced criminality and forced begging as trafficking crimes. The government launched several awareness-raising campaigns, including a new short film on online sex trafficking.

However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government’s mixed-use shelter facility remained inoperable in 2023, and it did not approve the draft NAP before the end of the reporting period. The government did not prosecute or convict any traffickers for the fifth consecutive year, and it identified fewer victims. Key anti-trafficking institutions did not coordinate effectively, hindering the prosecution of trafficking crimes.

PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms. * Proactively identify victims among all vulnerable groups, including women in commercial sex, detained migrants, domestic workers, and migrants working in construction, supermarkets, and retail. * Train law enforcement officials, prosecutors, judges, coast guard officers, and labor inspectors on victim-centered and trauma-informed approaches to trafficking cases. * Formalize and fund the Coordination Center on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling (CMMA) as a permanent institution. * Empower non-law enforcement officials to designate trafficking victims and confer access to services. * Operationalize the multipurpose shelter for victims of crimes, including human trafficking. * Improve coordination and information-sharing between law enforcement and prosecutors, and with anti-trafficking counterparts across the Kingdom of the Netherlands. * Promote awareness of human trafficking, as distinct from migrant smuggling, through trafficking-specific materials and campaigns.

PROSECUTION

The government maintained uneven prosecution efforts. Article 2:239 of the penal code criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to 12 years’ imprisonment or a fine for crimes involving an adult victim and up to 15 years’ imprisonment or a fine for those involving a child victim. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as kidnapping. During the reporting period, the government adopted an amendment to the penal code which increased the penalties prescribed in the anti-trafficking statute and explicitly include forced begging and forced criminality as forms of trafficking under the law.

The government reported initiating one “active” sex trafficking investigation in 2023, compared with initiating three “active” sex trafficking investigations in 2022; authorities continued to investigate one sex trafficking case and two forced labor cases initiated in previous reporting periods. The government distinguished between “active” and preliminary investigations, although it did not report the number of preliminary investigations opened in 2023 (six in 2022). Officials did not report prosecuting or convicting any traffickers for the fifth consecutive year. However, authorities continued to prosecute one labor trafficking case, initiated in 2018, involving two suspects; prosecutors reported the resolution of a pending mutual legal assistance request allowed the case to progress in 2023 after several years’ delay.

The government did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting any government employees complicit in trafficking crimes. The government’s Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Unit (UMM), a joint unit comprising seven law enforcement officials from the Aruban Police Force and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, led trafficking investigations in close coordination with the general prosecutor’s office. A steering committee composed of senior police and prosecutors assessed the viability of potential investigations for all crimes, including a subset of potential trafficking investigations, which it referred to the UMM for “active” investigation. UMM could investigate some trafficking cases without referral, such as those involving a known victim or related to an ongoing investigation of another crime; otherwise, procedure required UMM to await a steering committee referral to use active means to investigate a potential trafficking crime.

Another interdisciplinary police unit (JIUMM), composed of three officers, conducted passive, preliminary investigations into possible trafficking crimes, including tips from the hotline or other law enforcement entities, and presented them to the steering committee. Observers reported the steering committee’s evaluation weighed official capacity limitations against the likelihood of eventual conviction; the impression that trafficking prosecutions are labor-intensive may have disincentivized referral of these investigations; the same observers expressed concern this process may have prevented the active investigation of trafficking cases during the reporting period. JIUMM did not refer any preliminary investigations to the steering committee in 2023, compared with one in 2022. UMM directly investigated one case, after a victim self-reported her exploitation.

The public prosecutor’s office had an internal protocol for the prosecution of trafficking cases and designated one of its eight prosecutors to oversee trafficking cases. Some observers suggested coordination challenges between the JIUMM, UMM, and national prosecutor’s office negatively impacted efforts to hold traffickers accountable. The government reported it trained law enforcement, labor inspectors, and border control officials, often in partnership with international organizations, on victim identification and referral, as well as more advanced topics like the intersection between human trafficking and cybercrime. While law enforcement and government officials with trafficking-specific assignments correctly distinguished between human trafficking and migrant smuggling, observers expressed concern some non-specialized officials, such as frontline police officers, had an inadequate understanding of trafficking; across the government, Aruba addressed human trafficking and migrant smuggling via the same institutions, possibly contributing to conflation of the crimes.

Many officials carried “Quick Reference Cards” (QRCs), distributed at trafficking trainings, that included a list of trafficking indicators and the contact information of the CMMA. Aruban authorities collaborated with their counterparts across the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including by facilitating training sessions for anti-trafficking personnel in Sint Maarten; officials also exchanged information related to an ongoing trafficking case with Indian authorities.

PROTECTION

The government slightly increased protection efforts. The government reported identifying one trafficking victim – a presumed sex trafficking victim – in 2023, compared with identifying six trafficking victims – four confirmed and one presumed sex trafficking victims and one presumed labor trafficking victim – in 2022. The sole identified victim was an adult woman from Colombia; she self-reported her exploitation to a medical professional. The government classified victims as “potential,” “presumed,” or “confirmed”; potential victims were typically associated with early-stage investigations and could not access support services, which the government only provided to presumed or confirmed victims.

JIUMM and UMM could assign presumed status to potential victims; only UMM could confer confirmed status. These entities screened three individuals initially assessed as potential victims of trafficking in 2023; by comparison, they screened nine potential victims, three of whom did not receive presumed status, in 2022. The government reported civil society organizations commonly facilitated the identification of and support for identified victims; CMMA maintained a referral process allowing victims identified through civil society organizations to remain anonymous during the government’s preliminary investigation. The government referred one victim to services in 2023, compared with five victims in 2022 and one in 2021.

CMMA furnished in-kind support and coordinated with civil society organizations to provide medical care, legal support, and social services for trafficking victims; the government maintained informal agreements with local NGOs and private sector accommodations to shelter adult and child trafficking victims. Through these arrangements, the government could secure emergency short-term and, for adult female victims, longer-term shelter. In 2023, the government provided short-term shelter for one adult female victim at a civil society facility. The government did not finalize its draft agreements with civil society service providers in 2023.

There were no trafficking-specific shelters and officials reported shelter restrictions sometimes made it difficult to place certain victims, such as those with drug dependencies. Authorities could place unaccompanied child victims in foster care, and NGOs or local churches could accommodate adult male victims, although they did not do so in 2023. Officials conducted risk assessments before deciding whether victims could leave shelters unchaperoned; they restricted victims’ movement if their lives were threatened. Authorities reported two victims supported investigations into alleged trafficking crimes, compared with two victims participating in investigations or prosecutions in 2022.

The government revised its policy conditioning victims’ status and access to services to the associated criminal case; prior to April 2023, presumed and confirmed victims’ access to care was dependent of the progression of a criminal case. The government could deploy a multidisciplinary team of police, labor officers, immigration officials, and civil society representatives when investigations called for operations or site visits. The anti-trafficking task force (TMMA) continued to provide law enforcement and social services officials with a checklist of the most common signs of trafficking, which they used in concert with the QRCs. The government reported officials screened undocumented migrants, individuals in commercial sex, and other vulnerable groups for trafficking indicators; there were written procedures to screen adult entertainers.

Officials referred 12 potential victims to JIUMM for screening. Observers, however, expressed concern migrant detention center staff and other officials were insufficiently equipped to identify trafficking. The government adopted, implemented, and trained officials to use a new SOP for victim identification and referral, developed with the support of an international organization, in 2023. The SOP included written and visual representations of the revised referral mechanism and codified the reflection period officials began informally implementing in 2022, extending it from 48 hours to 14 days; observers in past years expressed concern the previous referral mechanism was unclear and could re-traumatize victims.

CMMA’s civil society working group met three times but stopped holding regular meetings halfway through the reporting period. The government’s intended mixed-use shelter, renovated in 2022, remained inoperable, and officials indefinitely postponed the second construction phase due to funding shortfalls. The law provided foreign victims the same protections as Arubans. The law authorized the extension of temporary residency status and work permits, valid for three to six months, for foreign victims on a case-by-case basis.

The government has not provided temporary residency to any victims since at least 2021; under current policies, foreign victims returned to their home countries except while supporting a criminal investigation or when a safe return was not possible. The criminal code enabled victims to receive restitution during criminal proceedings or to file civil suits, to seek compensation not to exceed 50,000 florin ($27,780) for financial and emotional damages, although none did so in 2023. The Bureau of Victim Assistance operated a hotline for potential victims of all crimes, including trafficking; the government reported fielding one trafficking-related call to the hotline, which led to an investigation, compared with one call in 2022 and three in 2021.

PREVENTION

The government maintained prevention efforts. The National Coordinator on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling, a police official, continued to lead the government’s anti-trafficking efforts, with support from the TMMA and CMMA. All three entities had dual responsibility for both anti-trafficking and anti-smuggling efforts. The government did not allocate funding specifically for anti-trafficking efforts in its annual budget.

However, it financed anti-trafficking efforts by incorporating trafficking-specific initiatives into its proposals for long-term, Kingdom-funded projects on border control and mass migration; through these grants, the government reported securing approximately 685,000 florin ($380,040) for anti-trafficking initiatives through 2028. The government reported it revised its 2023-2024 draft NAP into a 2023-2025 NAP, which remained under review. The government also extended the validity of its 2018-2022 NAP, which it continued to implement throughout the reported period. CMMA maintained a staff of two government officials and, in July, hired a third staff member with financial support from an international organization; in September, the government converted the office’s directorship into a full-time position.

The CMMA’s proposal to formalize its own institutional status remained pending at the conclusion of the reporting period. The national coordinator collaborated on a monthly basis, virtually and in-person, with national anti-trafficking coordinators from Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten, including to revise the MOU outlining coordinated anti-trafficking efforts across the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the governments adopted the revised MOU in July 2023. Officials raised awareness of human trafficking and the hotline in multiple languages via social media, posters, and flyers. The government continued an awareness campaign to inform migrants of numerous risks, including trafficking.

The government distributed its 2022 curricula and educational materials on the risks of human trafficking, online sexual exploitation, and migrant smuggling for school-age children, to secondary schools. CMMA produced a short film to raise awareness of online sex trafficking, which it made available, alongside its film on migrants’ vulnerability to trafficking, on its website and for awareness-raising events. The government’s QRCs were available in Dutch for government officials and Spanish for potential victims; it also continued its project to produce an English-language QRC. The government provided trafficking-awareness training to government officials from law enforcement, the judiciary, and other ministries, as well as civil society; the CMMA also trained officials on the responsibilities of the CMMA, TMMA, and UMM.

The government made many of its virtual awareness-raising activities accessible to officials from neighboring countries. CMMA released an annual report on its own activity and partnered with academic institutions to produce awareness materials and research products, including a review of government policies to identify any which might inadvertently facilitate exploitation. Kingdom of the Netherlands policy required individuals on adult entertainment visas, primarily Colombian women, to meet with consular officers to ensure the applicants knew their rights before picking up required documents at a Kingdom of the Netherlands embassy. Upon arrival, such visa recipients normally received information about their rights, risks, and resources.

The government did not report efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. TRAFFICKING PROFILE: As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Aruba. Traffickers exploit Colombian and Venezuelan women in sex trafficking and foreign adults of all genders in forced labor in Aruba’s service and construction industries. Arriving Venezuelans commonly overstay their visas or arrive irregularly, leaving many without valid documentation and a corresponding increased risk for trafficking.

Families, business owners, and criminals exploit some of these Venezuelans in forced labor in domestic service, construction, and commercial sex, respectively; many domestic workers live at their employer’s home, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking. Supermarket managers subject PRC-national men and women to forced labor in grocery stores; business owners and families subject Indian men to forced labor in the retail sector and domestic service, respectively; and Arubans force Caribbean and South American women into domestic servitude. Officials reported instances of forced criminality, in which traffickers compel victims to commit unlawful acts, such as robberies and drug-related crimes. Women in regulated and unregulated commercial sex, domestic workers, and employees of small retail shops are most at risk of trafficking; bar owners rent lodging to women on adult entertainment visas at rates disproportionate to their earnings, increasing their vulnerability to exploitation. * Aruba is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

For the purpose of this report, Aruba is not a “country” to which the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act apply. This narrative reflects how Aruba would be assessed if it were a separate, independent country. However, the Kingdom is an important contributor to the Government of Aruba’s anti-trafficking efforts. On This Page search > < ARUBA (Tier 2)* PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: PROSECUTION PROTECTION PREVENTION TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Tags Aruba Human Trafficking Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Reports