U.S. Dep't of State, 2025 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 initiating a trafficking prosecution for the first time since 2018, identifying more victims, and issuing temporary residence permits to two victims. In addition, the government extended its reflection period from 14 to 30 days, which it granted to four victims who later agreed to support law enforcement efforts.

However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government has not convicted a trafficker under the anti-trafficking statute since 2013. Key anti-trafficking institutions did not coordinate effectively, hindering the prosecution of trafficking crimes. Experts expressed concern that officials conflated human trafficking with migrant smuggling.

The government did not approve its draft NAP before the end of the reporting period. 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. 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, among officials and the public.

Establish or identify a specialized shelter option for trafficking victims, including male victims.

PROSECUTION

The government increased 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. The government reported initiating four “active” investigations (one for sex trafficking and three for labor trafficking) in 2024, compared with initiating one “active” sex trafficking investigation in 2023; authorities did not report any ongoing investigations initiated in previous reporting periods.

The government distinguished between “active” and preliminary investigations; it did not report the number of preliminary investigations opened in 2024. Officials reported prosecuting two alleged labor traffickers in 2024, which represented the first trafficking prosecutions in Aruba since 2018; authorities did not report any ongoing prosecutions initiated in previous reporting periods. The government did not convict any traffickers for the sixth consecutive year and has not reported a conviction under the anti-trafficking statute since 2013. In a case initiated in 2018, courts acquitted two defendants of labor trafficking charges but convicted them of fraud and migrant smuggling.

The government did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting any government officials 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, including preliminary trafficking investigations, which it could refer to the UMM for “active” investigation. However, 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. The government did not report how many preliminary investigations JIUMM referred to the steering committee in 2024, compared with not referring any in 2023. All four investigations initiated in 2024 were direct investigations led by UMM; the steering committee did not refer any preliminary investigations to UMM. Observers reported many officials considered trafficking prosecutions to be labor intensive, which may have biased the steering committee’s evaluation of the viability of trafficking investigations.

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 trained law enforcement, labor inspectors, and border control officials on human trafficking indicators, victim identification, and referral procedures. Observers, including GRETA, expressed concern some officials, including law enforcement, conflated human trafficking and migrant smuggling; 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 CMMA’s contact information. Aruban authorities collaborated with their counterparts across the Kingdom of the Netherlands, including on a request to interview a suspect in coordination with Curaçaoan law enforcement.

PROTECTION

The government increased protection efforts. The government reported identifying five presumed trafficking victims (one sex trafficking victim and four labor trafficking victims) in 2024, compared with one presumed sex trafficking victim in 2023. The identified victims comprised three women and two men, all foreigners from Colombia or Peru. 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. UMM assigned “confirmed victim” status to two of the five presumed victims. The government did not report whether JIUMM or UMM screened additional potential victims; by comparison, they screened three potential trafficking victims in 2023. 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 four victims to services in 2024, compared with one victim in 2023 and five in 2022. CMMA furnished in-kind support and coordinated with civil society organizations to provide medical care, legal support, and social services for trafficking victims. There were no trafficking-specific shelters, although the government continued to explore options to establish a shelter for trafficking victims, and it 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; officials noted arranging suitable shelter for victims was an ongoing challenge.

In 2024, the government coordinated housing for two adult female victims through a civil society facility. Although NGOs and local churches could accommodate adult male victims, the government reported male victims did not typically receive shelter services; in 2024, the government did not provide housing to any male victims. Authorities could place unaccompanied child victims in foster care. The government had draft agreements to formalize its coordination with civil society service providers, but it did not finalize these agreements in 2024.

Officials reported shelter restrictions sometimes made it difficult to place certain victims, such as those with drug dependencies. Officials conducted risk assessments before deciding whether victims could choose non-shelter housing options or leave shelters unchaperoned; they restricted victims’ movement if their safety was threatened. Authorities reported five victims supported investigations into alleged trafficking crimes, compared with two victims participating in investigations or prosecutions in 2023. Presumed and confirmed victims could receive services regardless of their participation in or the government’s pursuit of a criminal investigation.

The government could deploy a multidisciplinary team when investigations called for operations or site visits, but it did not report doing so in 2024. 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. However, the government did not identify any potential victims during routine screening in 2024, compared with 12 in 2023.

GRETA and other observers, however, expressed concerns that Aruban officials, particularly migrant detention center staff screening migrants, were insufficiently equipped to identify trafficking. The government maintained an SOP for victim identification and referral. CMMA reported it would consider minor revisions to the SOP to address challenges, such as the limited availability of psychological care providers, identified during the first year of the government’s implementation of the new SOP. All victims were entitled to a reflection period, during which they could receive services and a temporary stay of deportation, following their identification; four of five identified victims accepted the reflection period.

In 2024, the government amended the length of the reflection period from 14 to 30 days, with potential to extend to 90 days. The government afforded foreign victims the same protections as Arubans; however, foreign victims could not access national health and social benefits serving Aruban victims. CMMA arranged alternative care for foreigners through civil society providers, but GRETA suggested these ad-hoc arrangements did not consistently meet victims’ needs and potentially contributed to their desire to return to their home country rather than remain in Aruba to testify against an alleged trafficker. The government could authorize temporary residency status and work permits for confirmed foreign victims on a case-by-case basis.

Based on victims’ feedback that potential employers were hesitant to hire applicants who may lose status, the government extended the length of the work permit from six to twelve months. The government issued temporary residency status to two victims at the conclusion of their reflection period; previously, the government had not provided temporary residency to a foreign victim in several years. Foreign victims without temporary status 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 no trafficking victim had ever received financial restitution or compensation.

The Bureau of Victim Assistance operated a hotline for potential victims of all crimes, including trafficking; the government did not report how many trafficking-related calls the hotline received, although it noted initiating one investigation based on a hotline call; this compared with one trafficking-related call received in 2023.

PREVENTION

The government maintained prevention efforts. The National Coordinator on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling continued to lead the government’s anti-trafficking efforts, with support from the TMMA and CMMA. The TMMA met five times in 2024. GRETA noted in its 2024 report that the TMMA did not include civil society members and expressed concern that the government’s coordination with civil society was insufficient.

CMMA reportedly had a separate civil society working group, but it had not met since mid-2023. 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 continued to implement its 2018-2022 NAP, which it extended for the second time to remain valid throughout the reported period.

The government reported it continued to review a draft NAP, first prepared in 2023 and revised to cover 2025-2026. CMMA comprised two full-time staff: the national coordinator, funded by the Aruban Police Force, and an assistance coordinator, funded by an international organization. The Council of Ministers approved CMMA’s proposal to formalize its institutional status in January 2025. The national coordinator collaborated regularly with national anti-trafficking coordinators from Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten under a 2023 MOU on the Kingdom’s coordinated anti-trafficking efforts.

Officials raised awareness of human trafficking and the hotline in multiple languages via social media, posters, and flyers. The government continued to leverage a range of existing awareness materials available on the CMMA website, including educational resources for school-age children, two short films depicting forms of trafficking affecting migrants, and a campaign highlighting the role of social media in grooming. The government’s QRCs were available in Dutch, English, and Spanish. The government provided trafficking-awareness training to civil society and government officials from law enforcement, the judiciary, and other Kingdom countries; the CMMA also trained officials on the responsibilities of the CMMA, TMMA, and UMM.

CMMA released its second annual report on its own activity and partnered with academic institutions to produce awareness materials and research products. The Department of Labor and Research (DAO) had seven labor inspectors who could refer possible situations of trafficking to the CMMA. Experts suggested DAO’s obligation to alert law enforcement when it encountered undocumented migrants was a potential obstacle in its ability to identify foreign trafficking victims. Aruban work permits tied foreign workers to a specific position, which limited their ability to leave abusive employers.

Kingdom of the Netherlands policy required individuals on adult entertainment visas to meet with consular officers to ensure 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: Trafficking affects all communities.

This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Aruba. Traffickers exploit foreign women in sex trafficking and foreign men and women in forced labor in the construction, domestic work, and tourism industries. Most identified victims are Colombian or Venezuelan nationals.

Foreign workers are vulnerable to labor trafficking, especially Colombians, Dominicans, and Venezuelans with irregular migratory status. Arriving migrants commonly overstay their visas or enter Aruba without legal status, leaving many without valid documentation and a corresponding increased risk for trafficking. Traffickers, including families and business owners, exploit some of these migrants 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. Some supermarket managers subject adult Chinese nationals to forced labor in grocery stores; business owners and families sometimes subjected Indian men to forced labor in the retail sector and domestic service, respectively; and some 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 vulnerable to 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 Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Human Trafficking Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Reports