AMERICA/MEXICO - Trafficking, sexual abuse and early marriages: girls are the main victims

Thursday, 1 June 2017

Internet

Tijuana (Agenzia Fides) - In northern Mexico, 3 out of four children, victims of sexual exploitation, are forced to marry early, most of them less than 16 years of age. The complaint comes from a study carried out by a group of researchers who interviewed a total of 603 sex slave women in the cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, bordering the United States. Those interviewed said they had been forced to marry at a very young age. In addition, according to the research, in at least half of the cases the girls were pregnant. Although in Mexico there is a 2014 law that sets the minimum age to marry at 18, with parental consent, girls can marry at 14 and boys at 16. In 2012, a law was passed in the Country which provides for 30 years in prison for human traffickers. However, according to the 2016 World Slave Index, approximately 380,000 people have been enslaved. Trafficking in Mexico increases rapidly and more than three quarters of the victims are women and girls who suffer sexual abuse.(AP) (Agenzia Fides, 1/6/2017 )


Share: