Argentina is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Argentine women and children are subjected to sex trafficking within the country, as are women and children from other Latin American countries.
To a more limited extent, Argentine men, women, and children are subjected to sex and labor trafficking in other countries. Men, women, and children from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and other countries are subjected to forced labor in a variety of sectors, including sweatshops, agriculture, street vending, charcoal and brick production, domestic work, and small businesses.
Chinese citizens working in supermarkets are vulnerable to debt bondage. Argentine officials report isolated cases of foreign victims recruited in Argentina and subjected to trafficking in third countries. Women and girls who live in extreme poverty, a violent family environment, or suffer from addiction are among those most vulnerable to trafficking; a significant number of them, mainly from Bolivia and Paraguay, and to a lesser extent from the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Brazil, are victims of sex trafficking, along with individuals from rural areas and the northern provinces.
Traffickers from across Argentina bypass regulations that ban brothels by establishing "mobile brothels" in vans and trucks, making raids more difficult; this practice is particularly prevalent in the northern area of the country. Street vendors may victimize susceptible migrants from neighboring or African countries in forced labor. Transgender Argentines are exploited in sex trafficking within the country and in Western Europe. Social and online networking has become one of the most common methods to recruit women and children for sexual exploitation.
Since the passage of a law prohibiting newspapers from publishing offers for sexual services, there has been a rise in misleading classified ads promising employment. Official complicity, mainly at the subnational levels, continues to hinder the government's efforts to combat trafficking. Two provincial police agents and a local labor inspector were convicted for complicity in trafficking-related crimes during the year.
