Baja California, new State legislature on human trafficking
By Adina Moloman
Sources: www.frontera.info, www.unescap.org, El Mexicano, El Universal
Until 2011 the federal anti trafficking law, known as the General Law to Prevent, Combat and Punish Trafficking in Persons dated since 2007.
Because of lack of understanding of the legal concept of human trafficking crimes, who were mostly confused with crimes against pimping and pornography, many of the criminal managed to escape punishment. Human trafficking is a difficult crime to define, detect, prosecute, prevent and quantify.
For those cases where the crime of human trafficking did not correspond with the assumptions set on the Law to Prevent, Combat and Punish Trafficking in Persons, their persecution was a responsibility of local States. So in Baja California, the crime of human trafficking was regulated by the Law to Combat, Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Persons in the State of Baja California adopted in 2008.
This year entered into force in Baja California, the Anti Human Traffic Law (Ley Contra Trata de Personas).
At the end of this year the Baja California state legislature passed a bill, classifying human trafficking as a grave crime. This new law will provide longer sentences for those found guilty of trafficking, subject to 22 years imprisonment. Also at a federal level a new law passed this year where the crime of human trafficking is included in the list of violent crimes (similar to organized crime cases, homicide, rape, kidnapping and other crimes committed by violent means).
This phenomenon, has a particular importance to the Tijuana region, because the majority of the estimated 18,000 people trafficked to the United States each year pass through the US-Mexican border at Tijuana Border. The United States is considered as a point of origin, transit, and destination for men, women and children trafficked primarily for the purposes of sexual slavery, forced prostitution, and forced labor.
It is absolutely necessary a good definition of human trafficking on a state level, on a federal level and also cross border collaboration is essential in the fight against human trafficking.
