Public Story
The Wall Street Journal: Venezuelan Migrants Fall Prey to Sex Traffickers
Venezuelan Migrants Fall Prey to Sex Traffickers After Fleeing Their Collapsing Country
By John Otis | Photographs by Johanna Alarcón for The Wall Street JournalWhile sex trafficking is a global problem, human-rights advocates say it has become especially acute in recent years among migrants who have fled dictatorship and the economic crisis in Venezuela. Government officials and rights groups in the Andean region say the traffickers exploit the exodus of nearly six million people from Venezuela—the world’s largest continuing refugee crisis, in number of migrants fleeing, after Syria—by coercing some into sexual bondage with bogus job offers.