Profile of Reported Trafficking in Persons in Brazil Between 2009 and 2017

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the temporal evolution of the number of human trafficking cases notified by the health system in Brazil, considering the characteristics of the population. This article carries out a descriptive study on reports of trafficking in persons in consultation with the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System. This is a profile of reported trafficking in persons in Brazil between 2009 and 2017. Incidence rates were calculated with adjustments to the population record for each year and presented on a scale of 1:1,000,000 inhabitants. We developed a Poisson regression model to evaluate the ratio of the incidence rate. According to available data, there were 1,011 victims reported in the health system during the study period. The predominant profile of the population exposed to such violence is female, aged between 20 and 29 years, with low education and brown skin. There was a trend growth of annual reports about 10 percentage points ( p < .0001) and all regions had significantly higher incidence rates than the Southeast ( p < .0001), mainly Midwest, North and South. This means that the regions with the highest incidence rates have international land borders. Given the predominance of women in young adulthood, it is inferred that the majority were trafficked for sexual exploitation. This research represents a pioneering approach to the use and modeling of human trafficking data available in the Brazilian public health system. There is a probable underreporting of cases of trafficking in persons who transit health services. As such, identification methods for hard-to-reach populations should be integrated into future research on human trafficking to increase the likelihood of capturing victims.