Two arrested in São Paulo on suspicion of trafficking Afghans
The Brazilian Federal Police on Monday (Dec. 23) launched an operation to dismantle a criminal organization specializing in human trafficking. The main victims are Afghan families who were sheltering at Guarulhos International Airport. The terminal contains a number of makeshift camps, as it is the only point of entry into Brazil for an Afghan.
In all, four search and seizure warrants and two pre-trial detention warrants have been served. The criminals lured victims with false promises of trips to the US, the police reported.
The probes are still ongoing. Agents are attempting to find out if other people were involved in the crimes. Human trafficking is often linked to organ trafficking, present-day slave labor, sexual exploitation, and illegal adoption.
The most recent crisis in Afghanistan occurred in 2021, when the Taliban fundamentalist group regained power, generating a wave of violence and forced displacement. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, over 11 thousand refugees from Afghanistan arrived in Brazil from January 2022 to July 2024.
A report produced by the Brazilian government and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that hotlines Ligue 180 and Disque 100 received 537 reports of human trafficking from 2021 to 2023. The majority were adult women (59%) and girls (18%).
Earlier this year, Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security launched the Fourth National Plan to Combat Trafficking in Persons, which should run until 2028. The proposal updated the previous plan, which covered 2018 to 2022 and was based on six pillars and 58 goals.
In Brazil, the National Policy to Combat Trafficking in Persons was not defined until 2006. In 2016, the Human Trafficking Law was passed, establishing four to eight years in jail and a fine for offenders. Jail time can be increased from one third to a half if the offense is committed by a civil servant while performing their duties. The increase also applies in other circumstances, such as if the victims are children, adolescents, elderly people, or people with disabilities, or if they are taken out of the country.
