• Improve victim assistance at federal and provincial levels to include timely enrollments, more specialized shelters, additional shelter options for male victims, and trauma-informed support for victims at all stages of recovery.
• Ensure adequate staffing to manage the national hotline and enact other anti-trafficking efforts.
• Strengthen efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, especially complicit officials and labor traffickers.
• Increase availability of mid- to long-term victim assistance, including shelter, legal, medical, and employment services furnished by provincial authorities.
• Consistently implement victim restitution procedures and establish a permanent mechanism for consistent, timely restitution payment to victims.
• Improve efforts to collect and integrate data on trafficking prosecutions and victim assistance, including at the provincial level.
• Ensure the human trafficking law includes force, fraud, or coercion as essential elements of the crime, rather than aggravating factors.

The government made uneven prosecution efforts; although convictions increased, reported investigations and prosecutions declined.

Law 26.842 of 2012 criminalized labor trafficking and sex trafficking and prescribed punishments of four to eight years’ imprisonment for offenses involving an adult victim and 10 to 15 years for those involving a child victim. These penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. Inconsistent with the definition of trafficking under international law, the law established the use of force, fraud, or coercion as aggravating factors rather than essential elements of the crime; penalties were increased to five to 10 years’ imprisonment if such factors were involved. The law also defined trafficking broadly to include facilitating or profiting from the “prostitution” of others and the illegal sale of organs without the use of force, fraud, or coercion. Because of these inclusions, it was unknown how many of the cases prosecuted under Law 26.842 involved trafficking offenses as defined in international law.

The special prosecutor’s Human Trafficking and Exploitation Unit (PROTEX) opened 49 investigations (22 for sex trafficking, 10 for labor trafficking, seven involving both sex and labor trafficking, and 10 for unspecified forms of exploitation) in 2024, compared with 60 investigations (33 for sex trafficking, 17 for labor trafficking, two involving both sex and labor trafficking, and eight for unspecified forms of exploitation) in 2023. PROTEX prosecuted 16 suspected traffickers in nine cases (five for sex trafficking and four for labor trafficking) in 2024, compared with prosecuting 48 suspected traffickers in 29 cases (32 for sex trafficking and 16 for labor trafficking) in 2023. The government did not report the number of ongoing prosecutions initiated in previous reporting periods. PROTEX also supported 173 trafficking-related prosecutions led by federal prosecutors nationwide, compared with supporting 168 such prosecutions in 2023. Courts convicted 58 traffickers in 2024 (41 for sex trafficking, 14 for labor trafficking, and three for both sex and labor trafficking), compared with 51 traffickers (41 for sex trafficking and 10 for labor trafficking) in 2023. Courts sentenced convicted traffickers to between two and 14 years’ imprisonment. PROTEX supported a large-scale, months-long federal investigation into a missing persons case, where officials suspected the involvement of human traffickers, during the reporting period, although they ultimately ruled out human trafficking as an explanation for the individual’s disappearance Although federal and provincial authorities collected law enforcement statistics separately, the government’s federal trafficking investigations database, SISTRATA, compiled case data from all provinces and the autonomous city of Buenos Aires; in 2024, the province of Formosa began contributing to the database. The government continued to train law enforcement officials to use the database.

Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant obstacles to anti-trafficking efforts, particularly at the local and regional levels. The government reported initiating preliminary investigations involving 12 current or former officials suspected of complicity in human trafficking based on complaints received via the national hotline. Courts did not prosecute or convict any public officials accused of complicity in trafficking crimes in 2024.

The government conducted anti-trafficking trainings for prosecutors, law enforcement, the judiciary, and others, including provincial officials. Trainings covered topics such as leveraging financial evidence in trafficking investigations; early detection of trafficking indicators in passenger transit areas; and international cooperation in trafficking cases. PROTEX reported responding to 44 requests for cooperation from law enforcement officials in at least 10 countries. In 2024, Argentine and Chilean officials collaborated to arrest a woman suspected of exploiting girls in sex trafficking via live stream based on evidence from a 2018 Argentine investigation into the woman’s alleged recruitment of girls in Buenos Aires. Officials reported a 2019 extradition request remained pending at the end of the reporting period.

The government made mixed efforts to protect victims.

Authorities identified 1,372 victims in 2024, a decrease compared with 1,609 victims in 2023. Of the identified victims, traffickers subjected 865 to labor trafficking, 353 to sex trafficking, and 154 to unspecified forms of exploitation; this compared with 1,185 labor trafficking victims, 382 sex trafficking victims, and 42 victims of unspecified forms of exploitation identified in 2023. The government reported there were 631 female victims and 741 male victims; 92 victims were children. Eighty percent of victims in 2024 were Argentine, compared with 85 percent in 2023; officials identified foreign victims from 14 countries, including Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and Colombia.

The government’s National Rescue Coordination (CNR) provided short-term emergency assistance to 1,256 victims in 2024, compared with supporting at least 1,211 victims in 2023. CNR reported referring 243 victims to provincial authorities for support; it did not report what forms of care these victims received from those entities.

The CNR – previously called the PNR, or the National Rescue Program – was the government office responsible for coordinating short-term emergency victim services; SENAF assisted foreign victims, child victims, and victims identified in the autonomous city of Buenos Aires. SENAF and provincial governments shared responsibility for medium- and long-term assistance to adult victims, overseen by provincial coordinators. When victims provided testimony in trial proceedings, CNR’s support lasted until their participation concluded, at which time either SENAF or a provincial government assumed care. Experts noted the need for more comprehensive services and coordination between national and provincial victim assistance authorities.

The government stopped processing new enrollments to several non-specialized assistance programs across several ministries, which interrupted trafficking victims’ access to financial subsidies, counseling, psychological support, and job training. The government indicated victims could still access care through provincial service providers. The Secretariat of Labor also delayed the scheduled recruitment of the fourth cohort for a program promoting trafficking survivors’ reentry into the labor market. The government deeded housing to one survivor in January 2024 before it also paused the National Housing Access Plan for Trafficking Victims, which subsidized the construction and permanent transfer of dwellings to trafficking survivors. Certain assistance programs required victims to complete complex procedures to maintain eligibility.

Officials reported coordinating to repatriate at least nine Argentine victims. The National Secretariat for Childhood, Adolescence, and Family (SENAF) had not reported supporting any foreign victims’ repatriations since 2022. The government continued to recruit provincial officials to use REDAVIT, its shared database to track victims receiving services. Federal officials used formal SOPs for victim identification and assistance, including specialized protocols for traffic stops along roadways; however, in practice, the procedures to identify victims among vulnerable populations varied by province. Some front-line responders had an incomplete understanding of trafficking, which plausibly limited the effectiveness of available protocols.

The government had two specialized shelters for trafficking victims in the capital region, which were designed to host victims for short durations. The SENAF shelter could accommodate male, female, and child victims, while CNR’s shelter served adult female victims. Together, these shelters housed 85 victims in 2024. Trafficking victims could also utilize a network of shelters for victims of domestic violence and other vulnerable populations across the country; officials reported many victims, especially male victims, stayed in these non-specialized shelters or hotels. Some regional governments operated social assistance centers that provided psychological, social, medical, and judicial assistance to vulnerable populations, including trafficking victims. The government reported social assistance centers and non-specialized shelters provided primary support to as many as 85 percent of trafficking victims. NGOs reported a need for specialized shelters, long-term housing, skills training and employment, childcare, legal assistance, and financial assistance for victims after testifying in court cases. Foreign victims had the same access to care as Argentines.

The government encouraged victim participation in trafficking trials through an assistance framework whereby victims had access to psychological and legal support while preparing to testify; in 2024, CNR reported 1,256 victims participated in investigations or prosecutions against alleged traffickers. The courts offered victims participating in trials the option to provide testimony via live video, recordings, or written statements. CNR provided courts an assessment of a victim’s psychological state and ability to assist in a trafficker’s prosecution, as well as information on what accommodations the victim might need to do so.

The government required criminal courts to award victim restitution at the time of traffickers’ convictions and provided prosecutors an SOP on requesting restitution in trafficking cases. Courts granted an unspecified sum in restitution to victims in 19 cases ending in criminal conviction in 2024, compared with 17 cases in 2023. Courts ordered restitution in 68 percent of cases with convictions in 2024. The government dissolved its trafficking victims’ trust fund in November 2024, which held traffickers’ forfeited assets and facilitated restitution payments, citing concerns over the fund’s inefficiency. The Ministry of Justice reported developing an interim procedure for restitution payments, which it used to successfully issue payments to seven victims by December 2024. In January 2025, there were 87 victims awaiting payment of court-ordered restitution. Victims could also file civil suits against traffickers to receive additional compensation, although victims had limited success in securing compensation through civil suits.

The National Registry for Rural Workers (RENATRE), a semi-public institution, managed a subsidy program designed to cover the immediate needs of workers who lose work suddenly; in 2024, it issued subsidy payments to 271 labor trafficking victims identified during its inspections, compared with 338 victims in 2023.

The government maintained prevention efforts.

The Federal Council for Human Trafficking (“the Council”) and the Executive Committee for the Fight Against Trafficking and Exploitation of People and the Protection and Assistance of Victims (“the Executive Committee”) oversaw the implementation of the government’s NAP to combat human trafficking. In February 2024, the government moved the Executive Committee from the Office of the President’s Chief of Cabinet to the Ministry of Security; observers expressed concern that placing one of the committee’s member institutions at its helm would complicate interagency coordination and risk overemphasizing law enforcement considerations. The government began informally implementing its draft 2024-2026 NAP in December 2024; however, the government had not formally adopted the plan at the end of the reporting period. The draft, which outlined 86 objectives to combat trafficking, included initiatives to expand survivor engagement, increase investment in investigative technologies, and develop new analytical tools. The Executive Committee assessed it had “completed or partially completed” 91 percent of the objectives outlined under the 2022-2024 plan; the planned construction of four specialized shelters for trafficking victims was among the incomplete objectives.

The Council incorporated three civil society organizations in its regular meetings. Each province designated a lead agency on anti-trafficking efforts. The Executive Committee continued to cultivate coordination agreements between government agencies and maintained existing agreements with professional organizations representing vulnerable sectors.

Law 1694/06 prohibited worker-paid recruitment fees, and authorities had the ability to penalize foreign labor recruiters for fraudulent recruiting; however, the government did not report assessing any penalties in 2024.

The government continued to conduct trafficking awareness campaigns, especially short-term publicity campaigns. Awareness materials were available in common languages, including four Indigenous languages. PROTEX officials presented at dozens of trafficking awareness events hosted by domestic and international sponsors. The Ministry of Justice operated the nationwide 1-4-5 trafficking hotline with response assistance from CNR; in 2024, the government reduced hotline staff, and observers reported staffing cuts diminished the hotline’s operating capacity and, in some cases, prevented callers from reaching an operator. The government continued to publicize the hotline in several languages through signage in bus terminals and similar venues.

Fifteen provincial governments had regulations requiring regular publicity of the national hotline. There were 1,911 hotline calls through November 2024. The government did not report whether it initiated any investigations based on hotline calls, compared with 62 in 2023. The government published several annual assessments of its anti-trafficking efforts, including PROTEX’s regular evaluation of trafficking-related calls to the national hotline, although the Federal Council did not publish its annual progress report on the biennial plan.

The government trained inspectors and other Secretariat of Labor officials on labor trafficking indicators. Labor inspectors used guidelines for the identification of trafficking during inspections; inspectors filed 29 reports of trafficking indicators during inspections in 2024 (54 in 2023), identifying and referring 266 potential victims to care (393 in 2023). The Secretariat of Labor reported 83 percent of victims identified by labor inspectors were men and boys and 94 percent were Argentines. RENATRE also performed inspections and trained its inspectors to identify trafficking at remote worksites. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.

Trafficking affects all communities. This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Argentina and exploit Argentine adults and children abroad. Traffickers exploit victims from other Latin American and Caribbean countries, particularly Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela, in Argentina. Traffickers also exploit victims from China and Republic of Korea. Chinese citizens working in supermarkets in Argentina are vulnerable to debt bondage. Officials indicate traffickers may leverage the additional vulnerabilities of individuals with disabilities to exploit them in sex and labor trafficking. Adults and children from Argentina, particularly the northern provinces; Bolivia; Paraguay; Peru; and other countries are exploited in forced labor. Traffickers exploit victims in forced labor in the garment sector; ranching; agriculture, including the cultivation and harvest of olives, onions, and lettuce; forestry and resin extraction; street vending; charcoal and brick production; domestic work; and small businesses. According to some reporting, there is at least one privately hired Cuban regime-affiliated medical professional working in Argentina. The Cuban regime may have forced Cuban regime-affiliated professionals privately hired to work in Argentina. Traffickers have exploited women seeking to work as models or promoters in sex trafficking at racetracks. Traffickers exploit children participating in youth sports clubs in sex trafficking. Extraterritorial commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse occurs in the northern Tri-Border Area and other touristic areas. Media coverage often suggests child sex trafficking as a possible factor in unsolved child disappearances in Argentina, but these speculations are largely unsubstantiated. Charitable and religious organizations, both fraudulent and legitimate, serve as fronts for traffickers seeking to exploit victims in sex and labor trafficking. Traffickers coerce and recruit victims through drug dependencies, including by making fraudulent offers of addiction treatment. Traffickers exploit victims in forced criminality by coercing them to transport drugs internally and across the country’s borders. Traffickers increasingly utilize social media and other online platforms to recruit and exploit victims, including via webcam livestream. Civil society reports indicate many traffickers are women; some of these women were themselves trafficking victims. Official complicity, mainly at the sub-national level, is pervasive and continues to hinder the government’s efforts to combat trafficking.