• Amend the anti-trafficking law to prescribe penalties for sex trafficking that are commensurate with the penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape.
• Increase funding for anti-trafficking efforts, including implementing the National Policy Against Trafficking and sustaining donor-supported initiatives with government leadership and funding.
• Vigorously investigate and prosecute traffickers, including complicit officials, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.
• Continue and expand reintegration services for victims and increase the availability of services to meet the needs of adult victims, boy victims, victims unable to access shelter on the basis of their sexual orientation or identity, and victims who choose not to speak with law enforcement.
• Continue and institutionalize training for criminal justice officials on enforcing anti-trafficking laws, employing victim-centered, trauma-informed procedures, and ordering restitution to victims.
• Increase efforts to ensure victims consistently receive court-ordered restitution payments.
• Increase efforts to proactively identify trafficking victims – particularly among vulnerable populations, such as working children, individuals in commercial sex, displaced Venezuelans, persons in neighborhoods with increased gang activity – and refer potential victims to comprehensive protection services.
• Strengthen interagency cooperation to ensure law enforcement operations include arrangements for prompt transition to care and shelter for identified victims, and contingency planning to avoid holding victims in police stations.
• Improve data collection systems to collect and report comprehensive, harmonized, and disaggregated data on anti-trafficking law enforcement and victim protection efforts.
• Enforce laws against crimes that facilitate trafficking, such as fraudulent job recruitment, illegal mining and logging, counterfeit operations, and organized crime.
• Conduct outreach and prevention programs targeted to at-risk populations, including rural Indigenous communities, using culturally appropriate methods and local languages.

The government maintained prosecution efforts.

Article 129 of Peru’s penal code criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of eight to 15 years’ imprisonment for offenses involving adult victims, 12 to 20 years’ imprisonment for offenses involving victims between the ages of 14 and 18, and a minimum of 25 years in prison for offenses involving victims younger than 14. These penalties were sufficiently stringent; however, with respect to sex trafficking, these penalties were not commensurate with those prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. The law defined trafficking broadly to include all forms of labor exploitation and illegal adoption or child selling without the purpose of exploitation. The penal code also included 15 separate offenses for different forms of exploitation including “forced labor,” “slavery and other forms of exploitation,” and 10 crimes involving sexual exploitation. Officials often classified trafficking victims and charged trafficking cases under exploitation laws, many of which overlapped significantly with one another and with Article 129. Many officials only applied trafficking statutes to crimes that occurred prior to exploitation, and courts reinforced this interpretation in binding judicial guidance issued.

Specialized prosecutors reported opening investigations in 404 cases in 2024 – 254 involving suspected sex trafficking, 12 involving suspected labor trafficking, and 138 involving unspecified forms of trafficking; this compared with opening investigations in 1,275 cases in 2023 – 590 involving suspected sex trafficking, 519 involving suspected labor trafficking, and 166 involving unspecified forms of trafficking. The government’s Lima-based national anti-trafficking police unit reported investigating 262 cases – 177 involving sex trafficking, 50 involving labor trafficking, and 35 involving unspecified forms of trafficking; the government did not report police investigation data in 2023. The government did not report data from regional anti-trafficking police units. The government lacked a coordinated information management system for case data and did not reconcile the reporting from police and prosecutors; it was unclear the extent to which their case data overlapped. In 2024, the government prosecuted 466 suspects, including 305 for sex trafficking, 14 for labor trafficking, and 147 for unspecified forms of trafficking; it did not specify whether this included both new and ongoing prosecutions. In comparison, in 2023 the government prosecuted at least 180 suspects, although it did not report complete prosecution data. In 2024, courts convicted 59 traffickers, including 56 for sex trafficking and three for labor trafficking. It was unclear if this total included trafficking convictions obtained under related exploitation statutes. Courts issued suspended prison sentences ranging from three to six years’ imprisonment for 13 convicted traffickers and sentenced the remainder to prison sentences ranging from six years in prison to life. Courts also ordered convicted traffickers to pay fines ranging from 700 to 40,000 soles ($186-$10,647) and one to pay restitution in the amount of 2,000 soles to a victim. In comparison, courts in 2023 convicted 143 defendants for trafficking, including 61 for sex trafficking, 27 for labor trafficking, and 55 for unspecified forms of trafficking, and acquitted 37 defendants. Courts obtained 60 convictions under the trafficking statute and 83 under related exploitation statutes. Some prosecutions and convictions may have been for crimes that did not meet the definition of trafficking according to international law. In February 2025, more than 300 Peruvian law enforcement officials conducted an operation in Lima that led to the arrest of 23 alleged members of Tren de Aragua on suspicion of sex trafficking, as well as the identification of 81 adult victims and three child victims.

The government maintained specialized anti-trafficking prosecution offices in 14 regions; these offices had jurisdiction to prosecute cases under the penal code’s trafficking, forced labor, slavery, and sexual exploitation statutes. The government operated a specialized police unit in Lima with nationwide jurisdiction over human trafficking and migrant smuggling crimes and a regional anti-trafficking police unit in each of Peru’s 24 regions. The size, capacity, and budget of police units varied across regions and some regions with a high prevalence of trafficking had few specialized officers. Insufficient funding, including for basic equipment and vehicles, constrained police’s ability to conduct proactive, intelligence-driven investigations or implement advanced investigative techniques. Frequent turnover among police undermined capacity building and continuity of operations. NGOs and government officials reported judges often considered recruitment to be an essential element of a trafficking crime; required proof of force, fraud, or coercion for child sex trafficking crimes; or reduced trafficking charges to lesser crimes. The judiciary implemented several policy directives and an operational manual, developed in recent years to strengthen judges’ expertise in human trafficking and exploitation cases, and local experts reported progress in this area. The Public Ministry’s Institute for Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences implemented guidelines for conducing forensic evaluations of trafficking victims, aimed at building its capacity to recognize, document, and introduce into court evidence of psychological trauma and coercion among trafficking victims. Court dockets remained backlogged, delaying criminal accountability for traffickers and justice for victims. In partnership with an international organization, the government held numerous trainings throughout the year for police, prosecutors, and judges covering topics including special investigative techniques, digital evidence and cybercrime, and interpreting the trafficking law, and specialized trafficking prosecutors from several regions completed a specialization course in prosecuting trafficking crimes and employing a victim-centered approach.

The government acknowledged official complicity in trafficking crimes and corruption at all levels of the Peruvian law enforcement and criminal justice systems hampered efforts to hold traffickers accountable. Police officers, including members of specialized anti-trafficking units, allegedly solicited or accepted bribes from traffickers to avoid conducting investigations or tipped off suspects in advance of sting operations. The alleged complicity of some police, along with poor communication between police and prosecutors, bred mistrust among these officials at both the national and regional levels and undermined the effectiveness of anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. In March 2024, police arrested an on-duty police officer for exploiting a child sex trafficking victim after apprehending him during a raid on a commercial establishment in Lambayeque. In December 2024, authorities charged a police officer in Tacna for allegedly kidnapping, drugging, and sexually abusing a child sex trafficking victim after she escaped from traffickers. Authorities ordered the officer into custody for nine months of pretrial detention, but did not apprehend him during the reporting period and the suspect remained at large. Media reports indicated the officer charged in this case was among the 40 police officers in Tacna and Moquegua accused in 2021 of involvement in sex trafficking crimes; these allegations were made by a former police officer who was convicted of femicide. The government has not reported any arrests or suspensions of officers in relation to those allegations. Media reports indicated authorities began investigating potential trafficking crimes in relation to allegations that became public in December 2024 involving congressional employees suspected of operating a commercial sex ring. The government did not report any updates in the February 2024 arrest of the head of the anti-trafficking police unit in Madre de Dios for allegedly soliciting money and sex acts from a suspected sex trafficker in exchange for dropping charges. The government opened numerous investigations of government employees for alleged trafficking crimes in previous years, but it was unclear if these cases remained opened. The government did not provide updates on several of these investigations including an October 2022 case of two guards at a prison in Huacho and six others detained for allegedly facilitating inmates’ exploitation of sex trafficking victims, including children.

The government slightly increased protection efforts.

The government did not report complete data on victims identified and assisted. Specialized prosecutors reported identifying 572 victims, including included 160 women, one man, 87 girls, two boys exploited in sex trafficking; one man, three girls, and seven boys exploited in labor trafficking; and 37 women, 15 men, 76 girls, and 21 boys exploited in unspecified forms of trafficking. The government did not report the age or sex of the remaining victims (145 sex trafficking, three labor trafficking, and 14 unspecified). Identified victims included 345 Peruvians and 117 foreign national victims from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and other countries. In comparison, specialized police units reported identifying 962 victims in the first six months of 2023, but this figure included individuals encountered during trafficking-related police operations who were not trafficking victims. The government did not report data on the number of victims other officials identified. The Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) assisted 94 child victims in 2024, including 72 girls and 22 boys; 41 children were exploited in labor trafficking, 42 were exploited in sex trafficking, and 11 were exploited in unspecified forms of trafficking. In comparison, MIMP assisted 111 child victims in 2023, including 76 girls exploited in sex trafficking, 27 girls and three boys exploited in labor trafficking, and two girls and three boys in unspecified forms of unspecified forms of trafficking. MIMP did not report the nationalities of victims it served in 2024; in 2023, 76 victims were Peruvian and 35 were nationals of other countries (30 Venezuelan, two Bolivian, two Ecuadoran, and one Colombian). Some victims counted in the government’s statistics may have been victims of crimes that did not constitute trafficking as defined by international law. Between January 2024 and February 2025, an NGO assisted 202 additional victims, including 52 women, one man, 76 girls, and one boy exploited in sex trafficking; seven women, four men, 16 girls, and 22 boys exploited in labor trafficking; five women and three girls exploited in both sex and labor trafficking; and four women, five men, five boys, and one girl exploited in unspecified forms of trafficking. This group included 121 Peruvian victims and 81 foreign national victims (one Bolivian, 15 Colombian, three Ecuadoran, one from the United States, one Filipino, nine Somalian, and 51 Venezuelan).

The anti-trafficking law required the government to proactively identify victims among high-risk populations and provide services, including temporary lodging, transportation, medical and psychological care, legal assistance, and reintegration support. Relevant authorities implemented an intersectoral protocol, updated in 2023, for identifying, referring, protecting, and reintegrating victims. The protocol directed front-line officials – including police, medical professionals, municipal inspectors, government service providers, public attorneys, and immigration agents – to identify potential trafficking victims among the populations they served; enumerated trafficking indicators and referral pathways to guide these efforts; and referenced complementary policies and procedures within individual ministries. The government trained officials in several ministries on implementing the 2023 intersectoral protocol. Nonetheless, authorities implemented identification and referral procedures unevenly and it was unclear how frequently front-line officials identified victims through proactive screening measures. Law enforcement officials screened for victims during anti-trafficking operations but made uneven efforts to identify trafficking victims during other enforcement activities. Non-specialized police and prosecutors did not effectively identify indicators of trafficking among women in commercial sex. The government had a separate intersectoral protocol for responding to forced labor; it included similar directives to the trafficking protocol for proactive victim identification and provision of immediate and reintegration services, but it included fewer specialized service options for forced labor victims. In partnership with international organizations, the government developed and launched a pilot of a protocol for police, prosecutors, labor inspectors, and immigration officials to enhance cooperation on labor trafficking cases and improve consistency in victim identification and referral across agencies. The Ministry of Education adopted new guidelines for officials to identify and refer possible child trafficking victims among students in vocational and non-traditional basic education schools – populations local experts have identified as vulnerable to trafficking. The government provided training to diplomatic staff in overseas posts on human trafficking and a guide issued in 2023 for assisting Peruvian trafficking victims exploited abroad.

The Public Ministry’s Victim and Witness Assistance Unit (UDAVIT) provided short-term care and essential supplies for victims immediately following some law enforcement operations and coordinated with other government and NGO service providers to offer medical, legal, and social services to victims. In some regions, UDAVIT operated emergency centers that could provide short-term accommodation to women and children who were participating in investigations and prosecutions. The government did not report data on the assistance UDAVIT provided to trafficking victims in 2024. Local experts reported UDAVIT sometimes made services contingent on victims providing statements to investigators or questioned children without the presence of legal or social support personnel.

The government offered specialized services for girls exploited in sex trafficking, while other victims could access services for survivors of violence against women or other forms of government and NGO support. Authorities worked closely with NGO service providers, which improved the overall quality of care victims received. However, the government did not allocate sufficient funding to victim protection and often relied on NGOs to fill service gaps. Authorities referred all child victims to MIMP, which coordinated shelter or family care and provided legal, social services, psychological, and limited reintegration assistance to victims. MIMP operated specialized units in all regions of the country for assisting at-risk children, children in need of special protection, and child victims of crime, including all child trafficking victims.

MIMP operated six specialized shelters exclusively for girls exploited in sex or labor trafficking (including some whom authorities classified as sexual exploitation victims) in five regions (Cusco, Lima, Loreto, Madre de Dios, and Puno); in total, these shelters could accommodate 99 children. Services and staffing in the trafficking shelters were generally robust, with the inclusion of a full-time attorney, medical personnel, and psychologist. The Ministry of Health provided mental health care services to child trafficking survivors through community mental health centers and public hospitals. MIMP also operated 52 residential centers for children that could accommodate child trafficking victims, including boys, but these shelters were not exclusively for human trafficking victims and MIMP did not equip them to provide specialized psychological and protection services to meet the needs of child trafficking survivors. In prior reporting periods, there were instances of MIMP staff committing abuses against children in these residential centers, raising concerns that child residents were at risk of abuse and low standards of care and suggesting stronger oversight and risk assessment was needed. MIMP expanded its foster care program, with the capacity to screen foster families and provide support for families it approved to receive child trafficking victims, including boys who could not access specialized shelters. The government did not report whether any child victims were placed with foster families during the year.

Women could access legal, psychological, and social services – but not overnight accommodation – through MIMP’s nationwide network of 429 Emergency Centers for Women; the government did not collect data on the number of trafficking victims the centers assisted. Women were required to file a complaint to access these services. Numerous civil society organizations provided assistance to trafficking victims, including two NGOs that were members of the government’s multisectoral commission against trafficking, and approximately 70 private shelters accepted trafficking victims.

Adult victims and/or male victims had few shelter options; there were no shelters that accepted adult men. Local advocates reported victims who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, or those they described as transgender, could not always access shelter and adequate services and at times experienced discrimination from service providers. In December 2024, the government issued a new guide for assisting foreign national trafficking victims in Peru. Foreign national victims were generally eligible for the same services as Peruvian victims and many Venezuelan child victims received care in the government’s specialized shelters. NGOs reported it was difficult in practice for foreign victims to access some services if they lacked the required documentation. MIMP reported assisting unaccompanied foreign child victims to regularize their immigration status and to facilitate voluntary repatriation to the child’s home country when it was determined to be in their best interest. Authorities continued to collaborate through binational emergency response teams with their counterparts in Ecuador. This collaboration led to the identification in Peru of a foreign national sex trafficking victim exploited in both countries and cooperation to facilitate her repatriation to her home country. Government presence remained weak in some areas of Peru where trafficking risks were high, including in many Indigenous communities, but the government made concerted efforts to maintain specialized law enforcement units and provide victims with access to specialized shelters in high-risk regions including Loreto, Madre de Dios, and Puno.

With support from an international organization, the government continued an initiative launched in prior years to increase reintegration and livelihood support for young survivors, 14 to 19 years old, transitioning out of shelter care. The program, available in three specialized shelters, offered survivors training in entrepreneurship skills and financial literacy and facilitated connections with private employers for job placement opportunities. MIMP adopted guidelines formalizing this model as a national strategy to support the economic independence of child trafficking victims once they leave the shelters, and the government increased training for officials on economic integration for victims. The Ministry of Education adopted guidelines to support the educational needs of trafficking survivors and trained teachers and administrators on these provisions.

The government made meaningful efforts to incorporate trauma-informed and victim-centered principles into its policy and procedural documents and it provided extensive training for officials to improve their knowledge and response to providing victim care. Non-specialized officials, however, sometimes did not employ victim-centered methods. Police and prosecutors reported many victim services were not available following law enforcement operations on nights and weekends, and law enforcement did not adequately plan for prompt transition to care and shelter for identified victims when planning operations. At times when shelters were not immediately available, authorities placed child victims in police stations among children apprehended for crimes, where victims faced conditions similar to detention while waiting for referral to shelter.

The national policy directs the government to provide free and specialized legal assistance for all trafficking victims, through a designated public attorney from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, to safeguard their legal rights and guide them through the legal system after authorities initiated a prosecution. Nine public attorneys specialized in supporting trafficking victims, and local experts reported additional staff were needed to provide this support to all victims. Law enforcement officials utilized secure Gesell chambers to conduct a single interview for sex trafficking victims, and prosecutors could use a transcript of this interview in place of oral testimony in court. However, many of the government’s Gesell chambers were inoperable due to staffing shortages, broken equipment, or other problems, leaving victims without consistent access to these spaces. Officials in some regions provided interpreters during interviews with victims whose primary language was not Spanish, but official interpreters were not always available for victims who needed them. Authorities did not always safeguard victims’ privacy and media published the names and other identifying details of some victims. The government of Loreto began implementing a 3.75 million soles ($998,137) project, announced in the previous reporting period, to improve Gesell chambers in the region, the first dedicated funding to trafficking victim protection from a regional government. Members of some populations experienced discrimination from law enforcement on the basis of their sexual orientation or identity and were often re-victimized during the criminal justice process; the government’s intersectoral protocol acknowledged these individuals were especially vulnerable and asserted their rights to equal protection and services.

The penal code established minimum criteria a judge should consider for awarding restitution to a trafficking victim during sentencing in a criminal case, and during the reporting period, the government issued official guidance to courts for implementing these provisions. In practice, individual judges applied widely varying criteria when assessing damages. The government reported one trafficker convicted in 2024 was ordered to pay restitution to a victim. Peruvian law granted authority for the government to confiscate a trafficker’s property to fulfill payment obligations, but the government did not effectively enforce restitution orders. Foreign victims were eligible for temporary and permanent residency status under Peruvian refugee law. The government did not report whether it granted any trafficking victims residency during the year.

The government maintained prevention efforts.

The government’s multisectoral commission against trafficking, led by the Ministry of Interior (MOI), continued to coordinate the government’s anti-trafficking response and lead implementation of the National Policy Against Human Trafficking and its Forms of Exploitation (2021-2030). The multisectoral commission was composed of 14 government agencies and two NGOs, though the government’s removal of the NGOs’ voting rights in the previous reporting period weakened their ability to contribute. Authorities at regional, provincial, and metropolitan levels convened 25 coordination bodies across the country to strengthen anti-trafficking efforts at the sub-national level, and the multisectoral commission provided technical support to local officials in some regions. The government continued using a new online system, launched in the previous reporting period, to monitor implementation of the national policy by collecting data from member institutions of the multisectoral commission on their efforts across the policy’s 42 priority areas. Nonetheless, Peru lacked a coordinated information management system for case data, and Peru’s overlapping legal framework further complicated data collection efforts on law enforcement and victim protection efforts.

The government allocated dedicated anti-trafficking funding to the MOI but did not report the amount of this allocation in 2024. Other ministries funded anti-trafficking activities through their general budgets, and regional governments conducted anti-trafficking activities, primarily with in-kind contributions. The regional government of Cusco continued implementing its 3.3 million soles ($878,360) public investment project, launched in the previous reporting period for anti-trafficking capacity building and prevention efforts across seven provinces, and the regional government of Ayacucho dedicated funding to and began implementing a human trafficking project but did not specify its activities or budget. A 2019 law directed the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to prioritize a multisectoral budget request detailing dedicated anti-trafficking budgets for member entities of the multisectoral commission, but MEF did not do so. Local experts reported government funding for anti-trafficking activities was insufficient, with only 11 of the National Policy’s 42 priority areas receiving funding, and the lack of a line-item budget made it difficult for officials to secure the necessary funds to implement the national policy.

The MOI operated a 24-hour complaints center, accessible through a toll-free telephone line, a mobile application, a web portal, and email, for the public to report suspected crimes, including trafficking. Authorities received 75 trafficking-related reports through the hotline in 2024, but did not report whether these calls led to any victims identified or prosecutions initiated. Several government institutions, including the Ministry of Labor (MOL), held events and disseminated materials through digital and other media platforms to raise awareness of trafficking and educate members of the public on identifying and reporting possible trafficking crimes. During the year, the multisectoral commission reviewed and updated awareness materials to avoid images and language that perpetuate misperceptions of trafficking, such as images that depict persons under physical restraint. The government disseminated audio materials in Quechua, improving access to information for some Indigenous language speakers who often experienced high trafficking risks.

The government maintained a separate governance infrastructure, led by the MOL, on combating forced labor. The government required private employment agencies to train their personnel in the detection of job offers that could be linked to human trafficking, migrant smuggling, or child labor, and prohibited them from charging workers recruitment fees or retaining workers’ identity documents or personal items. Labor inspectors had a mandate to monitor employment agencies for compliance, but they lacked adequate case management systems to effectively classify and refer suspected criminal cases to appropriate authorities. The government maintained labor inspection units that specialized in forced and child labor, but it did not report whether labor inspectors identified any trafficking victims in 2024.

The government coordinated with an international organization to launch and promote a guide for companies to hire migrants and refugees in formal sector employment, which could decrease risks of trafficking within this vulnerable community, particularly displaced Venezuelans. However, in October 2024 the government announced a new policy making migrant workers’ legal status dependent on a work contract, effectively granting employers control over an individual’s ability to remain in Peru legally; this arrangement exacerbated trafficking risks and created a disincentive for workers experiencing exploitation from reporting their exploitation to authorities.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism conducted outreach to businesses in the tourism sector to promote compliance with a mandatory code of conduct and relevant laws designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of children, including extraterritorial commercial child sexual exploitation and abuse. The same ministry provided technical assistance to regional and local governments through trainings and awareness raising events. Authorities conducted law enforcement operations against individuals who purchased sex acts from trafficking victims but did not provide details about such cases in 2024. The government did not report providing anti-trafficking training to its troops prior to their deployment as peacekeepers.

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 Peru, and traffickers exploit victims from Peru abroad. Traffickers exploit Peruvian and foreign women and girls, and to a lesser extent boys, in sex trafficking within the country. Traffickers increasingly recruit victims through social media platforms, often through false employment offers or deceptive romantic relationships; traffickers capitalize on emerging technologies and leverage advances in functionality and interaction tools within online platforms to refine their targeting and recruitment methods. Traffickers lure Peruvian, Venezuelan, and Bolivian women and girls to remote communities near mining and logging operations through false promises of lucrative employment opportunities and then exploit them in sex trafficking after arrival. Tourists from the United States and Europe exploit children in extraterritorial commercial sexual exploitation and abuse in areas such as Cusco, Lima, and the Peruvian Amazon. In the Loreto region, criminal groups facilitate transportation of foreign tourists by boat to remote locations where traffickers exploit women and children in sex trafficking in venues on the Amazon River. Traffickers exploit Peruvian and foreign adults and children in forced labor in the country, principally in illegal and legal gold mining, related activities, and service jobs in nearby makeshift camps; logging; agriculture; brick-making; unregistered factories; counterfeit operations; artisanal fishing; organized street begging; and domestic service. Traffickers compel victims into forced labor through deceptive recruitment, debt-based coercion, isolation and restricted freedom of movement, withholding of or non-payment of wages, and threats and use of physical violence. Traffickers subject children to forced labor in begging, street vending, domestic service, cocaine production and transportation, and other criminal activities.

Local experts report organized criminal groups increasingly perpetrate trafficking crimes in Peru. Numerous criminal groups operating in Peru are affiliated with Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang and Foreign Terrorist Organization that originated in Venezuela and includes both Peruvian and Venezuelan members in its Peru-based factions. In Peru, Tren de Aragua exploits victims in sex trafficking and extorts individuals engaged in commercial sex, to finance its criminal activities and exert territorial control over neighborhoods in Lima and other regions. Tren de Aragua members commonly target Venezuelan women and children; they entice victims through seemingly legitimate job offers in Peru and then use violence, threats, and frequent movement to maintain control over victims exploited in sex trafficking and forced into committing extortion. Tren de Aragua uses online platforms to recruit victims, reach prospective purchasers of commercial sex acts, and conduct financial transactions; there is evidence some of its members continued to direct human trafficking crimes via phone lines from prison. In 2023, members of a Taiwan organized crime group lured 43 Malaysian men and women to Peru with false employment offers and subsequently exploited them in forced criminality in an online scam operation run out of Lima. Remaining members of the narco-terrorist organization Shining Path use force and coercion to recruit children in local communities, including orphans, or compel parents into placing their children in the group’s custody. Shining Path members subsequently subject children and adults to forced labor in agriculture, cultivating or transporting illicit narcotics, and domestic servitude, as well as to carry out terrorist activities or serve as armed guards.

Indigenous Peruvians, many of whom live in remote Andean and Amazonian communities with limited access to government services, are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. Experts report some Peruvian populations are more vulnerable to trafficking, including re-exploitation, based on their sexual orientation or identity. Local advocates report that individuals they describe as transgender are at particularly high risk, and traffickers seek to exploit these individuals’ need to finance medical care. Venezuelan migrants and refugees residing in Peru under permanent, temporary, or illegal immigration status are particularly vulnerable to sex and labor trafficking, often targeted due to economic insecurity and lured into exploitation through false employment offers. In 2024 and early 2025, wildfires, floods, and drought led to widespread displacement across Peru, forcing many people in affected regions to flee their homes, and local experts reported displaced individuals experienced heightened risks of forced labor and sex trafficking. Local experts report online sexual exploitation of children occurs, in which traffickers sexually exploit children in live internet broadcasts in exchange for compensation. Media and government reporting documented increasing incidences of violence against women and girls, including femicides, women’s disappearances, and sexual violence against children; these crimes are often connected to human trafficking. Traffickers increasingly use online payment platforms for financial transactions. Illicit activity, including sex and labor trafficking, is common in regions of the country with limited permanent government presence, including remote mining and logging areas and the Valley of the Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers. Criminal economies including illegal mining and logging, as well as drug trafficking, fuel the demand for sex and labor trafficking in Peru.

Traffickers exploit Peruvian women and children in sex trafficking in other countries, particularly within South America. They also exploit women and girls from neighboring countries in Peru; victims from African and Asian countries, as well as the United States, have been identified in Peru. NGOs and foreign authorities report traffickers exploit Peruvians these experts describe as transgender in sex trafficking in Argentina, Italy, and Sweden. Traffickers subject Peruvian adults and children to forced labor in other South American countries, the United States, and other countries. Traffickers exploit Peruvian victims in forced criminality in online scam operations in Southeast Asia. Members of Tren de Aragua charge Venezuelan women and children in Peru high smuggling fees to facilitate their entry into the United States where they then subject them to sex trafficking through debt bondage. NGOs and government officials reported official complicity in trafficking crimes and widespread corruption in Peruvian law enforcement and judicial systems continue to hamper anti-trafficking efforts.