• Authorize civil society organizations to freely operate in the country without fear of reprisal and cooperate with these organizations to provide victims short- and long-term care and reintegration services.
• Significantly increase efforts to identify trafficking victims, including labor trafficking victims and foreign victims, by screening for trafficking indicators among vulnerable populations; ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.
• Investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers, including complicit officials.
• Vigorously implement the National Strategy for Comprehensive Attention to Victims of Trafficking in Persons by identifying victims and effectively referring them to appropriate services.
• Allocate funding for victim protection and provide specialized services to all trafficking victims.
• Increase efforts to coordinate and collaborate on anti-trafficking efforts across government institutions and with civil society.
• Implement the National Action Plan (NAP).
• Train government officials – including social workers, labor inspectors, and law enforcement officials – to facilitate increased victim identification and assistance.
• Strengthen law enforcement and victim protection efforts in the Caribbean autonomous regions, especially through increased staff and funding.
• Amend the 2015 anti-trafficking law to include a definition of trafficking in persons consistent with international law.

The government maintained negligible law enforcement efforts.

The Law against Trafficking in Persons of 2015 (Law 896) criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties ranging from 10 to 15 years’ imprisonment; these penalties were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with penalties prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. Inconsistent with the definition of trafficking under international law, the law established the use of force, coercion, or deceit as an aggravating factor rather than an essential element of the crime; the penalties increased to 16 to 18 years’ imprisonment for trafficking crimes involving these factors. The penalty for child trafficking increased to 19 to 20 years’ imprisonment. The law also defined trafficking broadly to include all labor exploitation and illegal adoption without the purpose of exploitation. In September 2024, the government enacted amendments to its criminal code to apply universality to Nicaragua’s human trafficking law to cover crimes committed by Nicaraguan or foreign citizens outside the country. The government also extended criminal liability for human trafficking crimes to legal entities such as businesses or organizations and imposed penalties that could include fines, temporary closure, and dissolution.

The government reported each department had a prosecutor from the specialized unit against organized crime who was responsible for prosecuting human trafficking crimes. The government did not report investigating any suspected trafficking crimes, compared to investigating five cases in 2023. Additionally, the government did not report prosecuting or convicting any traffickers, compared to initiating two prosecutions, convicting three traffickers, and upholding the convictions of four traffickers in 2023. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in trafficking crimes. However, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. The government did not have policies to prevent official complicity in trafficking, contributing to an environment of impunity and potentially deterring victims from reporting trafficking crimes.

The government reported including anti-trafficking components in the curriculum of its training institutes for police, prosecutors, and judges but did not provide further details on the training delivered during the reporting period. The government did not report any instances of international coordination or cooperation on trafficking cases.

The government maintained negligible protection efforts.

Government reporting on victim identification and protection was unreliable and inconsistent. The government did not report identifying any trafficking victims, compared with identifying three victims in 2023. The government did not report assisting any Nicaraguan victims exploited abroad. The government did not report implementing or training officials to use its National Strategy for Comprehensive Attention to Victims of Trafficking or other protocols to facilitate victim identification and referral. Officials did not report any efforts to screen for trafficking indicators or otherwise identify victims in the Caribbean autonomous regions, where endemic poverty and limited official presence limited residents’ access to justice and services, contributing to significant trafficking vulnerability.

The government did not report providing any support services, including shelter, to trafficking victims in 2024, compared with providing assistance to three female child victims in 2023. The government did not report any spending on victim protection or whether the national budget included agency-specific allocations for trafficking victim protection as it had in past years. The 2015 trafficking law, Law 896, had required the government to establish a dedicated fund for victim protection and prevention activities to be financed through budgetary allocation, donations, and assets seized from traffickers. However, there was no indication the government ever made this fund operational. In April 2024, the government enacted amendments to Law 896 that repealed the fund and its dedicated budget item, directing all relevant resources into the state treasury for general purposes.

NGOs reported government entities had not coordinated with civil society to protect victims since 2018. Although civil society organizations identified and assisted dozens of victims in previous years, there were no known civil society organizations working to support trafficking victims during the reporting period. The government’s restrictive stance towards civil society impeded these organizations’ ability to operate.,

There were no trafficking-specific shelters in Nicaragua, and the capacity for long-term services was minimal. The government could not provide extended shelter, and due to the government’s systematic closure of more than 5,700 NGOs since 2018, these organizations could no longer provide such care. Observers previously noted the government placed some victims with family members in the absence of shelter options, which placed trafficking victims at risk of re-victimization when family members were complicit in their exploitation. There were no shelters accessible to men, and the government did not indicate whether it could provide appropriate shelter and other services to male victims, victims with disabilities, or populations who were more vulnerable on the basis of their sexual orientation or identity. The Ministry of Family was responsible for providing services for child trafficking victims, including medical and legal services and access to education. Officials could refer child trafficking victims to “special protection centers,” but in prior years observers reported the government often returned child victims to their families without adequate support that would minimize risks of re-victimization. Observers previously identified a lack of adequate services across the entire country.

The trafficking law permitted victims to testify in advance of trials and allowed testimony via video or written statement to encourage participation and protect a victim’s identity; however, the government did not report offering these accommodations in 2024. Victims could seek compensation by filing civil suits against traffickers; however, there was no information that victims had ever exercised this right, and NGOs previously reported that a years-long timeline for such proceedings made the process unduly burdensome. The government did not report efforts to screen for indicators of trafficking among members of vulnerable groups such as migrant populations or individuals in commercial sex. Due to frequent misclassification of trafficking cases and a lack of formal identification procedures, authorities did not take effective measures to prevent the inappropriate penalization of potential victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Police frequently failed to provide assistance to some vulnerable Nicaraguans on the basis of their sexual orientation or identity, limiting their access to justice and protection. Nicaraguan law provided for humanitarian visas for foreign trafficking victims, but the government had not reported identifying any foreign victims since 2018.

The government maintained minimal efforts to prevent trafficking.

In April 2024, the government enacted amendments to the trafficking law that effectively dissolved the National Coalition against Trafficking in Persons and its Executive Secretariat, designating the Ministry of Interior as the sole authority over all aspects of anti-trafficking prosecution, protection, and prevention efforts. The government did not report any anti-trafficking efforts by the Ministry of Interior during the reporting period. The amendments to the trafficking law removed a requirement to include civil society representatives in anti-trafficking consultation and coordination.

The government maintained a NAP valid for the period of 2023-2027. The plan outlined objectives to improve interagency coordination and technical capacity to investigate, prosecute, and sentence traffickers; raise awareness of the trafficking crime; protect and assist trafficking victims; and monitor the plan’s implementation. The government reported the Ministry of Family implemented an anti-trafficking awareness campaign that reached families and businesses in Rivas, as well as a nationwide campaign to educate the public to recognize indicators of several crimes, including human trafficking. The government did not report any other efforts to implement the NAP or to research or monitor trafficking in the country. The government had two 24-hour crime hotlines that could receive trafficking complaints, but it did not report whether the hotlines processed any trafficking-related calls in 2024.

Nicaraguans continued to encounter problems obtaining national identification cards from the government, which increased their vulnerability to trafficking and limited their ability to access public services. The law required private employment agencies to register with the government to permit government oversight and established minimum wages and maximum hours for adult and adolescent domestic workers. However, the government did not report making efforts to identify unscrupulous recruitment practices or forced labor in these sectors. The government did not report any efforts to inspect bars or nightclubs suspected of facilitating trafficking or any efforts to reduce demand for commercial sex acts. Additionally, the government did not report any efforts to reduce the demand for participation in extraterritorial child sexual exploitation and abuse by foreign tourists in Nicaragua, despite past allegations of such actions by foreign citizens in the country. Authorities did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting any foreign citizens for child sex trafficking. The government also did not report providing anti-trafficking training to its diplomatic personnel.

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 Nicaragua, and traffickers exploit victims from Nicaragua abroad. Women, children, and migrants in Nicaragua are especially vulnerable to trafficking. Traffickers subject Nicaraguan women and children to sex trafficking within the country and in other Central American countries, Mexico, Spain, and the United States. Nicaraguans who legally or illegally immigrate, or are forcibly displaced, to other Central American countries, Europe, and the United States have been victims of sex and labor trafficking, both in transit and after reaching their destinations. Experts report Nicaraguans they describe as transgender, and those who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, experience discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or identity, including from law enforcement, that increases trafficking vulnerability. Family members of victims are often complicit in their exploitation, and recruiters are frequently members of victims’ local communities. Traffickers take advantage of Nicaraguans’ desire for economic opportunity through fraudulent offers of higher pay for work in restaurants, hotels, domestic service, construction, and security in urban centers, tourist locales, or other countries including Costa Rica and Panama, then subsequently exploit them in sex or labor trafficking.

Traffickers often prey on Nicaraguans working abroad illegally, compelling them into forced labor under the threat of deportation. Increasingly, traffickers use social media sites to recruit their victims, often targeting individuals in rural areas or border regions where economic opportunity is limited. Experts report traffickers frequently target Nicaraguan children whose parents leave the country to work abroad, exploiting them in sex and labor trafficking. Nicaraguan women and children are subjected to sex and labor trafficking in the two Caribbean autonomous regions, where weak law enforcement, rampant poverty, high crime rate, and the lingering impacts of natural disasters increase the vulnerability of the local population, particularly Indigenous communities. Traffickers exploit Nicaraguan adults and children in labor trafficking in agriculture, construction, mining, the informal sector, and domestic service within the country and in Costa Rica, Panama, Spain, the United States, and other countries. Traffickers force some children to work in artisanal mines and quarries. Observers report traffickers exploit children through forced participation in the production and transportation of illegal drugs. Children and persons with disabilities are subjected to forced begging, particularly in Managua on busy thoroughfares and near tourist centers. Traffickers subject male migrants from Central American countries transiting Nicaragua en route to Costa Rica and Panama to labor trafficking. Cuban regime-affiliated workers in Nicaragua during the pandemic may have been forced to work by the Cuban regime. Additionally, citizens of the United States, Canada, and Western Europe engage in extraterritorial child sexual exploitation and abuse in Nicaragua.