Key Takeaways
- Peru's Public Prosecutor's Office logged 1,994 human trafficking cases from January through August 2026, lifting the tally since 2023 past 9,500.
- CHS Alternativo says recent state spending covers only about 1% of the 1.159 billion soles (roughly $343 million) that a study it commissioned estimates the national anti-trafficking policy requires.
- The nonprofit lists five unmet state obligations, from a budget program the law required more than seven years ago to clearer reporting to Congress.
Peruvian prosecutors registered 1,994 human trafficking cases in the first eight months of 2026, pushing the count since 2023 beyond 9,500, according to Public Prosecutor's Office figures. The Lima-based nonprofit CHS Alternativo released the data on Sept. 23, Peru's National Day Against Human Trafficking, and used the occasion to press the government to back its promises with money, services and measurable results.
A 2030 Roadmap With Almost No Money Behind It
Peru adopted its National Policy Against Human Trafficking and Its Forms of Exploitation through 2030 in 2021. CHS Alternativo argues the plan has never been funded at anything close to the level it needs.
A study the group commissioned in 2023 put the cost of fully carrying out the policy at no less than 1.159 billion soles, or roughly $343 million. Measured against that benchmark, the organization says, what the state has set aside in recent years amounts to about 1%.
Survivors feel the gap most directly. The group's Tenth Alternative Report found that of 17 services meant to care for and reintegrate victims, only four have a dedicated budget line.
Five Obligations the State Has Yet to Meet
CHS Alternativo sorts its demands into five legal, budgetary and institutional areas. At the top of the list is a multisectoral, results-based budget program mandated by Law No. 30925, which tasked Peru's Economy and Finance Ministry with designing it alongside the Interior Ministry. More than seven years on, the group says, the program still does not exist.
Ricardo Valdés, who heads CHS Alternativo and once served as Peru's deputy interior minister, argues that without it the state is less able to prevent trafficking, investigate and punish offenders, and give victims the protection and recovery support they need.
The second item is funding for the 2030 policy itself. The third is the missing implementing regulation for Law No. 31664, published more than three years ago, which requires businesses offering public internet access to keep records and install filters that block minors from pornographic and violent material. Without rules to enforce it, municipalities and district public-safety committees have limited power to inspect those venues or penalize violators.
Forced Labor: The Less Visible Side of Trafficking
The fourth area is forced labor. CHS Alternativo stresses that trafficking is not only about sexual exploitation: labor exploitation is another of its purposes and surfaces in illegal economies such as illegal mining. There, recruiters dangle fake jobs, then hold workers through threats, debt, grueling shifts and precarious conditions that keep them from leaving.
Law No. 31330 and its regulations already lay out ways to prevent and punish forced labor, but the group points to weak labor inspections, poor record-keeping and thin investigations, especially in remote areas where the state has little presence.
Holding the Government to Account
The fifth demand concerns transparency. In September 2025, Peru's executive branch briefed Congress on its anti-trafficking work for the first time in several years, and lawmakers later created a special multiparty committee to track progress. The organization says clear information on goals met, money allocated and pledges still unfulfilled remains scarce, and it wants the government to report to the full chamber.
Valdés called on authorities to use the national day to close those gaps and turn pledges into results that can be checked.
A Crime That Crosses Borders
Trafficking networks in Peru prey on both Peruvians and migrants. Citing Public Prosecutor's Office statistics, CHS Alternativo reported in 2023 that 85 of every 100 foreign trafficking victims recorded in 2022 came from Venezuela.
A case this month shows how far recruitment can reach. In the southern city of Arequipa, police and prosecutors broke up a sexual-exploitation ring after an 18-year-old Paraguayan woman, lured by the promise of a job at a hair salon, managed to alert her mother. Raids on the properties turned up several other Paraguayan women.
For Latino families in the U.S. with relatives across Latin America, the warning signs are familiar: job offers that seem too good to be true, go-betweens who confiscate identity documents, and debts that never seem to shrink.
Where to Get Help
- In Peru: The Interior Ministry's free 1818 line, run by its central complaints unit, takes trafficking reports along with other crimes, 24/7, in Spanish and Quechua. Reports can also be emailed to [email protected].
- In the U.S.: The National Human Trafficking Hotline answers at 1-888-373-7888 around the clock in more than 200 languages, including Spanish, or by text at 233733. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
