Cuba is a source country for women and children trafficked internally for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.
Cuban adults and children also are exploited for forced labor, mostly in commercial agriculture; some are reportedly trafficked to the United States under circumstances of debt bondage.
The extent of trafficking within Cuba is hard to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse non-governmental or independent reporting.
However, by all accounts, the country is a major destination for sex tourism, including child sex tourism.
Cuba’s thriving sex trade caters to thousands of European, Canadian, and Latin American tourists every year, and involves large numbers of Cuban girls and boys, some as young as 12.
State-run hotel workers, travel employees, cab drivers, hospitality staff, and police steer tourists to prostituted women and children and facilitate the commercial sexual exploitation of these women and children. Sex trafficking of Cuban women to Mexico and Western Europe also has been reported.
U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2007
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