Mexico: New Study Finds Strong Link Between Child Marriage and Human Trafficking

The University of California, San Diego, Center on Gender Equity and Health, together with researchers in Mexico, have found that seventy-five percent of girls trafficked for sex in northern Mexico were married at “a young age, mostly before age 16.” Trafficking in persons is one of the “fastest growing” criminal industries in Mexico, with most victims identified as sexually exploited women and girls. Most victims interviewed by researchers said they had been “trafficked as under-age brides, often by their husbands.” Mexican law allows girls to marry at fourteen with their parents’ consent. The study’s results will be published as part of a future research paper. 

 

Compiled from: Malo, Sebastien, Sex trafficking, child marriages linked, study of Mexico finds, Thomson Reuters Foundation News (May 11, 2017).