Tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List — Bolivia does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so; the government adopted a National Action Plan for the elimination of trafficking and reportedly sentenced three traffickers who had been detained since 2016; however, Bolivia did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; officials did not report investigating, prosecuting, or convicting traffickers and did not report identifying or referring victims to care; therefore, Bolivia was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch List (2023)
Trafficking profile: Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bolivia, and victims from Bolivia abroad; Bolivian adults and children are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor at home and abroad; officials report 63% of the victims identified were female; to a lesser extent, women from neighboring countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Haiti, Paraguay, and Venezuela, are exploited in sex trafficking in Bolivia; some migrants from Chile, The Gambia, Venezuela, and the Caribbean travelling to or through Bolivia are subject to sex trafficking and forced labor; child sex tourists exploit children within Bolivia; rural, poor, mostly indigenous Bolivians, and LGBTQIA+ youth are particularly at risk for sex and labor trafficking; Bolivian women and girls are exploited in sex trafficking at home and abroad in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Panama, and Peru; within Bolivia, adults and children are exploited in domestic work, mining, ranching, and agriculture; forced criminality continues, including cases of children being forced to commit crimes, such as robbery and drug production, as well as forced begging; traffickers exploit Bolivians in forced labor in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile in sweatshops, agriculture, brickmaking, domestic work, textile factories, and the informal sector; social media is used as the primary recruitment tool, luring vulnerable individuals with fraudulent employment opportunities (2023)
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