Human Trafficking as a Threat to the Transnational Migration Networks of the Kichwa Otavalo People

Abstract

The objective of the research was to analyze human trafficking for the purposes of labor exploitation as a threat to transnational migration networks in the Kichwa Otavalo people. A mixed type investigation was used under the intercultural approach, surveys were applied within the Otavalo canton to the Otavalo Kichwa population and a case of human trafficking to indigenous justice was analyzed. The emigration of the Kichwa Otavalo people begins at an early age, many adolescents and young people travel, as an itinerant merchant, for their family and personal economy, however, they may fall into networks of human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation. Finally, the intervention of community and state justice under the principles of cooperation, coordination, diversity, guarantees the defense of community members who have been victims of this crime.