Digging into the Mining Subculture: The Dynamics of Trafficking in Persons in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining of Peru’s Madre de Dios

Abstract

There is great concern over the expansion of trafficking in persons (TIP) within the commodities supply chain, including a key global commodity: gold. Informal and illegal miners, often working outside of the mining industry’s regulatory framework, source a fifth of the gold extracted worldwide. Although artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) contributes to economic development and provides jobs to the poor, the lack of government oversight not only makes ASGM unsustainable environmentally, but also makes it socially destructive. This chapter offers an analysis of the exploitation of male workers, including children, laboring in gold mines in Madre de Dios, a remote region of the Peruvian Amazon. It is argued that the miners are captured and retained in exploitative conditions by noncoercive means, such as heavy drinking and sex. It is also shown how organized crime groups (OCGs) lure young women and girls from Peru and neighboring countries into working in the prostibars (bars that also offer sexual services) in the mining camps throughout Madre de Dios, fueling an illegal sex economy that profits off of the sexual exploitation of young women and girls.