Santo Domingo – On the Dominican Republic’s national commemoration of the 2026 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, the country’s top foreign affairs official has sounded a fresh alarm over the shifting, increasingly dangerous landscape of modern human trafficking. Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez told attendees Thursday that traffickers are progressively coercing their victims to take part in a range of profitable organized criminal operations, from financial fraud and cybercrime to transnational money laundering, all held together by constant threats and psychological or physical coercion.
This evolving character of human trafficking, Álvarez emphasized, creates unprecedented new hurdles for the nation’s justice, public security, and migration agencies tasked with disrupting trafficking networks. He stressed that one of the most critical shifts in policy must be a faster, more targeted approach to identifying trafficking victims, paired with a commitment to avoid prosecuting people who were forced to commit crimes against their will.
Minister Álvarez used the occasion to reaffirm the Dominican Republic’s unwavering commitment to combating human trafficking across four core pillars: proactive prevention of trafficking networks, rigorous prosecution of traffickers, centered support and protection for survivors, and enhanced collaboration with international partners. He highlighted the leading role of the Dominican Ministry of Foreign Affairs in steering the national Inter-Institutional Commission against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants, as well as the country’s active participation in regional anti-trafficking efforts led by the Organization of American States.
Expanding on the nation’s ongoing work to adapt to modern trafficking threats, Vice Minister for Consular and Migration Affairs Opinio Díaz outlined new expanded initiatives targeting the rise of cyber-facilitated trafficking. These efforts include the launch of a permanent Cybercrime Roundtable to coordinate cross-agency responses, the establishment of a specialized Cybercrime Unit with dedicated training and resources, and a targeted collaborative project with the International Organization for Migration to reinforce technology-driven prevention strategies and investigative capacity.