This report shows how climate change is increasing the precariousness of rural communities in Peru and exacerbating the threat already posed by severe environmental degradation caused by certain business activities. People are driven to undertake unsafe migration to find alternative sources of income. They often end up in situations of modern slavery, in a region where human trafficking and forced labour are already endemic. It is vital to address the effects of climate change, environmental degradation, migration and human rights abuses as joint issues, to reduce people's exposure to forms of modern slavery.
Peru
High temperatures and glacial melt are increasing water scarcity in Peru, while gold mining and other business activities are causing environmental degradation, pollution and deforestation.
As a result, people find it more difficult to survive and many from the Cusco region migrate to Madre de Dios in search of work opportunities. Many end up working in extractive industries such as mining in exploitative conditions and forced labour.
This creates a vicious cycle, in which people end up working in the very industries responsible for the loss of their previous livelihoods. Women and girls are trafficked for forced commercial sexual exploitation.