Costa Rica recorded 83 human trafficking victims in 2025, the highest number reported in any single year since at least 2010, according to figures released by the country’s National Coalition Against the Illegal Trafficking of Migrants and Human Trafficking (CONATT). The new figures show the problem affects Costa Ricans as well as foreigners and continues to fall heavily on women and young people.
Between 2010 and 2025, authorities officially recognized 611 people as trafficking victims in Costa Rica. Women accounted for 72% of those cases, while 234 victims, or 38%, were children or teenagers. The remaining 377 were adults. More than half of the victims were Costa Rican. Of the 611 cases recorded over the 16-year period, 330 involved Costa Rican nationals and 281 involved foreigners.
The numbers are a reminder that human trafficking does not only involve people being brought illegally across an international border. Costa Ricans can also become victims inside their own country or after being recruited for supposed opportunities elsewhere. Trafficking generally involves someone being recruited, moved, housed or controlled through deception, threats, pressure or abuse so that another person can exploit them. That exploitation can include forced labor, sexual exploitation, servitude or forced begging.
One of the biggest challenges for authorities is that traffickers do not always approach victims in ways that immediately look suspicious. Melissa Bermúdez Otárola, who represents the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), before CONATT, said recruitment methods can include fake job offers, relationships built on trust and emotional manipulation. Those tactics can make cases particularly difficult to spot when the person behind the exploitation is someone the victim initially knows or trusts.
Women, teenage girls and children can face especially high risks in cases involving sexual exploitation. Economic problems, dependence on another person, discrimination and abusive relationships can all make it easier for traffickers to target someone in a vulnerable position. The figures were released as Costa Rica marked the International Day Against Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking this week.
The CCSS said its hospitals and clinics have a nationwide protocol for dealing with suspected trafficking cases. Victims can receive medical and psychological care regardless of whether they are Costa Rican, foreign residents or migrants without regular immigration status. Health workers are also trained to recognize warning signs and coordinate with the agencies responsible for protecting victims.
Authorities are asking people who suspect someone may be a trafficking victim to report it rather than trying to intervene themselves. Suspected cases can be reported through Costa Rica’s 9-1-1 emergency system. The Professional Migration Police can also be contacted at 2106-4005. The Judicial Investigation Police, or OIJ, receives trafficking reports through its specialized unit at 2256-5702 and 2256-5703, as well as through the confidential line 800-8000-645.
The 83 victims recorded in 2025 do not necessarily represent the full scale of trafficking in Costa Rica. Trafficking can remain hidden for long periods because victims may be afraid to report what is happening, may depend financially on the person exploiting them or may not initially recognize themselves as victims.
What the latest figures do show is that Costa Rica officially recognized more trafficking victims in 2025 than in any other year during the 2010-2025 period tracked by CONATT.
