コロナ禍で少女と女性９００人超が行方不明、死亡の恐れも　ペルー

【リマＡＦＰ＝時事】ペルーで新型コロナウイルス対策の外出制限が始まって以降、900人超という衝撃的な数の少女と女性が行方不明になっており、死亡した恐れもあることが分かった。当局が27日、明らかにした。（写真はペルー首都リマの街頭でレストランの宣伝をする女性。資料写真）
　人口約３３００万人のペルーでは長年、深刻なドメスティック・バイオレンス（ＤＶ）が問題になっている。
　しかし、国の行政監察機関の女性の権利部門を率いるエリアナ・レボヤル氏によると、新型コロナウイルスの流行で外出制限に失業と健康危機が重なり、すでに恐ろしい状態にあったＤＶ問題はわずか３か月半で悪化したという。
　また、行方不明になっている９００人超のうち７割は未成年だという。
　レボヤル氏は「３月１６日から６月３０日までの外出制限期間中に、女性９１５人の行方不明が報告された」と明かし、死亡した恐れもあると述べた。
　新型コロナウイルスの流行以前は、ペルーで行方不明になる女性の数は１日当たり５人だったが、外出制限が始まってからは１日当たり８人に増加している。
　レボヤル氏は、国の行方不明者登録簿の不足が問題の把握を困難にしていることから事態は深刻だと指摘し、登録簿の作成を強く求めていくと述べた。
　また女性の権利団体や非政府組織（ＮＧＯ）によると、警察がＤＶの捜査を拒んだり、被害者をちゃかしたり、行方不明者は自分の意思で家を出たと主張したりすることが頻繁にあるという。
　同国では昨年、女性１６６人が殺害されたが、行方が分からなくなっている段階で相談があったケースはそのうちの１割に過ぎなかった。また女性省によると、ＤＶに関する通報は３万件弱あったという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/07/29-13:29）

A staggering 900-plus girls and women are missing and feared dead in Peru since COVID-19 confinement began, authorities said Monday.
The Andean nation home to 33 million people long has had a horrific domestic violence problem.
But COVID-19, which has compounded home confinement combined with job losses and a health crisis, has seen an already scary situation grow worse in just 3-1/2 months, according to Eliana Revollar, who leads the women's rights office of the National Ombudsman's office.
Seventy percent of that figure are minors, she added.
During the quarantine, from March 16 to June 30, 915 women in Peru were reported missing, and feared dead, said Revollar.
Before COVID-19, five women were reported missing in Peru every single day; since the lockdown, the number has surged to eight per day.
Revollar said Peru's situation was grim because the lack of a national missing persons registry made it hard for authorities to keep track of the crisis.
Walter Gutierrez, the ombudsman, told RPS Radio: We need to know what has happened to them.
Revollar said she would push for the creation of a missing persons registry.
Women's rights groups and NGOs however say that very often police refuse to investigate domestic violence, make fun of victims, or claim that the missing have left their homes willingly.
But that doesn?t address the fact that Peru has a problem with domestic violence and other violence against women, as well as human trafficking and forced prostitution.
In January, the case of a university student and activist for women's rights and safety, Solsiret Rodriguez, was in the headlines here -- but only when her body was found three years after she went missing.
Last year there were 166 killings of women in Peru; just a tenth of those were cases of a person first being reported missing. And there were just under 30,000 calls to report domestic violence, according to the Women's Ministry.
And coronavirus hasn't spared Peru: it has had more than 384,000 coronavirus cases and 18,229 deaths. It is the third-hardest hit country in Latin America behind Brazil and Mexico.