TT does not meet minimum standards to eliminate trafficking

The Government of TT does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.

This was the consensus in the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report done by the United States Department of State.

The report said Government has shown increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period and therefore, TT remained on Tier 2.

Tier 2 was countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

These efforts included increasing anti-trafficking training for its officials, initiating investigations against three potentially complicit officials, initiating more prosecutions, establishing a new intelligence task force to improve investigations, and developing a new memorandum of understanding between its children’s authority and anti-trafficking unit to better protect child victims.

This Government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. Government has yet to secure a conviction under its 2011 anti-trafficking law. There are increasing reports of potential Government complicity in trafficking cases, with insufficient Government attention to the issue.

The report said due to a lack of screening, Government penalised some trafficking victims, including children, for immigration offences as a result of the trafficking crime. It stated that migrants, asylum-seekers or refugees were not adequately screened for trafficking indicators, including among Venezuelans.

Thousands of Venezuelans have flocked to TT in recent months after fleeing their homeland from political and economic hardship. The report said Government decreased the amount of funding for victim services and did not provide adequate victim care in some cases.

The Trafficking in Persons Act of 2011 criminalised sex trafficking and labour trafficking and prescribed penalties of no less than 15 years’ imprisonment and a fine of no less than $500,000 for offences involving an adult victim, and no less than 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of no less than $1 million for those involving a child victim.

These penalties were commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.

Government’s anti-trafficking unit investigated 39 possible cases of trafficking, compared with 38 cases in 2017. It initiated four prosecutions under the anti-trafficking law (compared with two in 2017 and five in 2016). There were no convictions for trafficking during the reporting period and had not yet convicted a trafficker under its 2011 anti-trafficking law.

The Counter Trafficking Unit (CTU) participated in a series of anti-trafficking operations in February 2019 that resulted in the identification of 19 potential victims and the arrest of 10 potential traffickers. Law enforcement filed 30 charges against six suspects following trafficking investigations, however, only one of these charges was under the Trafficking in Persons Act, and the others were charged with lesser crimes.

It was noted that the CTU faced organisation and management challenges, limited capacity and resources, reduced ties with international partners and other law enforcement agencies, which hindered its efforts, and limited coordination between the CTU and Department of Public Prosecutions.

Budget allocations to the CTU for fiscal 2018-2019 was confirmed to be lower when compared to $7 million for 2017-2018.

During the reporting period, the CTU referred three possibly complicit police officers to the relevant authorities for further investigations, and the case of a 2017 Government employee charged with trafficking was still pending. There were concerns about other Government officials involved in sex trafficking.

During this reporting period, Government identified 14 trafficking victims (13 sex trafficking victims, including one minor and one labour trafficking victim). All were Venezuelan. This compared to 14 trafficking victims in 2017 and 13 in 2016.

The CTU spent about $203,100 on victim care and protection, compared to $198,900 in 2017 and $700,000 in 2016. However, it was noted there was insufficient Government funding for comprehensive victim care.

Government, working primarily through the CTU, the Children’s Authority (CA), and the Office of the Prime Minister’s Gender and Child Affairs Office provided victim care services. However, observers reported victims often did not receive these services and noted the Government did not adequately screen undocumented migrants or refugees for trafficking indicators before placing them in detention.

Officials, without screening potential victims for trafficking indicators, detained some foreign victims for violating immigration laws—even though those unlawful acts occurred as part of being trafficked and traffickers may have compelled victims to commit them.

These unscreened trafficking victims were placed in the Immigration Detention Centre instead of shelters for trafficking victims and without providing them victim care. Adult female victims of trafficking were paced at domestic violence shelters run by vetted NGOs, and adult male victims were kept at safe houses.

While child victims were kept in homes run by the CA, at least two child victims of trafficking were sent to the Youth Training Centre on immigration charges that occurred as a result of the trafficking crime. Child trafficking victims were not provided with specialised care.

The CTU and the CA signed a memorandum of understanding on August 2018 to enhance the identification of placement options for child trafficking victims.

Trafficking victims were not allowed to leave at will and had limited access to telephones to call family for help. And while the law allowed victims to work, it was noted that Government did not allow the large majority of victims to work. So, because of these conditions, some victims ran away from shelters or asked to be repatriated before investigations completed.

Experts noted working-level staff at NGOs and shelters needed more training on trafficking indicators to better identify potential trafficking victims.

It was found that existing laws regulating private labour recruitment agencies were weak and not comprehensive. Observers noted the oversight and regulation of domestic workers remained weak.

Government operated two hotlines, a national trafficking hotline and a national domestic violence hotline, which could receive trafficking reports. The trafficking hotline received 59 calls, some of which led to investigations. Observers noted Government needed more Spanish language services in the hotlines. It made efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts, but did not make efforts to reduce the demand for forced labour.

It was found that human traffickers exploited domestic and foreign victims in TT, and traffickers exploited victims from TT abroad. Traffickers lured women and girls from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Colombia with offers of employment and then subjected them to sex trafficking in brothels and clubs.

Traffickers were increasingly targeting vulnerable foreign young women and girls between the ages of 15 and 21. Because of deteriorating economic conditions in their home country, Venezuelans are particularly vulnerable to trafficking.

LGBTI people were vulnerable to sex trafficking. Many victims entered the country legally via Trinidad’s international airport, while others entered illegally via small boats from Venezuela. Migrants from the Caribbean region and from Asia, in particular those lacking legal status, were vulnerable to forced labour in domestic service and the retail sector. It was noted that corruption in police and immigration has been associated with facilitating prostitution and sex trafficking.