Tip of trafficking iceberg

MINISTER of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds’s admission that despite the global effort to tackle the scourge of human trafficking – including local measures overseen by him as the chairman of a national task force – there remains much more to be done is a welcomed shift in tone.

“It seems as though globally we are not doing very well,” Mr Hinds said on Monday at the opening of a three-day regional event hosted by the Freedom From Slavery Forum at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s.

Mr Hinds noted current estimates which suggest only one per cent of the real number of people who have been trafficked are being identified and acknowledged the fact that TT did not manage to improve its Tier 2 Watch List status in the most recent human trafficking report put out by the US Department of State. He pointed to work that has been done since that report was published in July.

National governments tend to rail against unfavourable reviews from international agencies. Mr Hinds himself has had cause to query reports on this country relating to crime more generally. So it is notable that he has himself committed to accentuating this country’s efforts when it comes to fighting human trafficking.

Speaking at the same event, John Richmond, who previously served as the US ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons at the US Department of State, brought the problem into stark relief when he suggested governments around the world identified only 90,354 victims out of a total of 27.6 million victims reckoned to be trafficked annually according to conservative estimates.

Such figures should provide cause for pause. And not only for this country, but also the entire region.

Human trafficking and modern-day slavery flourish only when the economic conditions exist for them to take root and lay claim to victims, many of whom leave their country in pursuit of dreams of a better life, not realising they are walking into a nightmare.

The call made on Monday by Freda Catheus of Haiti’s Beyond Borders group for more economic opportunities within countries to counter the need by desperate citizens to allow themselves to be exploited by human traffickers is one that must be taken note of.

There is an ongoing national effort to raise awareness about this problem.

But there is also clearly a need to address a very fluid migrant situation, not just in acerbic and draconian terms but through a humane, socially-oriented approach.

As the latest Trafficking in Persons Report also suggests, there’s a problem of lack of enforcement and, sometimes, official complicity.

Additionally, the State is not good at going after the “big fish.”

Until improvements are made on these fronts, we will continue to scratch the surface.