US urges Trinidad and Tobago Government: Prosecute officials involved in human trafficking

The US Department of State has once again urged Government to crack down on officials suspected of being involved in human trafficking.

The assertion came days after government and opposition politicians pointed fingers at each other over a 2022 Trafficking in Persons report issued by the US which suggested government officials were complicit.

“The US Department of State urges the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to investigate fully and transparently any official suspected of complicity in human trafficking, and to seek conviction and sufficiently stringent punishment of any official found to be complicit,” a spokesman from the US Embassy in Port of Spain said.

The spokesperson did not identify specific individuals to be investigated.

“The Department of State urges officials to uphold the rule of law and increase victim protection efforts.”

The US Department of State released the report on July 19, 2022, at the behest of its Bureau for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

The office uses information from the US Embassy, government and public officials, survivors of human trafficking, non-governmental and international organisations, published reports, news articles, academic studies, consultations with authorities, along with other sources.

TT, along with countries in regions around the globe, gets a data-call request from the embassy every November. The request describes the annual reporting requirements for human trafficking and child soldiering for the report, which includes a detailed questionnaire where host governments can provide input. Relevant TT ministries, through the Ministry of National Security, provide input and data about its efforts to counter trafficking by the end of the reporting period on March 31.

“The 2022 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report covered government efforts undertaken during the reporting period from April 1, 2021, through March 31, 2022,” the spokesman said.

Embassy: Million$ spent to combat human trafficking in region in 2022

The embassy spokesman said there were three main programmes through which the US Embassy and Department of State were co-ordinating counter-trafficking in TT.

The cost of the projects with a specific focus on countering the trafficking of people in TT came up to about US$5.2 million. One of the three projects, the USAID Heal-Empower-Rise Counter Trafficking in Person Project, cost US$950,000.

In that project, the embassy partners with the Office of the Prime Minister – Gender and Child Affairs Ministry, and the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services with the objective of strengthening and expanding support services to victims of trafficking.

The project retrofits select state-run or state-supported residential homes that provide housing to victims of trafficking by installing infrastructural upgrades, equipment and resources to create spaces for medical services, counselling and academic and vocational training for trafficking victims. The project also provides specialised training for staff and volunteers at those homes, to enable them to provide care for the victims.

“This approach focuses on the needs, healing and empowerment of victims,” the spokesman said.

The project is expected to go on for 24 months.

The second project – USAID CariSECURE 2.0 – costs US$13 million, of which US$1.2 million will be spent on trafficking in people for TT, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia.

The embassy, along with the Ministry of National Security, the police Counter Trafficking Unit and other law-enforcement agencies, will work to improve identification, screening, arrests and prosecution of trafficking cases.

In that project, the embassy will provide consultation services for improving TT law enforcement’s response to human trafficking.

It will also provide technical support and resources to improve evidence-gathering to build strong cases. Additionally it will improve or develop national referral systems and strengthen trafficking-in-people data collection, analysis and reporting.

The third project, the J/TIP Track4TIP project which started in 2019 and will close off at the end of March this year, pairs the UN Office on Drugs and Crime with agencies in Aruba, Brazil, Colombia, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru and TT, to enhance the regions criminal justice response to human trafficking among migration routes involving Venezuelans.

“Over three years, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is building capacity to improve victim identification and national referral mechanisms, sharing information with judicial authorities about criminal networks and individuals associated with human trafficking, and strengthening international co-ordination and co-operation by promoting new investigations and prosecutions through establishing liaisons between national co-ordination mechanisms and judicial authorities focused on human trafficking,” the spokesman said.

Report: Police, coast guard, immigration officers also involved

Despite the projects and millions of dollars spent by the US to combat human trafficking in TT and in the region, the 2022 TIP report still noted TT had not made a single conviction under the 2011 human trafficking laws. This prompted the Department of State to leave TT on the tier 2 watch list for a second year.

The report said corrupt government officials were not the only people involved in human trafficking in TT. Police officers, immigration officers, customs officers and coast guard officers were also included in the extensive network of traffickers of humans in TT.

“Observers report that law enforcement and security officials are implicated in trafficking, including Coast Guard officials who facilitate the transit of women and girls from Venezuela to the country, immigration and customs officers who ensure that women and girls arrive and receive entry and the members of the police who accept bribes to facilitate transport to houses across the country and work with brothel owners to protect their establishments from police raids,” the report said.

It said that authorities continued investigating two dozen police officers alleged to be involved in human trafficking, but none of these investigations moved to prosecution.

Three police officers were prosecuted for trafficking crimes, and a customs officer was charged in April 2021 under the Immigration Act for aiding and abetting the illegal entry of a Venezuelan migrant, but the investigation, which included a probe into whether the case involved human trafficking, is still pending.

Two police officers were charged in December 2021 under the TIP Act, the Children Act and the Anti-Gang act for their role in the illegal entry of a Venezuelan migrant who was later proved to be a victim of human trafficking. Those officers were released on $300,000 bail.

The report also said government corruption and complicity in trafficking crimes also inhibited law-enforcement action in 2021.

It also said the Counter Trafficking Unit – the unit responsible for investigating human trafficking cases – was also faced with significant challenges.

“Evidence collection for trafficking investigations remained a significant problem,” the report said. “The CTU also reported challenges in obtaining, preserving and authenticating other evidence such as using cell phones, or financial data to corroborate trafficking network affiliations to add charges under existing and money-laundering laws.”

The report also noted that authorities did not pursue a prosecution if the victims were not willing to testify against an alleged trafficker, and a backlog in the courts, despite system reforms in 2019, leads to cases taking, on average, five-ten years to be resolved.

“Observers noted the judiciary’s broad discretion and inconsistency in granting bail, as well as reports of fraud and corruption within the bail process, engendered concomitant recidivism (repeat offences), victim re-traumatisation and a perception of impunity.”

The report noted that because of covid19, the High Court, which is where human trafficking cases are heard, held no jury trials, which are necessary for trafficking cases. The pandemic also stymied investigators’ progress as victim-witnesses were occasionally quarantined by the Ministry of Health.

The report came to the fore last Friday, when the Prime Minister responded to questions in Parliament as to why TT was unable to come off the watch list.

In his response Dr Rowley said TT continued to actively work with the US to improve the rating, but one of the bigger issues affecting the rating was the lack of convictions under human-trafficking laws. He pointed out that prosecuting illegal activity was not under the remit of the government.