US government's 2023 human trafficking report: Trinidad and Tobago still on Tier 2 Watch List

THIS country remains at Tier 2 Watch List on the 2023 Traffic In Persons (TIP) report for a third consecutive year. The 95-page report was published on Thursday.

The designation means the government has not met the minimum standards of the UN TIP Protocol and the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection (2000 )Act, but is making significant efforts to doing so.

The ranking also means the estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing and the country is not taking proportional concrete actions; or there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year.

Those actions would include increased investigations, prosecutions, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials.

At the opening of a three-day forum focused on trafficking in persons hosted by The Freedom from Slavery Organisation in February, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds said while TT had done a lot since last year’s report, there was more that could be done.

Newsday called and messaged Hinds on Thursday for comment on the country remaining at Tier 2 Watch List but got no response.

Deputy Director of the Counter Trafficking Unit Kimoy Thomas-Williams said she was not yet prepared to comment as she did not read the report.

Hinds in February said: “As part of this country's efforts to counter human trafficking, a national task force against trafficking in persons was established. I was designated chair for the moment. A national plan of action against trafficking in persons, 2021 to 2025, was approved by Cabinet. And this covers for effective identification of victims and witnesses, prevention, protection of survivors and witnesses and prosecution.”

The task force, Hinds said, is focused on educating citizens to better identify victims of human trafficking to be better able to contribute to solving the problem. He added that he would “ensure that Trinidad and Tobago accentuates its efforts in this regard.”

He added that while he was hoping to have improved from 2021, he was comforted that the country maintained the standing.

Other things done by the government was the judicial intervention with the passage of the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Amendment Act which allows those charged with human trafficking to forgo preliminary inquiries and be indicted immediately.

Last year’s report said the government did not take action against senior government officials who were alleged to have been involved in human trafficking in 2020.

The report suggested that the State increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers, including complicit officials.

In addressing the prosecuting of traffickers, Hinds in April announced that former director of international affairs at his ministry, Antoinette Lucas-Andrews, was contracted for six months to address this country’s prosecution of human traffickers.

Lucas-Andrews was hired through the US and is expected to review and assess the recommendations of the US State Department TIP report and advise the government on steps to improve its efforts to combat human trafficking.

Her hiring came after the US Department of State urged the Government to crack down on officials suspected of being involved in human trafficking.

Last year’s report came out in July, but in February, the issue was re-ignited in Parliament when Opposition MP Rodney Charles raised the point of government officials being involved in human trafficking.

In response, the Prime Minister said that, after inquiring, he was told the government officials were UNC members of Parliament.

A week later, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher launched an investigation into the allegations, which were by that time bolstered by former UNC member Devant Maharaj who claimed to have first-hand knowledge that some of his former colleagues were involved in human trafficking. In March he gave a statement to police to assist with the investigations.

On Thursday, acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Curt Simon steered clear of any political involvement in the investigations saying that the police were investigating human trafficking reports.

He added that he did not want to go into details of the investigation but said “several persons” were interviewed and the probe was ongoing.

Contacted on the country’s consecutive position on the list, Charles said he was not surprised and called on the Government to set measurable goals.

He said the government's itinerary of moving from the Watch List to the 2020 placing of Tier 2 and upwards, is just a process response when attainable goals and output responses were needed.

“Our government thinks in terms of actions and process arrangements and not results. Not measurable specific results. Our government has let us down."

He said the disappointment he had in the government was that, after the report, it never wrote to the US requesting evidence of governmental involvement in the crime and, failing to provide that, meant Rowley's statement should be withdrawn.

The repeat rating comes a day after the Caribbean Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Impacs) issued a media release saying that TT was one of one of the Caribbean and Latin American countries where nine minors were rescued from human trafficking by a joint task force between May 22 to 26.

The joint task force was done by Impacs and the Central American Integration System (Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA)).

Two days ago the Law Association of TT was invited to be part of the lawsuit by a 21-year-old Venezuelan migrant, who is accusing coast guard members of raping and beating her.

The woman, who was charged with illegally entering the country, said the offence took place while at the Immigration Detention Centre at the Heliport, Chaguaramas.

Head of the Gender-Based Violence Unit Supt Claire Guy-Alleyne at a news conference two weeks ago said, after and initial investigation, there was not yet evidence to support the woman’s claims.

The US assisted the government in combating human trafficking with three programmes totalling US $5.2 million. The programmes include: the US AID Heal-Empower-Rise Counter Trafficking in Person Project which cost US$950,000; the CariSECURE 2.0 with an overall budget of US$13 million, of which US$1.2 million is to be shared among TT, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia and the J/TIP Track4TIP project that began in 2019 and ended in March.