[UPDATED] US Traffic In Persons Report: Trinidad and Tobago narrowly escapes downgrade to Tier 3

TRINIDAD and Tobago could have been downgraded from Tier 2 Watch List on the US Traffic In Persons Report 2023 to Tier 3, but escaped because of a one-time waiver.

The report, which was published on Thursday ranked TT at Tier 2 Watch List for a third consecutive year, which normally means an automatic downgrade to Tier 3.

Countries that are on the Tier 2 watch list are those whose governments have not met the minimum standards of the UN TIP Protocol and the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection (2000) Act, (TVPA) but are making significant efforts to do so.

The waiver was given as TT's government, in its detailed plans, showed how it would improve its handling of human trafficking.

The report said that the government implemented a new standard of procedure for victim referral and care and opened a government-funded and government-operated shelter for female child trafficking victims as well as provided the first government shelters for adult trafficking victims.

The staff at the Counter-Trafficking Unit (CTU) was increased the report added while the government took steps to prevent trafficking among vulnerable populations, including migrant workers, Cuban medical workers, and Venezuelan refugees and migrants. Government also initiated a new programme to assist victim-witnesses by allowing remote testimony in trafficking cases.

This new programme, however, did not stop one court case from being dismissed as the report highlighted one case being thrown out because the witness could not be found.

The CTU was praised for its work during the reporting period from April 2022 to March 2023.

The report said the CTU investigated 22 new cases last year, including 20 cases of sex trafficking and two cases of labour trafficking. In 2021, 23 trafficking cases were investigated with nine of them for sex trafficking, five for labour trafficking, and nine for unspecified trafficking-related crimes.

“The government continued investigation of 26 cases (23 for sex trafficking and three for labour trafficking) from prior reporting periods. The government reported one labour trafficking case involved a male Venezuelan victim for the first time. The government initiated prosecution of five suspected sex traffickers, including two police officers, compared with 15 suspected sex traffickers, including three police officers, in 2021 and two alleged sex traffickers in 2020.”

Newsday contacted director of the CTU Dr Samantha Chaitram on the report and the work CTU did and was told she was unavailable.

A downgrade would have seen TT being banned from getting financial assistance from the US and ineligibility to access some loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Countries on Tier 3 may be subject to certain restrictions on foreign assistance, whereby the president may determine not to provide US government non-humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance as defined in the TVPA.

"Consistent with the TVPA, the president may also determine to instruct the US executive director of each multi-lateral development bank and the IMF to vote against and use their best efforts to deny any loans or other uses of the institutions’ funds to a designated Tier 3 country for most purposes (except for humanitarian, trade-related, and certain development-related assistance).”

The difference between the designation TT has and the intended downgrade to Tier 3, is that in the latter category, countries therein, are deemed as not making significant efforts to meet the TVPA.

“Because the government devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, TT was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3. Therefore Trinidad and Tobago remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year,” the report said.

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.

The national plan of action against trafficking in persons, 2021 to 2025, which was approved by Cabinet, was instrumental in saving TT from the downgrade. The plan covers the effective identification of victims and witnesses, prevention, protection of survivors and witnesses and prosecution.

A task force was also established focusing on educating citizens to better identify victims of human trafficking and to be better able to contribute to solving the problem.

The 2023 report also re-raised the issue of the state's failure to address the involvement of government officials involved in human trafficking.