THE LATEST Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report by the United States Department of State, valuable as it is, is a reminder that countries of the Caribbean region are back in that cycle of recurring admonition from Washington as lacking in vigorous commitment to combat this horrible crime against humanity.
There is no doubting the fact that in the United States, not just the CARICOM region but nations across the global community have a strong ally to arrest the crime of trafficking in persons, among them being women and even young children as victims of sex exploitation and slave labour.
What, however, remains a difference of significance in annual TIP reports from the State Department from those generally released by the United Nations is that the world body avoids being judgmental and is more realistic when offering global appraisals of official efforts to face up to this shocking, inhumane, degrading crime across continents.
This comparison also pertains to reports from UN agencies on trafficking in illicit drugs and related small arms, which are unlike those released by the United States, which is still battling to overcome the old stigma as the world’s leading consumer nation of narcotics.
In its latest TIP report, released at the weekend, six CARICOM states – Barbados among them – are listed as countries still not “doing enough” to effectively deal with the problem. The other listed Community partners are Guyana, Haiti, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
Consequently, the six have been placed on the State Department’s Tier 2 Watch List as countries whose governments stand accused for failing to “fully comply” with the minimum standards as required by America’s Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
On the other hand, CARICOM countries classified under the United States Tier 2 list, namely Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines, are reported to be making “significant efforts” for compliance with required United States standards.
Given the gravity of the problems pertaining to human trafficking, it is to be hoped that all member nations of CARICOM will strive to reflect the level of commitment required, and, particularly in relation to what surfaced at last month’s UN high-level meeting when member states were urged to cooperate more effectively to combat the crime of human trafficking.
It is estimated that at least 2.4 million people are currently trapped by the scourge of human trafficking in forced labour, domestic servitude, sexual work as prostitutes and even as “child soldiers”.
