Barbados named as part of human trafficking by US State Department report
Web Posted - Thu Jun 08 2006
By Dorian Bryan
BARBADOS has been identified as a 'destination city' for human trafficking and forced prostitution from within the Caribbean region.
The information was contained in the Trafficking in Persons Report 2006, which was released by the US State Department, yesterday. The Report states that Barbados ranks alongside five other CARICOM countries who have in some way participating in the trading in humans.
The Report also made it clear that Barbados was regarded as a destination city but was not regarded by the United States 'as a violator as its government monitors and cracks down on illegal workers'. It was stated that the victims are abducted and trafficked to Suriname and here to Barbados, where they are sexually exploited.
Barbados ranks along with Jamaica, Guyana, Belize and other countries who have been challenged to do much more to curb the spread of the problem. Guyana was identified 'as a country of origin, transit, and destination for young women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labour exploitation' This industry, the Report suggests focuses on the trafficking of adolescent girls, with the focus in remote interior sections of Guyana. It stated that young women, who were employed as 'domestics, waitresses...are trafficked into prostitution' while young Amerindian men are exploited under forced labour conditions in timber camps .
The Report was designed to raise global awareness, to highlight the growing efforts of the international community to combat human trafficking, and to encourage foreign governments to take effective actions to counter all forms of trafficking in persons .
US Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice indicated that human trafficking needed to be eliminated. Human traffickers prey on the most vulnerable and turn a commercial profit at the expense of innocent lives. The State Department's efforts to end this evil trade exemplify transformational diplomacy.
We work with international partners to secure the freedom of those who are exploited and call on governments to be effective and accountable in prosecuting those who exploit .
It called for a better understanding of the interrelationship of health problems associated with sex trafficking . It also defined sex trafficking means the recruitment, harbouring , transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act .
The US Government maintained that its ranks countries in terms of compliance with the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, with Tier One has been identified as countries whose governments fully comply with requirements.
Tier two states that some countries have not met the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards .
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