For the third consecutive year, Trinidad and Tobago remained on Tier 2 Watch List according to the United States 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The 95-page report which was published last Thursday means that 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 do so. These efforts included finalizing and implementing new SOPs for victim referral and care, opening a government-funded and government-operated shelter for female child trafficking victims, providing the first government shelters for adult trafficking victims, and increasing the size of the Counter-Trafficking Unit (CTU).
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Although the repost said that the government took steps to prevent trafficking among vulnerable populations, including migrant workers, Cuban medical workers, and Venezuelan refugees and migrants; it also initiated one new program to assist victim-witnesses by allowing remote testimony in trafficking cases, the following was unmet:
- Did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, even considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, if any, on its anti-trafficking capacity.
- Courts have never convicted a trafficker under the 2011 anti-trafficking law.
- Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes, including at senior levels, remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action.
- Victim identification, referral, and services remained weak and inconsistent, and interagency coordination was poor.
As a result, Trinidad and Tobago was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards.
The report outlined 13 prioritized recommendations for the country to meet. In the country’s trafficking profile section, T&T’s location makes it a vulnerable destination that facilitates trafficking. Traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Trinidad and Tobago, and traffickers exploit victims from Trinidad and Tobago abroad. Trinidad and Tobago also serves as a transit point for vulnerable Venezuelan refugees and migrants traveling to Europe, North Africa, and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
