Torture in [Trinidad & Tobago] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Trinidad & Tobago] [other countries]Street Children in [Trinidad & Tobago] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Trinidad &Tobago] [other countries] |
Child Prostitution The Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children In the early years of the 21st
Century gvnet.com/childprostitution/Trinidad&Tobago.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Trinidad & Tobago.
Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that
are unsubstantiated, misleading or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their
authenticity or to verify their content. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Who Controls the Media and Crime? A. A. Hotep,
Editorial, Trinidad & Tobago News, April 24, 2005 www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/Editorial/240405.html [accessed 1 August 2011] The mainstream
media only took up the issue of street children after we broke the story here
in 1996 by encouraging the Mirror newspaper to publish interviews with some
of the street children. Before the story came out, people were condemning our
claim that there even are children who live on the streets. As soon as the
mainstream press picked up the story, they did exactly as the children
predicted; they ran a sensationalized story, resulting in the government
rounding up a few street children. In the government's view, picking up a few
kids solved the problem. The street children knew better, as they had already
told me that was the very reason they did not want the media taking up their
plight. The children felt they were better off living in the shadows of
society, withstanding the abuses that come with living in the streets. For anyone not
familiar with how truly gruesome it was for these children, consider six and
seven year olds being raped for fast food. One case I followed closely
involved a wealthy white male. He used to pick up a few children, taking them
to his home for sex. For this he would give them
boxes of fried chicken. One child, after having been brutally raped in a
similar encounter, was left for dead in the Queens Park Savannah. – sccp ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2006 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor [PDF] www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/tda/tda2006/Trinidad_and_Tobago.pdf [accessed
1 January 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children in CURRENT
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - In August 2006,
the Ministry of Social Development published the Revised National Plan of
Action for Children, which includes specific goals for combating commercial
sexual exploitation of children and exploitive child labor. The National
Steering Committee for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labor, with
the advice and support of the ILO, is participating in a project to withdraw
and rehabilitate child laborers at two landfill sites in Trinidad and Tobago. Human Rights
Reports » 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/wha/119175.htm [accessed
1 January 2011] SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] The Ministry of Social Development continued to implement its Revised
National Plan of Action for Children, which includes specific goals for combating
commercial sexual exploitation of children and exploitive child labor. The Protection
Project - Trinidad & The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/trinidad.doc [accessed
2009] FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Trafficking in
women and children for sexual exploitation is a growing concern in the entire
Sex tourism is
reportedly on the rise in Trinidad and Tobago, and European and North
American men are the main sex tourists. Tourist agencies and unlisted
guesthouses apparently run the industry, by advertising package deals in
magazines that include the costs of buying a woman. Older men are known to recruit children for
prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, and it has been reported
that girls across all socioeconomic strata often initiate sexual
relationships with cab drivers in exchange for transportation or other goods.
Child labor is a
problem in Trinidad and Tobago. Exact numbers of children who are working in
Trinidad and Tobago do not exist; however, studies show that children on
these islands are working as beggars and street vendors and are involved in
prostitution and the drug trade. Report slams child prostitution Sean Douglas, Trinidad & Tabago's Newsd@y, July 2 2007 www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,59824.html [accessed 1 August 2011] Child prostitution
is growing in Tobago, according to a report on the Police Service Commis-sion (PSC) done by a parliamentary Joint Select
Committee (JSC) which was laid Friday in the House of Representatives. Under the heading “Crime against the
children of Tobago,” the report lamented child abuse within families and
child prostitution. However further
discussion revealed that social and professional intervention was required in
addition to enacted legislation.” The minutes included the JSC’s
recommendation that “the police initiate a programme
of patrolling the streets and malls to remove schoolchildren. Who Controls the Media and Crime? A. A. Hotep,
Editorial, Trinidad & Tobago News, April 24, 2005 www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/Editorial/240405.html [accessed 1 August 2011] The mainstream
media only took up the issue of street children after we broke the story here
in 1996 by encouraging the Mirror newspaper to publish interviews with some
of the street children. Before the story came out, people were condemning our
claim that there even are children who live on the streets. As soon as the
mainstream press picked up the story, they did exactly as the children
predicted; they ran a sensationalized story, resulting in the government
rounding up a few street children. In the government's view, picking up a few
kids solved the problem. The street children knew better, as they had already
told me that was the very reason they did not want the media taking up their
plight. The children felt they were better off living in the shadows of
society, withstanding the abuses that come with living in the streets. For anyone not
familiar with how truly gruesome it was for these children, consider six and
seven year olds being raped for fast food. One case I followed closely
involved a wealthy white male. He used to pick up a few children, taking them
to his home for sex. For this he would give them
boxes of fried chicken. One child, after having been brutally raped in a
similar encounter, was left for dead in the Queens Park Savannah. – sccp ei Barometer of Human
and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector [PDF] Education International (www.ei-ie.org), [accessed 1 August 2011] [page
292]
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO CHILD LABOUR - The minimum
legal age for workers is 12 years. Children from 12 to 14 years may work only
in family businesses. The enforcement of the child labour law is lax.
Children are often seen begging or working as street vendors. Some children
are exploited by criminal gangs to work as guards and couriers for drug
trafficking. NGO and ILO reports suggest that child prostitution has been a
problem in recent years. No cases were recorded by the police in 2002. The
Republic no longer sentences children to corporal punishment or to prison.
Child offenders, aged 15 and older, are held at a youth training centre.
Younger offenders are sent to an industrial school. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Child Prostitution – Trinidad & |
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