Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Trinidad&Tobago.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
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 or even
false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to
verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you like
to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Where Are the
Missing People? Peter Richards,
Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, Port Of Spain, 6 Jan 2009 www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45311 [accessed 1 January
2011] www.ipsnews.net/2009/01/trinidad-where-are-the-missing-people/ [accessed 5 October
2016] When 15-year-old Devika Lalman left her home a
few days before Christmas to buy school supplies for the new academic term,
her parents had taken all the necessary precautions to ensure her
safety. The mother of the Form Three
student said she had also given her daughter a cell phone, but all calls to
that phone have gone unanswered and the daughter has not been seen since. "Almost all
the women who disappeared left behind a pattern. Their cell phones were
switched off. We also heard that they were transported from one house to
another before being shipped out."
The Sunday Guardian newspaper, which carried out its own investigation,
said that the "clandestine local trade, which operates through a well-organised network and is supported by several powerful
agencies, is linked to an international human trafficking ring". The paper said that children were being
sold for as much as 34,000 dollars and adults for half that amount. "They are mostly used as sex slaves
and sometimes for slave labour. Sometimes, they are
used to make pay-offs in the drug trade," the paper said, noting that
the trafficking also includes young women who were being brought into the
country from "We recognise that legislation is critically important at
this point because without proper legislation, which is really one of the
handicaps in the social areas, we could not possibly move forward in terms of
consequences for human traffickers," said the party's deputy leader, Dr Sharon Gopaul McNicol, a clinical psychologist. She told a news conference that most of
the human trafficking "takes place in small boats where people are
drugged and shipped off to other countries, primarily those countries that
people don't speak English so there is little chance of the victims being
able to get away without much difficulty." ***
ARCHIVES *** CARICOM report:
Trinidad & Tobago officers involved in sex trafficking Stabroek News, 20 July 2020 [accessed 20 July
2020] [Official
Complicity] According to
investigations carried out in the Venezuelan town of Tucupita,
which included interviews with human traffickers, some of the gangs in the
region are headed and operated by law-enforcement officers from Trinidad
& Tobago. One Venezuelan
trafficker indicated that through his connection with elements in the T&T
Police Service, he has been assured of protection by officers who advise him
where to enter the country. Another trafficker
confirmed the claims, saying that he had been working with a police officer
from Trinidad and Tobago who pays him to provide women for his T&T-based organisation.
Admitting that he was part of a gang that specialised
in kidnapping Venezuelans and carrying them to T&T, he said the officer,
a constable, is a member of an organised South
American crime network. He said they
worked together to bring across the women, where they were forced to work, in
many instances, as sex slaves and prostitutes. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Trinidad and Tobago U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/
trinidad-and-tobago/ [accessed 28 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The law prohibits
and criminalizes all forms of forced or compulsory labor. The government
enforced the law effectively, and penalties were commensurate with those for
other laws involving denials of civil rights, such as discrimination. Forced
labor cases are referred to the labor inspectorate for investigation. The
government collaborated with India to extradite a forced labor suspect. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The government was
generally effective in enforcing child labor laws, but penalties were not
commensurate with those for analogous crimes, such as kidnapping. There were
anecdotal reports of children working in agriculture, as domestic workers, or
in commercial sexual exploitation as a result of human trafficking. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/trinidad-and-tobago/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 23 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The law provides
basic protections against exploitative working conditions, though these do
not apply or are poorly enforced for informal and household workers in particular.
While the government has stepped up efforts to combat trafficking in persons,
convictions have been lacking, and funding for services to trafficking
survivors has been cut. Venezuelan women are especially vulnerable to sex
trafficking. The Protection
Project - Trinidad & Tobago [DOC] The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University 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 Child labor is a
problem in AG: No evidence of
human trafficking in T&T Richard Lord,
Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, 6 January 2009 www.guardian.co.tt/archives/news/crime/2009/01/07/ag-no-evidence-human-trafficking-tt [accessed 23 June
2013] www.guardian.co.tt/article-6.2.319204.e6dfd79f1d [accessed 27
February 2019] Attorney General Bridgid Annisette-George says
there is “no empirical evidence to show the existence of human trafficking in
this country. In a brief comment on the issue Tuesday, Annisette-George
said it must be noted, however, that T&T was part of a world which was
shrinking in size through the effects of globalisation.
She said given the vibrancy of the scourge of human trafficking in the
international arena it was incumbent that T&T “be anticipatory in its
approach to institute preventative/precautionary measures such as tightening
our immigration policies and improving on capacity to patrol our borders.” Human trafficking
in Trinidad: Children being sold for over 200,000 Port Of Spain, 21
December 2008 www.baiganchoka.com/blog/human-trafficking-in-trinidad-children-being-sold-for-over-200000/ [accessed 1 January
2011] The Guardian newspaper
of Trinidad published a disturbing report in which it alleges that human
traffickers are on the prowl, looking to lure children and women to sell them
for big money. The report states that
“children, because they live longer, are sold for over $200,000. Adults can
fetch as much as $100,000. They are mostly used as sex slaves and sometimes
for slave labour.
“Sometimes, they are used to make pay-offs in the drug trade — a well placed source informed the Sunday Guardian.” The report stated that men owing drug
lords are being lured into capturing humans, who will be sold for payment of
their debts. A source, pleading for
anonymity for fear of his life, said victims were drugged almost immediately
after capture and their cellphones switched off. A
Sunday Guardian investigation revealed that the lucrative human trafficking
ring is operating in the Cascade/St Ann’s area, between Sangre Grande and
Tunapuna, Diego Martin and in South.
Women have mysteriously disappeared from the Cascade area without a
trace during the past year and “several straying young boys have vanished
from the streets of The Department of Labor’s 2006 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor [PDF] U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2007 www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/tda/tda2006/Trinidad_and_Tobago.pdf [accessed 1 January
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children in Trinidad and Tobago are reported to work
in agriculture, scavenging, loading and stocking goods, gardening, car
repair, car washing, construction, fishing, and
begging. Children also work as
handymen, shop assistants, cosmetologist assistants, domestic servants, and
street vendors. These activities are usually reported as being part of family
business. Children are also reported
to be victims of commercial sexual exploitation. 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 ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, February 25, 2009 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/wha/119175.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The law does not specifically prohibit trafficking in persons, but perpetrators
could be prosecuted under several related laws. Although media reports
asserted that trafficking in persons was a growing problem, law enforcement
officials stated that they had no reports of trafficking of nationals to,
from, through, or within the country. They
acknowledged occasional irregular migration by foreign women, often for
purposes of prostitution, who were deported when discovered. SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [c] Although the law does not specifically prohibit forced or compulsory
labor, including by children, there were no reports that such practices
occurred. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day
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