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/Bahamas.htm
The Bahamas is a
destination country for men and women trafficked from Haiti and other
Caribbean countries primarily for the purpose of forced labor, and women from
Jamaica and other countries trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual
exploitation. In situations that, for some workers, may constitute forced
labor, employers coerce migrant or temporary workers -- legal and illegal --
to work longer hours, at lower pay, and in conditions not permitted under
local labor law by changing the terms of contracts, withholding travel
documents, refusing transportation back home, threatening to withdraw the
employer-specific and employer-held permits, or to turn the employee over to
immigration. For the past three years, The Bahamas was included in the Report
as a Special Case due to limited data. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION: The following links have
been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the 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 possible precursors of trafficking such as poverty. 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. HELP for Victims Bahamas
Crisis Center ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Human Trafficking
Concerns Persist www.bahamasb2b.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=8042 [accessed 22 July
2013] The ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bahamas 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/bahamas/
[accessed 11 May
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Irregular migrants
were vulnerable to forced labor, especially among domestic employees, in the agricultural
sector, and particularly in the outlying Family Islands. There were reports
that migrant laborers, often of Haitian origin, were vulnerable to compulsory
labor and suffered abuse at the hands of their employers, who were
responsible for endorsing their work permits on an annual basis.
Specifically, local sources indicated employers required migrant labor
employees to “work off” the work permit fees, which increased during the
year. The risk of losing the permit and the ability to work legally within
the country was reportedly used as leverage for exploitation and created the
potential for abuse. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT The law prohibits
all of the worst forms of child labor. The law prohibits the employment of children
younger than age 14 for industrial work and any work during school hours or
between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. The government did
not have a list of jobs that are considered dangerous, although it intervened
when children were performing permissible jobs in dangerous environments. The government
generally enforced the law effectively. The Department of Labour
received no reports of significant violations of child labor laws. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/bahamas/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The Bahamas is a source,
destination, and transit country for men, women, and children for forced
labor and sexual exploitation. The government fully complies with minimum
international standards to address the problem and has made significant
efforts to prosecute traffickers. Migrant workers, many of whom arrive in the
Bahamas to work in the agricultural sector and in domestic services, are
particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Gov’t To Bring
Human Trafficking Bill Vanessa C. Rolle,
The Bahama Journal, June 20, 2007 www.jonesbahamas.com/?c=45&a=13065 [accessed 20 January
2011] He said, "Such
legislation would provide specific protections for trafficking victims. These
are essential because only with those protections will victims feel comfortable
coming forward to identify employers who may have victimized them and to
assist in prosecution of traffickers." Government
Considers Human Trafficking Legislation Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal, August 31, 2006 www.bahamasb2b.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=8834 [accessed 22 July
2013] In its analysis on
The Bahamas, the IOM concluded that overall, findings indicate that while
there are cases of trafficking in persons in The Bahamas, "in the
strictest sense fulfilling all aspects of the legal definition of human
trafficking, these are few." "For
instances, although irregular migrants may embark on their trip to The
Bahamas voluntarily, the vulnerabilities that motivate them in doing so
render them susceptible to exploitation in employment and living arrangements
upon arrival in The Bahamas," the report read. "In
quantitative and qualitative terms, a picture emerges inferring that The
Bahamas is fertile for facilitating the criminal activity of trafficking
human beings." Immigration
Officials Call Human Trafficking Report “Exaggerated” [accessed 22 July
2013] The Bahamas
Department of Immigration has weighing in on the ongoing human trafficking
discussion, conceding that, "The Bahamas may be viewed as a transit
nation unwittingly facilitating such criminal activity." IOM Official Says [accessed 22 July
2013] "I definitely
believe that there are individual cases where persons have been trafficked
and exploited in The Bahamas. We saw anecdotal evidence of that when we
conducted our exploratory assessment," Ms. Garrett said. "To then extrapolate that and quantify
that on any grand scale, we wouldn’t be able to do, however, [accessed 22 July
2013] Mr. Rood said,
"All we’re saying is that it may exist. All this report is saying is
that we don’t know if there is a trafficking issue in the Bahamas, but
there’s a potential for it and there’s a potential for it because of the
large numbers of undocumented people in the country that don’t have legal
standing here." US
Looks For Human Trafficking In Bahamas www.bahamasb2b.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=8124 [accessed 20 January
2011] "All
we’re saying is that it may exist. All this report is saying is that we don’t
know if there is a trafficking issue in the [accessed 22 July
2013] The IOM says the
protocol does create common ground for counter-trafficking activities, but
"lacks any form of enforcement or monitoring mechanism, so it is difficult
to gauge its real effect upon the actions of signatory countries." Trafficking – a
gateway into the sex trade www.panosinst.org/productions/panoscope/trafficking_sextrade.php [access date
unavailable] “The experience was
terrible,” Denise said. “I would not go back and I would not tell even my
worst enemy to go. I had sleepless nights. I cried night and day when I was
there and prayed that I could get back my money so I could come back home.” Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 31 March 2005 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/bahamas2005.html [accessed 20 January
2011] [61]
The Committee notes that the State party has not yet ratified the Optional
Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography, and on the involvement of
children in armed conflict. The Protection Project - Bahamas [DOC] The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/bahamas.doc [accessed 2009] FORMS
OF TRAFFICKING - Women and girls as young as 10 and 12
years of age are reportedly targets for sex tourism in the Bahamas
Trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation is a growing
concern in the entire ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/wha/277305.htm
[accessed 16 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/the-bahamas/
[accessed 24 June
2019] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Undocumented
migrants were vulnerable to forced labor, especially in domestic servitude
and in the agriculture sector, and particularly in the outlying Family
Islands. There were reports that noncitizen laborers, often of Haitian
origin, were vulnerable to compulsory labor and suffered abuses at the hands
of their employers, who were responsible for endorsing their work permits on
an annual basis. Specifically, local sources indicated that employers
required noncitizen employees to ‘work off’ the work permit fees, which
ranged from B$750 ($750) to B$1,500 ($1,500) for unskilled and semiskilled
workers. The risk of losing the permit and the ability to work legally within
the country was reportedly used as leverage for exploitation and potential
abuse. Human
Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61714.htm [accessed 6 February
2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– Although there are no laws that specifically address
trafficking in persons, the law prohibits prostitution and the procurement of
persons for purposes of prostitution either in or outside the country by
force, threats, intimidation, or the administering of drugs. There
were no specific reports that persons were trafficked within, to, or from the
country, but concerns were increasing. The
lack of a legal prohibition may have obscured trafficking within the
vulnerable illegal migrant communities. In June the International
Organization of Migration (IOM) issued a report on human trafficking
suggesting a link between irregular migration and forced labor for domestic
servitude, agriculture, and construction. In March IOM hosted an
anti-trafficking meeting and training that included government and civil
society participants. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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