AS THE world struggles to identify and address victims of human trafficking – said to be in the millions of people – fueling a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds admits more can be done in this country, despite all that has already been done.
Hinds was one of the speakers at the opening of a three-day forum focused on trafficking in persons hosted by The Freedom from Slavery group at the Trinidad Hilton, St Ann's.
Hinds made it clear that no country is immune from human trafficking.
“I was amazed to learn from one former ambassador earlier today that (globally) we are identifying less than one per cent of the real number of people who have been trafficked. We are assessed on an annual basis on the basis of our fight against human trafficking.
"But from that statistic, it seems as though globally we are not doing very well. And as minister with this responsibility, I know the efforts that we have been making to educate our citizens, various interest groups, stakeholders, so that they can recognise human trafficking and its victims.”
Hinds reminded that last year, TT maintained its Tier2 Watchlist rating in the US Trafficking In Persons Report. While failing to improve from the previous year, Hinds pointed out that work has been done since that report published in July.
Part of the report read: "The government did not take action against senior government officials alleged in 2020 to be involved in human trafficking. Victim identification and services remain weak, and the government did not formally adopt the National Action Plan (NAP) for 2021-2023. Therefore Trinidad and Tobago remains on Tier 2 Watch List for the second consecutive year.”
Some of the work done to tackle the issue, by government was a five-year plan and the judicial intervention with the passage of legislation to allow people charged with human trafficking to forego preliminary inquiries and go straight to the High Courts for determination.
The Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Amendment Act was passed and gazetted and is awaiting proclamation.
“As part of this country's efforts to counter human trafficking, a national task force against trafficking in persons was established. I was designated chair for the moment. A national plan of action against trafficking in persons, 2021 to 2025, was approved by Cabinet. And this covers for effective identification of victims and witnesses, prevention, protection of survivors and witnesses and prosecution.”
The task force, Hinds said, is focused on educating citizens to better identify victims of human trafficking to be better able to contribute to solving the problem. He added that he will “ensure that Trinidad and Tobago accentuates its efforts in this regard.”
Former US ambassador-at-large (to monitor and combat human trafficking) John Richmond, who in his address, said in solving the problem, stakeholders should focus on urgency, uniqueness and unity.
“It is clear we are losing ground in our fight against human t
