Lured by the promise of work and an opportunity to earn US currency, Lucia* left her home in Venezuela for TT and claimed she was tricked into prostitution.
The victim of human trafficking victim said she managed to escape her captors.
Lucia said she responded to advertisements in newspapers in Caracas and on social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp groups offering jobs in TT.
The unsuspecting victim recalled that she called the phone number and gave them her personal information such as her name, age, address, and the type of job she would be interested in.
"They even asked for her parents’ names and address. So it is likely these people (traffickers) visited to verify her information," according to a close confidant of Lucia.
Eager for an escape to better her life, the young woman in her 20s was told to go to a specific bus station in Caracas. On arrival, a man and woman paid her ticket fare and ensured she got on the bus for the 14-hour trip to Tucupita, one of the closest points to TT.
As soon as she got off the bus, she was greeted by another couple who took her to a house for a few hours. The journey was intense, and the next trip was to an indigenous community in a forested area.
There, they monitored the movements of the Guardia Nacional to make the clandestine trip to Trinidad which is often at night on a pirogue.
Upon arrival, "A local picked her up and took her to a house. There it starts, the same night. She, like other victims, come here with nothing, in most cases, not even a passport. The women and minors are used for prostitution," said the confidant.
The victim managed to escape and flagged down a passing car. Unable to speak English, she somehow managed to tell the driver that she wanted to go to the police. She was taken to a police station in south Trinidad.
The confidant, someone who has been working with migrants, said because of the covid19 pandemic, recruiters are now asking about the vaccination status of potential victims.
The topic of prostitution as it relates to migrants amplified on February 11 when the Prime Minister in Parliament said that the demand for prostitution in TT is being driven by a high rate of local consumption, especially in the borough of Chaguanas.
Dr Rowley was responding to Naparima MP Rodney Charles in the Prime Minister’s question segment in the House of Representatives. The opposition MP questioned whether this country should not have had "well-publicised guidelines" to govern the interaction between TT’s border security officers and migrants similar to what happens in the US, UK and Canada.
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In response, Rowley quoted from the document on gender and crimes. The document's title is Venezuela’s Other Plight: Sex Trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago, dated February 11, 2021, by the investigative unit of InSight Crime.
InSight Crime is an organisation comprising 50 investigators, including seasoned reporters and people with graduate degrees in Latin America, wo
