The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE Royal Bahamas Police Force yesterday launched a two-day anti-trafficking in persons workshop along with the United States’ foremost department on human trafficking – the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons – as The Bahamas moves to strengthen its platform against human trafficking.

National Security Minister Bernard Nottage praised the country’s recent success in its efforts to curtail the occurrence and effects of human trafficking at the workshop’s opening ceremony at the Paul H Farquharson Conference Centre.

Dr Nottage said the Christie-led administration has taken a victim-centred and human rights-based approach in its anti-trafficking in person’s response.

He insisted that it was an “opportune” time for the Bahamas to host the two-day workshop, asserting that the government is seeking to put in place the necessary mechanisms to counter trafficking in persons as part of its multifaceted approach to dealing with all forms of crime.

Dr Nottage noted that the Bahamas’ promotion to the tier-one list of countries complying with the US Department of State’s minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, evidenced that operations are trending in the right direction.

“We know that the geography of the Bahamas renders it vulnerable to trafficking in persons as both a transit and destination country,” he stated.

“Until recently, there was (the) generally held notion that trafficking in persons did not exist as a problem in the Bahamas, as it was confused with the large and conspicuous migrant smuggling problem in the country.”

Dr Nottage added: “The government through the National Task Force has intensified its efforts to identify, investigate and prosecute trafficking in persons cases. The investigation of these cases is led and coordinated by he Royal Bahamas Police Force working closely with the specialized team of prosecutors for trafficking in persons in the Office of the Attorney General.”

In 2008 the Bahamas signed onto the 2000 United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children - UN Protocol - supplementing the United Nations Convention on Transitional Crime.

Shortly after, the Bahamas enacted the Trafficking in Persons - Prevention and Suppression - Act. The Act adopts the definition of Trafficking in Persons provided in the United Nations Protocol.

Dr Nottage said since 2012, the government has had a “deliberate “ approach to combatting the scourge of trafficking in persons.

He said this “consistent and extensive” action by the government has led to the establishment of both an Inter-Ministry Committee on Trafficking of Persons and a National Trafficking in Persons Task Force.

The government’s anti-trafficking in persons response rests upon four main pillars – Investigation and Prosecution; Protection and Assistance to Victims and Potential Victims; Prevention and Partnerships.

According to research, the crime of trafficking in persons has grown to be a major problem that affects almost every country of the world either as a source, transit or destination.

It’s estimated that each year, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children become victims of traffickers who violate their human rights and dignity by exploiting them and forcing them to work under inhumane conditions or engage in commercial sexual activity for the financial gain of another.

Dr Nottage called attention to the findings of the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2014 global report on Trafficking in Persons which suggested that 49 per cent of detected victims of trafficking in persons are adult women, while 33 per cent of detected victims are children.

The UNODC 2014 report indicated that some 72 per cent of convicted traffickers are men and 28 per cent are women, noting that trafficking often involves domestic offenders and limited geographical reach.

It further identified that victims in trafficking cases are foreign nationals in the country where they are identified as victims, while many cases tend to take place within the region and often between bordering countries.

Additionally the report showed that domestic trafficking is widely detectable as one in three cases involve victims exploited in their home country.

That point was juxtaposed against the premise that the majority of convicted traffickers are citizens of the country of conviction.

Locally, from January 2015 to April 2016, 55 persons have been interviewed as possible trafficking victims. Of this grouping, seven were adult men, 48 were adult women and one was a juvenile female.

Reports showed that 11 of these persons, including the female minor, was since identified as victims.

Investigations since 2015 involved Jamaicans, Colombians, Venezuelan , Costa Ricans, Indians, Haitians, Dominicans and Bahamians.

Since January 2015, five persons, including one female were prosecuted in the Magistrate’s Court in three separate cases, with offences under the Trafficking in Persons Act and the Sexual Offences Act.