Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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PARAMARIBO, Suriname: Since trafficking in persons is a problem which transcends national borders, to be fully effective in fighting this form of crime the fullest involvement of government, international agencies, civil society and private sector is required, says Suriname ambassador to the OAS, Henry Illes.
Speaking at the opening of the ‘Regional Meeting on Counter-Trafficking Strategies in the Caribbean’ Monday in Washington DC the ambassador noted, that “no single country, in fact not even a region like ours, can eliminate this problem by acting alone”.
Therefore the region has no choice then to strongly join forces across national and regional borders. The Government of Suriname is highly committed to working with the Governments in the rest of the region, as well as regional and international organizations on the fight against trafficking in women and children, the diplomat stressed.
Human trafficking in The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, the Netherlands Antilles, Saint Lucia and Suriname is center stage at the Organization of American States (OAS), where the aforementioned conference opened Monday morning with government officials and experts discussing counter-trafficking strategies and unveiling a ground-breaking study entitled, “Exploratory Assessment of Trafficking in Persons in the Caribbean Region.”
The historic meeting, a joint initiative of the OAS’ Inter-American Commission of Women and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was called to assess progress and plan the follow-up to a research and training project on human trafficking in the seven Caribbean countries cited. The three-day conference marks the first time representatives from across the region are gathering to specifically address the question of trafficking in persons and to seek to develop a regional strategic approach to preventing and combating the problem.
Monday’s session, on the scope and nature of the problem in the Caribbean, opened with Suriname’s Permanent Representative to the OAS and Coordinator of the Caucus of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassadors, among those to outline their perspectives on the question. Branding human trafficking as a “form of modern day slavery,” Illes cited the connection to corruption as central to what he called “the global business of human trafficking.”
Human trafficking is increasingly becoming an alarming problem in the Caribbean. The magnitude of this form of modern day slavery impacts not only the individuals in the Caribbean nations, but “also has a severe influence on our societies as a whole”, said the Surinamese diplomat. Trafficking of women has reached alarming proportions and the burden of this evil has become more destructive than ever before.
Recent studies in the region have revealed that every year thousands of women and girls are recruited, transported, marketed and purchased by individual buyers, traffickers and members of transnational organized crime syndicates, who operate within Caribbean countries with the main purpose of sexually exploiting these women.
In his remarks ambassador Illes focused on the centrality of corruption to the global business of human trafficking as a very imperative aspect of this problem. According to analysis offered by international NGO working to combat trafficking in persons, the diplomat mentioned, that many citizens mistrust their local law enforcement, customs as well as immigration personnel, believing that some of them are highly corrupt.
“Undoubtedly, the fact is that corruption within governmental entities can contribute to the global trafficking in women and children in numerous ways”, he stressed, giving examples such as the issuance of counterfeit passports and visas to facilitate trafficking and payoffs of customs and immigration officers to look the other way, while conducting trafficking crimes.
Payoffs of local police officers in order to gain their tolerance of brothels in their jurisdictions or to allow individuals to recruit women for prostitution purposes is also common as is infiltration in prosecution institutions and other information gathering channels by organized crime groups.
“These examples clearly demonstrate how corruption, jointly with the availability of the technological and financial capacity of organized crime can cripple local law enforcement and immigration entities. It is therefore essential to create national, regional and hemispheric programs against corruption and the trafficking of human beings. We should make certain that our hemispheric program against corruption constitutes an important part of strategies to address those particular forms of organized crime such as the trafficking in persons,” said Ambassador Illes.
He further noticed that trafficking in persons has not spared the Caribbean. In fact as the current situation in many of the Caribbean countries demonstrates, he claims, it has become increasingly worrisome for many citizens and societies. “Indeed, Caribbean countries are vastly becoming the center of a growing sex tourism industry in our hemisphere.
The picturesque Caribbean region is also becoming a transit point for trafficked women on route to Western Europe”. Therefore a strongly committed cooperation is needed in order to effectively fight this transnational crime. In this endeavor government, international agencies and civil society should work closely together, ambassador Henry Illes advised.
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