From Jamaica Observer

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (CMC) — Stating that ending modern slavery is not just a fight that should be attempted but a fight that must be won, United States Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday issued the 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), assailing a number of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries for not doing enough to address the issue.

The TIP Report is the US Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking, it is also the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts, and reflects the US Government’s commitment to global leadership on “this key human rights and law enforcement issue.”

The State Department placed Belize, Haiti and Suriname on its Tier 3 list; and Antigua & Barbuda, St Lucia, St Vincent & The Grenadines, and Trinidad & Tobago on Tier 2 Watch List.

Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica are on the Tier 2 list, while the Bahamas is the sole CARICOM nation on the Tier 1 list.

Countries on Tier 3 list are those whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so, the State Department said.

Tier 2 Watch List countries are those whose governments do not fully meet minimum standards but are making significant efforts to meet those standards, and the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing.

In addition, the State Department said countries on the Tier 2 Watch List failed to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecutions and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials.

Countries on the Tier 2 list are those whose governments do not fully meet the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to meet those standards.

According to the State Department, Tier 1 countries are those whose governments fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards.

As it relates to Belize, the State Department said the country is a source, transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.

It said the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons reported family members facilitate the sex trafficking of Belizean women and girls.

“In tourist regions, foreign child sex tourists, primarily from the United States, exploit child sex trafficking victims,” said the report, adding that sex trafficking and forced labor of Belizean and foreign women and girls, primarily from Central America, occur in bars, nightclubs, brothels and domestic service.

IMAGE: United States Secretary of State John Kerry

For more on this story go to: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/US-rips-Caribbean-on-trafficking-in-persons