Human trafficking in Barbados
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Barbados is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Some children in Barbados were subjected to commercial sexual exploitation in “transactional sex” wherein a third party such as a parent received a benefit from the child's participation in sexual activity. Researchers identified patterns of transactional sex within families, most often by adult male caretakers such as step-fathers, as well as child prostitution outside the home. Women from the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Jamaica voluntarily entered Barbados as illegal migrants, and some expected to engage in prostitution. Some of these women were exploited in forced prostitution subsequent to their arrival. Some other foreign women who entered the country illegally were exploited in involuntary domestic servitude in private homes. Foreign men have been transported to Barbados for the purpose of labor exploitation in construction and other sectors. Sex traffickers, primarily organized criminals from Guyana, formed partnerships with pimps and brothel owners from Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, and lured women to Barbados with offers of legitimate work. Trafficking victims tend to enter the country through legal means, usually by air; traffickers later used force and coercion to obtain and maintained the victims' work in strip clubs, massage parlors, some private residences, and “entertainment clubs” which operate as brothels. Traffickers used methods such as threats of physical harm or deportation, debt bondage, false contracts, psychological abuse, and confinement to force victims to work in construction, the garment industry, agriculture, or private households.[1]
In 2010 the Government of Barbados did not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it made significant efforts to do so. Despite these efforts, particularly an aggressive public campaign begun by government ministries and the continued drafting of a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, the government's overall efforts did not improve over the reporting period. Law enforcement and immigration officials continued to summarily deport undocumented foreigners without determining whether they are trafficking victims; the government opened no investigations into possible cases of sex or labor trafficking; and it did not prosecute any trafficking cases during the year.
Barbados ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in November 2014.[2]
The U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons placed the country in "Tier 2" in 2017[3] and 2023.[4]
In 2023, the Organised Crime Index gave the country a score of 4 out of 10 for human trafficking, noting the low level of prosecutions for this crime.[5]
Prosecution
The Barbadian government made no discernible progress in its anti-human trafficking law enforcement efforts during the year 2010. Law enforcement agencies faced resource constraints and competing priorities. No trafficking offenders were prosecuted during the year. No cases were brought against employers for confiscating passports or travel documents. Barbados has no specific law prohibiting human trafficking, but slavery and forced labor are constitutionally prohibited. Existing statutes such as the Sexual Offences Act of 1992, Cap. 154 and the Offences Against the Person Act of 1994, Cap. 141 prohibit some trafficking offenses, as well as trafficking-related offenses, though these were not used to prosecute and convict trafficking offenders during the year. Sections 33 and 34 of the Offences Against the Person Act prohibit the crime of slavery; penalties for this offense range from five to fifteen years' imprisonment and are sufficiently stringent. There were no reports of government officials' complicity in human trafficking.[1]
