Glimmers of corruption can still be seen although the PP Government campaigned on a promise to stamp out corruption, Independent Senator Victor Wheeler said yesterday. He made the point during yesterday's Senate debate on the Human Trafficking Bill. He said there was a growing sex-tourism industry in T&T, fuelling sex businesses and human trafficking. He said companies were getting contract for big projects, yet there was evidence of workers, also at risk in trafficking, being underpaid and ill treated.
Wheeler also said the incidence of foreign women being brought into T&T by sea also raised the issue of the need for the offshore patrol vessels. Government opted out of the agreement for the OPVs which the PNM administration had ordered. Wheeler said T&T had been unable to protect its border against guns and drugs and would therefore be unable to protect borders against the influx of illegals. PNM Senator Pennelope Beckles-Robinson, in her contribution, also called for the OPVs.
Noting reports about South American women being brought in, via T&T's south western beaches, Beckles said local borders needed more adequate protection. She said the decision to cancel the OPVs was not good since the vessels would have helped to curb human trafficking at borders. She said persons behind the trafficking situation in T&T were not "small fry". She said they are were powerful and "untouchable". Beckles said some persons who were held in high esteem were sometimes behind illegal activities, like trafficking.