Richard Lord

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of African, Caribbean and the Pa­cif­ic (ACP) states have as­sem­bled in Port-of-Spain to dis­cuss mi­gra­tion and re­lat­ed is­sues, in­clud­ing hu­man-traf­fick­ing. The in­ter-re­gion­al train­ing work­shop on da­ta col­lec­tion-labour and ir­reg­u­lar mi­gra­tion at the Na­tion­al Li­brary, Port-of-Spain, runs un­til Thurs­day. The in­for­ma­tion gath­ered from the meet­ing, which is be­ing host­ed by the ACP Ob­ser­va­to­ry on Mi­gra­tion, will be used to bet­ter in­form pol­i­cy-mak­ing on mi­gra­tion in ACP states.

Di­rec­tor of the ob­ser­va­to­ry, Lau­rent de Boeck, said in­for­ma­tion on hu­man-traf­fick­ing and smug­gling of mi­grants were dif­fi­cult to ob­tain be­cause of "the clan­des­tine na­ture of these phe­nom­e­na." He added that there was not yet es­tab­lished an ac­cept­ed cri­te­ria for iden­ti­fy­ing hu­man-traf­fick­ing cas­es. Charge d'Af­fairs, EU Del­e­ga­tion in T&T, Ste­lios Christopou­los, said Caribbean states were the source, tran­sit and fi­nal des­ti­na­tion of mi­grants. Deal­ing with the ex­port of Caribbean mi­grants for labour, he said the re­gion's ma­jor ex­port­ing coun­tries were Cu­ba, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Haiti, Ja­maica and Guyana.

He said Caribbean mi­grants go to the Unit­ed States, Cana­da and the UK. He added Caribbean states con­tin­ued to at­tract large num­ber of il­le­gal mi­grants from poor­er coun­tries. He said apart from the il­le­gal im­mi­grants, de­por­tees were a spe­cial con­cern in the Caribbean. Christopou­los said: "The con­tin­u­ous rise of the mur­der rates and out­bursts of vi­o­lent crime over the last ten years are, per­haps, and among oth­ers, re­lat­ed to the de­por­tees."