Government must tell the public who are the “senior government officials” alleged to have been involved in human trafficking in 2020 which a recent US report has referred to, says UNC MP Rodney Charles. At yesterday’s UNC media briefing, Charles said T&T’s been shamed by remaining on Tier Two Watch list of the US Trafficking in Persons Report 2022.
“It suggests we’ve made no substantial progress in improving our horrendous track record on human trafficking,” he added.
He repeated the report’s finding that “the Government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period.
The Government has never convicted a trafficker under the 2011 Anti-Trafficking law. Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action, and the government did not take action against senior government officials alleged in 2020 to be involved in human trafficking. Victim identification and services remain weak, and the government did not formally adopt the National Action Plan (NAP) for 2021-2023.”
Charles added: “Who are these senior government officials ‘alleged’ in 2020 to be involved in human trafficking? Are they members of Cabinet? Or protective services? Why has no action been taken against them? When does the Government propose to take action against them so that T&T will not be blacklisted?”
“As we speak, T&T remains the only Caricom country on an EU blacklist as a non-cooperative jurisdiction for tax purposes,” Charles added, calling on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to ask his Barbadian or St Lucian counterparts to share how they got their countries removed from the EU blacklist.
Charles said after seven years in office, three failed National Security Ministers and crime plans “... ad nauseum, the Prime Minister now has the bright idea that crime is a public health crisis.”
Noting the recently announced committee to develop proposals to deal with crime, Charles queried the qualifications of the permanent secretaries of the Social Development and Health Ministries who will co-chair this.
He felt they were being “set up to take the blame” for the situation and advised them to ask specific queries on the task.
“Why these ladies and not (Fitzgerald) Hinds? Evidently, the Prime Minister has most likely formed the opinion that Hinds is a waste of time and must be kept far from national security solutions.”
Charles also went after Senior Counsel Israel Khan, who has called on UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar to apologise for her attack on senior attorneys at the Law Association’s special general meeting where two motions against Attorney General Reginald Armour failed.
“For SC Khan, the Opposition Leader brings the rank of SC into disrepute by her words, but Attorney General Reginald Armour does not by his deeds? My view is she was right to disclose the fact that many who voiced their support for the embattled AG didn’t make full disclosure.”
He added, “We believe all our independent institutions have been compromised by this PNM ... the IRO, the media, the TTPS, until recently the trade unions, service commissions, the Parliament, where Cabinet ministers chair some oversight committees, the Presidency, the Judiciary and now, most infamously, the LATT.
“It was PM Rowley who famously said ‘As for the Law Association, the only thing I am concerned about is who in this country has the opportunity to pass a vote of no confidence in the Law Association. Then I want to vote’.”
MP Rushton Paray also repeated Persad-Bissessar’s call for LATT to make the transcripts of their meeting available to the public.
