En­sur­ing that em­pa­thy gov­erns all ini­tia­tives to as­sist vic­tims and sur­vivors of hu­man traf­fick­ing was the fo­cus of dis­cus­sions this week be­tween the Di­rec­torate of the Counter-Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU) and the Na­tion­al Task Force Against Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Pro­tec­tion Work­ing Group (NT­FWG).

On its Face­book page, the CTU re­ports that the two par­ties met on Tues­day, April 9, 2024, and one ma­jor out­come of the talks is that Mem­o­ran­da of Un­der­stand­ing will soon be signed that will pro­mote smoother co­or­di­na­tion and en­hanced sup­port sys­tems for traf­fick­ing vic­tims.

The CTU’s re­lease notes that Deputy Di­rec­tor, Dane-Marie Mar­shall, ex­plained to the NT­FWG mem­bers that the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s vi­sion ex­tends to “fa­cil­i­tat­ing seam­less rein­te­gra­tion of vic­tims in­to so­ci­ety, nur­tur­ing them in­to re­silient sur­vivors.”

“The Di­rec­torate is striv­ing to shift mind­sets and cul­tures with­in the CTU work­space, to en­sure that every ac­tion tak­en is ground­ed in em­pa­thy and care for vic­tims,” the CTU Deputy Di­rec­tor stat­ed.

Deputy Director of the CTU, Dane-Marie Marshall, emphasises a point during the meeting with members of the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons Protection Working Group (NTFWG), on Tuesday 9 April 2024. [Image courtesy Counter Trafficking Unit TT]

The CTU al­so re­ports that two mem­bers of the Pro­tec­tion Work­ing Group were in­vit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in an up­com­ing work­shop ded­i­cat­ed to the stan­dard­iza­tion of screen­ing forms.

“This col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort marks an­oth­er stride for­ward in build­ing a fu­ture where vic­tims are not just sta­tis­tics but in­di­vid­u­als de­serv­ing of dig­ni­ty and sup­port,” the CTU state­ment said.

The Na­tion­al Task Force Against Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Pro­tec­tion Work­ing Group com­pris­es of­fi­cials from the Po­lice Ser­vice, gov­ern­ment min­istries and civ­il so­ci­ety.

In at­ten­dance at Tues­day’s meet­ing were Karen Besson-Leza­ma, Ag. So­cial Wel­fare Su­per­vi­sor III, Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices; An­gelique Tay­lor, Se­nior Plan­ning Of­fi­cer and Re­search, Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices; Mar­i­an Tay­lor, Pres­i­dent, Rape Cri­sis So­ci­ety; An­dreina Briceño Ven­tu­ra-Browne, Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor, La Ca­sita His­pan­ic Cul­tur­al Cen­tre; and Sergeant Lar­ry David, Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment, Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice.