A lack of up­dates on sev­er­al in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to al­leged com­plic­i­ty by se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials ac­cused of hu­man traf­fick­ing is list­ed as one of the ma­jor rea­sons why Trinidad and To­ba­go does not ful­ly meet the min­i­mum stan­dards for elim­i­nat­ing hu­man traf­fick­ing, ac­cord­ing to the US State De­part­ment’s 2025 Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons (TIP) Re­port.

The re­port lament­ed that cor­rup­tion, weak ev­i­dence col­lec­tion, and wit­ness in­tim­i­da­tion re­main ma­jor bar­ri­ers to in­ves­ti­gat­ing and pros­e­cut­ing traf­fick­ers ef­fec­tive­ly.

The US State De­part­ment re­port not­ed that cor­rup­tion and of­fi­cial com­plic­i­ty in traf­fick­ing crimes re­mained sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns, in­hibit­ing law en­force­ment ac­tion and some vic­tims’ will­ing­ness to par­tic­i­pate in tri­als. The Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU) au­dit­ed two in­ves­ti­ga­tions, one of which in­volved al­leged of­fi­cial com­plic­i­ty at a de­ten­tion cen­tre, but con­clud­ed that the ev­i­dence was in­suf­fi­cient for the in­ves­ti­ga­tion to pro­ceed; the oth­er in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­volved the al­leged com­plic­i­ty of mem­bers of Par­lia­ment and is on­go­ing.

The re­port said the gov­ern­ment “did not re­port up­dates to sev­er­al in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­volv­ing al­leged of­fi­cial com­plic­i­ty ini­ti­at­ed in pri­or years,” in­clud­ing probes in­to se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials ac­cused in 2020 and 2023 of traf­fick­ing, and an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to two dozen po­lice of­fi­cers, which be­gan in 2021. It added that au­thor­i­ties “did not re­port any re­newed in­ves­ti­ga­tion” in­to Coast Guard of­fi­cials ac­cused of sex­u­al­ly ex­ploit­ing and as­sault­ing an adult fe­male Venezue­lan traf­fick­ing vic­tim in April 2023, and that the crim­i­nal case was dropped in Jan­u­ary 2024 “for lack of ev­i­dence.”

De­spite these gaps, the TIP re­port not­ed progress in oth­er ar­eas. T&T re­mained on Tier 2, re­flect­ing in­creased ef­forts com­pared with the pre­vi­ous re­port­ing pe­ri­od. In­ves­ti­ga­tions and pros­e­cu­tions rose, more vic­tims were iden­ti­fied, and one po­lice of­fi­cer was con­vict­ed un­der the Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Act—the sec­ond such con­vic­tion since the law was en­act­ed in 2011.

For­mer po­lice of­fi­cer Valen­tine East­man was sen­tenced on Ju­ly 28 to 16 years, five months, and 15 days in prison for traf­fick­ing three Colom­bian women more than a decade ago. East­man, who was serv­ing in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice at the time, was con­vict­ed on Jan­u­ary 31, 2025, fol­low­ing a 2013 in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the CTU.

Jus­tice George Bus­by cit­ed the plan­ning, de­cep­tion, in­tim­i­da­tion, and psy­cho­log­i­cal harm in­volved, say­ing the crime was “dri­ven by prof­it and rep­re­sents a cal­cu­lat­ed abuse of pow­er and trust.” Be­tween March 3 and 25, 2013, East­man re­cruit­ed the women un­der false pre­tences, claim­ing they would find em­ploy­ment in T&T. He helped smug­gle them from Venezuela and traf­ficked them in bars across South and Cen­tral Trinidad for sex­u­al ex­ploita­tion. They were al­so forced to work in ex­ploita­tive con­di­tions at his home.

The case was first filed in the San Fer­nan­do First Mag­is­trates’ Court and pros­e­cut­ed by then State Coun­sel Sarah De Sil­va. East­man was com­mit­ted to stand tri­al in the High Court in 2016, with the tri­al be­gin­ning in No­vem­ber 2024, led by pros­e­cu­tors Am­bay Ramkellawan and Kyrn Lewis. With sup­port from the In­ter­na­tion­al Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Mi­gra­tion and the Colom­bian and Chilean em­bassies, the CTU fa­cil­i­tat­ed the re­turn of two vic­tims to tes­ti­fy. Their ac­counts, along with ev­i­dence from 14 oth­er wit­ness­es, formed the ba­sis of the State’s case.

The re­port stat­ed that the CTU ini­ti­at­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tions of 114 sex traf­fick­ing cas­es un­der the TIP Act in 2024, an in­crease com­pared with ini­ti­at­ing 77 sex traf­fick­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions un­der the TIP Act in 2023. The gov­ern­ment con­tin­ued in­ves­ti­gat­ing nine sex traf­fick­ing cas­es ini­ti­at­ed in pri­or re­port­ing pe­ri­ods, com­pared with con­tin­u­ing to in­ves­ti­gate 12 pre­vi­ous­ly ini­ti­at­ed sex traf­fick­ing cas­es in 2023. The gov­ern­ment ini­ti­at­ed pros­e­cu­tions of nine sus­pect­ed sex traf­fick­ers un­der the TIP Act, com­pared with five sus­pect­ed sex traf­fick­ers, in­clud­ing two po­lice of­fi­cers, pros­e­cut­ed in 2023.

The re­port em­pha­sised that cor­rup­tion and of­fi­cial com­plic­i­ty con­tin­ue to hin­der law en­force­ment, with wit­ness­es of­ten in­tim­i­dat­ed, killed, or un­will­ing to tes­ti­fy. Ev­i­dence col­lec­tion, in­clud­ing cell phone da­ta and fi­nan­cial records, re­mains a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge.

It not­ed that pro­tec­tion mea­sures saw mod­est im­prove­ment. The gov­ern­ment iden­ti­fied 45 sex traf­fick­ing vic­tims in 2024, all Venezue­lan, and re­ferred them to ser­vices. NGOs re­port­ed that some re­fer­rals were not act­ed up­on, and on­ly two of five spe­cialised shel­ters for adults were op­er­a­tional.

Child vic­tims, how­ev­er, re­ceived con­sis­tent care from the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The re­port con­clud­ed that traf­fick­ing af­fects all com­mu­ni­ties in T&T, in­clud­ing Venezue­lan mi­grants, Cuban regime-af­fil­i­at­ed work­ers, and oth­er mi­grants, refugees, and asy­lum-seek­ers.

Ques­tions about the re­port were sent to Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der, but a re­sponse was not re­ceived yes­ter­day.

What pre­vi­ous re­ports stat­ed

In the 2023 TIP Re­port, T&T was placed in Tier 2. The re­port not­ed that the gov­ern­ment had con­vict­ed a traf­fick­er for the first time and sen­tenced him to 15 years’ im­pris­on­ment, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant step in the coun­try’s le­gal re­sponse to traf­fick­ing.

The 2022 TIP Re­port, placed T&T in Tier 2. It high­light­ed the need for in­creased train­ing for law en­force­ment and ju­di­cial of­fi­cials to im­prove vic­tim iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and pros­e­cu­tion of traf­fick­ers.