Tier two rating in human trafficking now official
June 06, 2006
THE United States (US) State Department has officially given Jamaica a tier two ranking in terms of the island's efforts to stem human trafficking.
In its June 2006 Trafficking in Persons Reports released yesterday, the State Department upgraded Jamaica from last year's tier three rating, acknowledging steps taken to curb human trafficking.
The official rating comes almost three months to the day that former Information Minister Burchell Whiteman appeared to have jumped the gun in announcing that the Americans had given the island the tier two rating.
The 2006 report labelled Jamaica as a "source country" for the trafficking of men, women, and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation and labour. It said information from international organisations and embassies working in Jamaica suggested that women from the Dominican Republic and Eastern Europe were trafficked to Jamaica for sexual exploitation. Women and children, it added, were also internally trafficked from rural to urban and tourist areas for sexual exploitation.
But some local sources have questioned the moral authority of the US to judge other countries in human trafficking, saying it should look at its own problems, and pointed to other types of atrocities being committed by the US military in places like Iraq.
"The Government of Jamaica does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so," the report conceded.
"Although Jamaica demonstrated some initial progress in combating trafficking shortly after the last Report, Jamaica is placed on Tier two Watch List because the determination that it is making significant efforts is based in part on its commitments to take additional future steps over the coming year."
In the report, countries are ranked between one and three in terms of their efforts to tackle human trafficking. Tier one consists of countries which have fully complied with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; tier two includes countries which do not fully comply with the minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to meet compliance standards.
There is also a tier two watch list requiring special scrutiny because of high or significantly increasing number of victims, or failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking....
Author: Observer Reporter
Source: Jamaica Observer
