Warning! There are human traffickers in Trinidad
Have you notice in the last year that more people went missing and never found than kidnapping????
A chilling warning is being sent out to mothers of young daughters, to women in general, and even sons to be on the lookout for human traffickers in T&T.
Human traffickers are on the prowl, looking to lure children and women to sell them abroad for big money.
"Children, because they live longer, are sold for over $200,000. Adults can fetch as much as $100,000. They are mostly used as sex slaves and sometimes for slave labour.
"Sometimes, they are used to make pay-offs in the drug trade," a well-placed source told the Sunday Guardian.
Men owing drug lords are being lured into capturing humans, who will be sold for payment of their debts.
A well-placed police source believes, though, that the trade is in its early stages.
A source, pleading for anonymity for fear of his life, said victims were drugged almost immediately after capture and their cell phones switched off.
A Sunday Guardian investigation revealed that the lucrative human trafficking ring was operating in the Cascade/St Ann’s area, between Sangre Grande and Tunapuna, Diego Martin and in South.
Women have mysteriously disappeared from the Cascade area without a trace during the past year, and several straying young boys have vanished from the streets of San Fernando.
The clandestine local trade, which operates through a well-organized network and is supported by several powerful agencies, is linked to an international human trafficking ring.
Even some policemen are convinced that there is a human trafficking ring in Trinidad, and they suspect that a number of missing persons have been victims of the trade, but they were reluctant to say more.
Acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert could not be reached, while Deputy Commissioner Gilbert Reyes was in an all-day meeting on Thursday and Friday, we were told.
No calls were returned.
Even an officer from the Special Anti-Crime Unit of T&T said he could not divulge information on the matter.
Immigration officials were not helpful either.
Big businessman involved
Fingers are pointing at a popular Trinidad businessman, who has been described as "the big man" in the human trade.
"He’s popular. He is also linked with other businessmen across the country."
This information was unearthed after a female relative of a man went missing several months ago. The man said his family, desperate for answers, launched their own investigation with the support of a police officer and local private investigators.
They have the information, but are selective with whom they share it, and are still trying to unearth more information before they meet with National Security Minister Martin Joseph and the acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert.
Their fear is that they "don’t know who to trust," and that’s why they are moving so cautiously.
A spokesman from the newly formed Missing People Association (MPA) said their own investigations had revealed that people abducted were shipped out to foreign countries where foreign languages are spoken thus making escape difficult.
MPA’s investigations also revealed that those abducted are shipped via points from Moruga, Cedros, Sea Lots and Chaguaramas.
"T&T is not on the list of countries known for human trafficking, and criminals here are taking full advantage of that. Notice there has been a decline in kidnappings and an increase in missing persons?" the spokesman added.
"Criminals realize human trafficking is now more lucrative than kidnapping."
The spokesman said after months of probing, they discovered that while "big men" are behind the ring, they sometimes pay ordinary people, including taxi-drivers and relatives, to lure victims, who are usually "well scoped out" first.
The trafficking also includes young women who are being brought into the country from Venezuela, Colombia and Guyana.
The women are held and forced into the sex trade, where they make porn movies and are sold as prostitutes by influential locals.
Money made from this is kept by the businessmen involved.
No anti-trafficking agency
earlier this year, T&T’s chief of mission for the International Office of Migration (IOM), Tom Sinkovits, disclosed in a Guardian interview that there were cases of human trafficking in the Caribbean.
He said during the last two years he had been in Trinidad, he’d had reports of the trade.
According to another report from "US Government sources," Trinidad was named as a place to which girls and women were trafficked.
The report also said Venezuela was a transit and destination point for the trafficking of men, women and children.
An IOM report said the organization was working with the T&T Government to formulate legislation on human trafficking and to develop a coalition with the Go
and non-governmental organizations to deal with the matter.
But a US Department of State report of 2007 said virtually nothing had been done by the T&T Government to combat human trafficking.
"The Government has not designated a specific agency to combat trafficking or sponsored any public awareness campaigns to address the issue during the year 2007."
The report stated that the Government "continues to co-operate" with the IOM in a strengthening technical capacity project to bolster the capability of the Immigration Division and other law enforcement agencies.
Jamaica on alert
Jamaica is much more active in combating human trafficking, however.
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