by TONY BEST

BARBADOS MAY NOT be a linchpin in the chain of Caribbean countries involved in human trafficking but it has been cited by Washington for its role in the nefarious scheme.

While Barbados escaped strong criticism from the United States State Department in its latest report on human trafficking in every corner of the globe, the same can't be said for some of its neighbours – Belize, Cuba, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and the Dominican Republic.

They were singled out by name and in a specific country report for being intricately involved in the trafficking of people across their borders.

Barbados was hit a few months ago in the State Department's human rights report as a destination country for prostitutes, especially Guyanese, but Washington didn't hold up Barbados as one of the serious offenders with a major trafficking problem.

Not untouched

But the island didn't entirely escape unscathed. It was among the Caribbean countries the report mentioned as accepting Guyanese as victims of human trafficking.

"Reporting from other (Caribbean) nations suggest Guyanese women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation to neighbouring countries such as Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, Suriname, Venezuela, and that Guyanese men and boys are subject to labour exploitation in construction and agriculture in these same countries.

"Trafficking victims from Suriname, Brazil and Venezuela transit Guyana to Caribbean destinations," the department told Congress in its report.

Destination

Belize, Guyana, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic were each identified by the State Department as a "source, transit, and destination country" for victims of human trafficking and in each case they were being used "for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour".

The report listed a host of countries, more than 75 of them, around the world as being central to human trafficking, and among them were rich and poor countries such as Canada, Japan, Belgium, Britain, Benin, Bolivia, Guinea-Bissau and Ecuador.