Andrea Downer, Gleaner Writer
Jamaica is one of two CARICOM countries that remain on the United States' 'Special Watch List' for trafficking in persons, according to a 2007 State Department interim report.
The U.S. State Department, in its interim assessment of 39 countries worldwide, said Jamaica and Belize warrant special scrutiny of their anti-trafficking efforts, as required by the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003.
The Special Watch List includes countries that have a very significant human trafficking problem and which, according to the U.S., have not shown increased efforts over the review period to address the problem. Countries on that list are reviewed six months after the release of the State Department's Annual Human Trafficking Report, in June each year.
Jamaica was one of 32 countries the United States placed on the Tier-2 Watch List last June. The Special Watch List is just above the lowest ranking on the United State's three-tier ranking system and is considered a danger zone. Countries on the watch list are usually dropped to Tier-3 in the annual review unless the United States sees significant improvement in their efforts to combat human trafficking in the months leading up to the review. Tier-3 countries face severe non-trade and non-humanitarian sanctions from the U.S.
The interim report, released on Friday, warns that "some countries on the 'Special Watch List' could be downgraded to Tier-3 in the upcoming June 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report if their anti-trafficking efforts this year are determined to be inadequate."
No 'concrete' improvements
The State Department said that, while the Jamaican government has shown "modest progress" in combating trafficking in persons since the release of the 2006 report, it is yet to demonstrate "concrete" improvements in the areas of prosecuting and convicting traffick-ing crimes and protecting victims.
"Since April 2006, Jamaican police have raided 27 nightclubs for evidence of trafficking, resulting in the rescue of nine trafficking victims, three of whom were between the ages of 13 and 17," the report stated.
"Victim protection efforts, however, remain ad hoc and the government has yet to develop or implement a formalised referral system to increase victim identification and prevent the inadvertent prosecution or deport-ation of victims," it added.
The report noted that, in October 2006, Jamaica established a special committee to review procedures for the granting of work permits, and suspended the granting of work permits for nightclub dancers, which have been used to facilitate some trafficking. However the report added that requests for dancer permits, submitted by hotels, are still being granted.
"Despite recent law enforcement progress, Jamaica still has much work to undertake to fully combat trafficking, including vigorously prosecuting and convicting," it said.
Annual review
In the annual review last June, The U.S. State Department listed corruption among law enforcement officers as one of the factors that hindered prosecution and conviction of human traffickers over the one-year period.
The report had warned that unless the Jamaican Government was able to significantly increase the number of convictions and prosecutions, the country was not likely to get an improved rating at this review.
Human trafficking legislation under which human trafficking violators can be prosecuted was passed in Parliament late last year. This, however, was not noted in the report.
A representative of the United States Embassy in Kingston was yesterday unable to comment on the review.
He, however, disclosed that his office would be meeting with representatives of the Jamaican government to discuss the interim report.
Attempts to get a reaction from the Jamaican government were unsuccessful. Head of the Trafficking in Persons Unit in the Ministry of Justice, Carol Palmer, was reportedly off the island.
