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The war on human trafficking in the Caribbean
Kamala Kempadoo
York University, Toronto
Encouraged by the US, the Caribbean is being drawn into a global panic over human trafficking, leading to greater policing and surveillance of migrant women and the sex trade. Drawing on colonial precedents, the moral outrage about women trafficked into prostitution, embodied in legislation such as the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act, obscures the deeper causes of exploitation and oppression and leads to the demonisation of those in undocumented, hyper-exploited labour forces. Moreover, the false equation of trafficking with prostitution renders sexual labour as coerced labour and, as such, misrepresents sexual agency.
Key Words: border controls • forced labour • irregular migration • moral panic • sex work • slave trade • US hegemony
References
- Associated Press, `Vatican official blasts human trafficking' (14 November 2006).
- The annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) reports from the US Department of State, which started in 2001, include the US definition of human trafficking, information about the US minimum standards, country narrative and, from 2003, the tier placements. See <http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt >. The tiers into which countries are ranked are defined as follows: `Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Act's minimum standards. Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Act's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards. Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.' In 2003, a `Tier 2 Special Watch List' was created for countries that were to receive special scrutiny.
- US Secretary of State, `Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: trafficking in persons report' (Washington DC, Department of State, June 2005).
- In a report about IOM activities in the region, it is noted that the organisation recommends three multilateral treaties for monitoring compliance and that it urges government to use CARICOM to draft anti-trafficking legislation — see <http://www.jonesbahamas.com/?c=45&a=9050>. See also Iom/Oas, `Report and outcomes: regional meeting on counter-trafficking strategies in the Caribbean region ', 14—16 March 2005, <http://www.oas.org/cim/Documentos/Trata-%20Caribbean%20Regional%20Meeting%20Report%20final.doc>.
- At the twenty-seventh meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference, held in July 2006, it was agreed that a multilateral evaluation mechanism was needed to address the issue of human trafficking and that a technical working group would be set up to undertake a study and make specific policy recommendations. See <http://www.caricom.org/jsp/pressreleases/pres147_06.jsp >.
- US Secretary of State, `Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: trafficking in persons report' (Washington DC, US Department of State, 2006).
Race & Class, Vol. 49, No. 2,
79-85 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/03063968070490020602
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