St. Vincent and the Grenadines have recently been accused of human
trafficking and have been placed on the United States government's State
Department watch list for human trafficking and given received a second tier
rating for human trafficking.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has responded that this is not the case for St.
Vincent and the Grenadines.
"St Vincent does not have trafficking of persons," Gonsalves said, adding that
the country's placement on the list was greeted here with "utter shock and
disdain."
Mr. Gonsalves has recently slammed the Prime Minister of Barbados for trying to
prevent human trafficking in Barbados, and gone as far as threatening to pull
St. Vincent from CARICOM. The Prime Minister of Barbados has given CARICOM
nationals living illegally in Barbados six months to legalise their status on
the island.
Prime Minister Gonsalves sent a letter on Wednesday to US Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton strongly expressing the government's displeasure and
disagreement.
The UNODC, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, defines human trafficking
as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons,
by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction,
of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability
or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of
a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
The State Department's human trafficking methodology is to rank countries on
a three tier system.
Tier 3 is comprised of countries that are the most egregious participants in
trafficking and are thus subject to heavy sanctions.
Tier 2 includes countries complicit in trafficking, but which, from the State
Department's perspective, are making significant efforts to counter the problem;
finally,
Tier 1 is comprised of countries not significantly engaged in the industry.
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