Jamaican Trafficking Victims and Failed to Provide JAMAICA Enforcement Officers on Trafficking Laws and Best Practices for Many of Them with Adequate Assistance
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
to victims. The government regularly updated a manual for law identified few Jamaican trafficking victims and failed to provide JAMAICA enforcement officers on trafficking laws and best practices for many of them with adequate assistance. assisting victims. The government coordinated an interagency working group to generate guidelines and procedures for victim identification and referral, as part of the creation of the JAMAICA TIER RANKING BY YEAR national plan. The government postponed publication of the plan until 2014 due to limited funds available for assistance in 2013. The government worked with NGOs to coordinate and implement anti-trafficking initiatives, but, unlike in prior years, did not conduct any evaluations in 2013. In cooperation with 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 municipalities, police, social services, and NGOs carried out local education campaigns aimed at reducing the demand for prostitution. The ministry of foreign affairs implemented regular RECOMMENDATIONS FOR JAMAICA: training programs for diplomatic officers deployed abroad and Vigorously prosecute, convict, and punish trafficking offenders, included modules on the prevention of trafficking in persons. including officials complicit in forced labor or sex trafficking; The government did not publish a systematic evaluation of its identify and assist more victims of forced labor and sex anti-trafficking efforts. In 2013, Italian authorities investigated trafficking, including prostituted Jamaican children; implement 281 illegal labor recruiters; unscrupulous labor recruiting can government-wide standard operating procedures to guide police, facilitate human trafficking. The government did not report labor inspectors, child welfare officials, and health workers in any convictions for child sex tourism. The Italian armed forces the proactive identification of local, as well as foreign, victims continued to provide anti-trafficking training to civilians of forced labor and sex trafficking—including children under and military personnel before their deployment abroad on age 18 in prostitution in night clubs, bars, and massage parlors; international peacekeeping missions. implement procedures to refer victims to adequate service providers; train officials on the fundamental principles of international human trafficking law, including that movement of a victim is not necessary for trafficking to occur; and use the JAMAICA (Tier 2 Watch List) government shelter in cooperation with NGOs to provide a safe and welcoming place for Jamaican children under 18 subjected Jamaica is a source, transit, and destination country for adults to prostitution and other trafficking victims that need protection. and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Jamaican children subjected to sex trafficking in Jamaica’s sex trade remains a serious problem. Sex trafficking of children and PROSECUTION adults occurs on streets and in night clubs, bars, and private The government made progress on strengthening Jamaica’s anti- homes throughout Jamaica, including in resort towns. Traffickers trafficking law, but this development was eclipsed by a continued in massage parlors in Jamaica lure women into prostitution lack of trafficking convictions and serious concerns about official under the false pretense of employment as massage therapists complicity. The government prohibits all forms of trafficking and then withhold their wages and restrict their movement. through its comprehensive Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, People living in Jamaica’s poverty-stricken garrison communities, Suppression and Punishment) Act, which went into effect in territories ruled by criminal “dons” effectively outside of the 2007. In August 2013, the government enacted amendments government’s control, are especially at risk. NGOs express to the act to increase the maximum sentence for trafficking concern that children from poor families sent to wealthier crimes from 10 to 30 years’ imprisonment. These penalties families or local “dons” with the intent of a chance at a better life are sufficiently stringent and appear to be commensurate with are highly vulnerable to prostitution and forced labor, including penalties prescribed for other serious crimes. The amendments domestic servitude. Other at-risk children include those working contain other positive elements, including a requirement that in the informal sector, such as on farms or in street vending, convicted trafficking offenders pay restitution to victims. begging, markets, and shops. An alarmingly high number of children are reported missing in Jamaica; some of these children While Jamaica’s legal structure against human trafficking was are likely subjected to forced labor or sex trafficking. Foreign sufficient, there continued to be no results; the government did nationals are subjected to forced labor in Jamaica and aboard not convict any trafficking offenders in this reporting period or foreign-flagged fishing vessels operating in Jamaican waters. in the previous five years. Authorities reportedly arrested seven Numerous sources report that Jamaican citizens have been individuals for suspected human trafficking crimes and initiated subjected to sex trafficking or forced labor abroad, including four prosecutions in 2013, compared with two prosecutions throughout the Caribbean, Canada, the United States, and the initiated in 2012. The government continued four prosecutions of United Kingdom. human trafficking offenses carried over from previous reporting periods. No government officials were prosecuted or convicted The Government of Jamaica does not fully comply with for alleged complicity in trafficking-related offenses, though the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; allegations persisted from previous reporting periods that some however, it is making significant efforts to do so. In 2013, the Jamaican police officers were complicit in prostitution rings, government implemented amendments to strengthen Jamaica’s some of which were suspected of recruiting children under 18 anti-trafficking law. Despite these efforts, the government did and coercing adults into the sex trade. not demonstrate evidence of overall increasing efforts to address human trafficking over the previous reporting period; therefore, Beginning in 2014, police funded an anti-trafficking module— Jamaica is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. For a fifth consecutive designed and implemented by the police’s lead human trafficking year, the government did not convict trafficking offenders or investigator—as part of the basic curriculum for all new recruits. officials complicit in human trafficking and took insufficient In January 2014, the Justice Ministry ran a three-day anti- action to address reports of official complicity. The government trafficking training seminar for 88 prosecutors, justices of the 219 peace, and judges. The government also provided in-kind support Southeast Asia (mainly the Philippines and Thailand), South to IOM-led capacity building and technical skills training America, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central America travel workshops for government officials. to Japan for employment or fraudulent marriage and are subsequently forced into prostitution. Traffickers continued to use fraudulent marriages between foreign women and Japanese JAPAN PROTECTION men to facilitate the entry of these women into Japan for The government made minimal efforts to protect trafficking forced prostitution in bars, clubs, brothels, and massage parlors. victims. Authorities identified 14 confirmed and suspected Traffickers strictly control the movement of victims using debt victims including at least two suspected forced labor victims bondage, threats of violence or deportation, blackmail, and other and eight sex trafficking victims, compared with 23 suspected coercive psychological methods. Victims of forced prostitution victims of trafficking in the previous reporting period. The sometimes face debts upon commencement of their contracts; government’s trafficking shelter, which could house 12 people, most are required to pay employers fees for living expenses, assisted only one person—a child forced labor victim—during medical care, and other necessities, leaving them predisposed the reporting period. The child did not attend school, but was to debt bondage. “Fines” for alleged misbehavior are added to provided guided instruction through a web-based curriculum victims’ original debt, and the process brothel operators use commonly used in Jamaican schools. Government agencies to calculate these debts is typically not transparent. Trafficking and NGOs that did not receive government funding assisted victims transit Japan between East Asia and North America. the other victims. Jamaican anti-trafficking police reportedly had a protocol to refer suspected victims to services, but the Japanese nationals, particularly runaway teenage girls and foreign- small number of trafficking victims identified and referred to born children of Japanese citizens who acquired nationality, are care raised concerns that many front-line responders, such also subjected to sex trafficking. The phenomenon of enjo kosai, as other law enforcement officers, child protection officials, also known as “compensated dating,” continues to facilitate labor officials, and health workers, did not adhere to standard the prostitution of Japanese children. In a recent trend called operating procedures for the proactive identification of human joshi-kosei osanpo, also known as “high school