Kingston - The Jamaican government released a statement on Tuesday to reject the country’s ranking in the 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report by the United States, claiming its conclusion is “perplexing” and “unfoundded”.
The report, released on Monday by the US State Department, kept Jamaica on its Tier Two Watch List for a second straight year, saying the government failed to demonstrate evidence that it increased overall anti- trafficking efforts compared to the previous period.
The ranking means that “Jamaica does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however it is making significant efforts to do so,” according to the report.
The report labelled Jamaica as “a source and destination country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor”, and voiced concern that the government did not convict any traffickers for the sixth consecutive year, including officials complicit in human trafficking.
“While the Jamaican government identified more adult trafficking victims over the past year, it only identified one child victim compared with the high number of children vulnerable to both sex trafficking and forced labor,” the report added.
The Jamaican government expressed “deep disappointment” in response, insisting that the country made positive steps to combat human trafficking in the past year, including naming a National Trafficking in Persons Rapporteur, raising public awareness, and concluding a trafficking case at the Supreme Court, among others.
“The negative inference therefore seems to be derived from conjecture rather than being evidence-based, which is a recurring feature of the Report,” the statement said.
Jamaican Justice Minister Mark Golding also said that significant work had been done over the last year which the US report did not fairly acknowledge and that his government is already in discussion with the United States over the report.
The minister said the report is important because of the assistance Jamaica gets from the US, saying that if the country remains on the Tier Two Watch list for a third straight year, it could trigger US laws which would restrict certain assistance to Jamaica.
Xinhua