Human Trafficking is a major law enforcement priority FOR THE USA - and that means, it's also the same in Belize.
And now, to strengthen its defense against human trafficking in Belize, The Belize Police Department signed a MOU yesterday in partnership with the Human Trafficking Institute to further develop strategies and equip officers with the knowledge and understanding in the fight against human trafficking. Today the Compol told us more about what this means for the department and how he plans to expand their human trafficking response sector.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Yesterday we signed a memorandum of understanding with the Human Trafficking Institute, HTI. That MOU has to do with enhancing the capabilities of the anti-trafficking person unit in Belize. When we talk about enhancing the capacity we are looking at training, as well as other resources that the unit may need, to be able to discharge this function properly."
"You would know that human trafficking is a crime against humanity. And so as democratic nations, we must do our best to ensure that we rid our country of this scorge of human trafficking. And so it is with this spirit that we are partnering with the Human Trafficking Institute to see what they can do to enhance our capabilities, to be able to discharge a very important function."
"We also discussed expanding the unit. I can say that about two years ago, as Commissioner I had expanded the unit with additional personnel, and again I am planning on expanding it again whenever the next recruit squad graduate from the Academy, we will be putting on additional three persons there."
"And with that we are also ensuring that we have the capabilities to be able to address the issue of human smuggling. Human trafficking and human smuggling tends to have a very close correlation. And so to be able to deal with that we are going to make sure that units will deal with not just human trafficking but also human smuggling incidents."
