Since 2003 there have been 33 arrests for human trafficking but only two convictions. Most prosecutions have been unsuccessful because of a lack of experience and knowledge on the part of the law enforcement agencies who make the arrests and prosecute the alleged offenders. It is because of that need that the Ministry of Human Development and the Organization for American States today held a two day workshop for 45 participants. Chief executive officer in the Ministry of Human Development Judith Alpuche told us more.
Judith Alpuche, CEO – Ministry of Human Development
“The idea is to strengthen Belize’s capacity to investigate, prosecute, and convict people involved in human trafficking.
In this space we have Magistrates, we have the Financial Intelligence Unit, we have police prosecutors, prosecutors from the DPP’s office, immigration, major crimes, social services as well as labour officers all sitting in same the space getting the same level of training and having a forum where they can talk and exchange ideas. And really all the involvement of these people, and I mean clearly they are beyond your usual law enforcement officials but it really signals the complexity of the human trafficking issue where as maybe conventional investigation of conventional crimes there would be a more emphasis on perpetrators. But with human trafficking, there has to be an equal emphasis on the perpetrators and victims. Your victims are your star witnesses and we have to have all these stakeholders working together, even some of our allies in the NGO sector, to be able to successfully prosecute these kinds of cases and that is why this training brings together everybody.”
The Organization of American States plans to hold similar workshops in other member countries. Belize was the first.
