Today's graduation ceremony afforded us the opportunity to talk with Keith Gilges, the US Embassy's Charge d'Affaires, about the 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report.
Last night, we told you how the US State Department has decided to classify Belize as a Tier 2 Watchlist country for the third consecutive year. The report suggests that we narrowly dodged a downgrade back to Tier 3, which basically refers to countries and territories whose governments - in the opinion of the US - do not fully comply with the minimum anti-trafficking standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.
We asked Gilges about that assessment:
We also asked about the parts of the report which criticize Belizean law enforcement.
As we told you, the report says, quote, "Corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. During the reporting period, civil society organizations reported some police officers took bribes to ignore incidents of trafficking, to facilitate illegal border crossings, to not report suspected victims and perpetrators, to alert establishments where trafficking was likely to occur of pending law enforcement action and to stonewall or sabotage investigations of reported cases within their jurisdiction. Observers decried the slow official response to reports of potential trafficking and complicity."
That's some serious finger-pointing at local law enforcement, and we asked the US Embassy's Charge about that part of the report. Here's how he answered that one:
