The US State Department has released its 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report and it finds Belize remaining at Tier 2.
The report says, quote, "The Government of Belize does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so." But it finds that the government, quote, "slightly decreased prosecution efforts,"
We asked the Commissioner about the reports finding that there was not enough effort put into interdiction and prosecution and he explained that the nature of human trafficking makes law enforcement complex:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Well, we cannot prosecute people if they are not caught committing the offence. We can't convict people if they are not before the courts."
"You see this whole trafficking issue it is a complex one. It is not as slam dunk as one would want it to be. Like the report said we are making great strides, we are doing what we can to address the issue, but at the same time we have to understand that prosecuting persons who are suspected of human trafficking do requires the cooperation of the persons who are being trafficked and we find that many of time when we encounter the situations, the people who we believe are being trafficked refused to cooperate. So if they refuse to cooperate with the investigators, then we can't go anywhere and why I would like to see an amendment to the law to say that if you withhold the passport of a person who works with you or an immigrant who is working with you, that itself should constitute an offence, because many of times the employer has the passport. Why would you have the passport as an employer? It must be to control the person right. So that should be an offence, as far as I am concern and I think if that is done, we'll be able to prosecute more people for human trafficking."
