Barbados has been removed from the human trafficking watch list and upgraded to ‘Tier Two’ in the US State Department’s 2022 Trafficking In Persons Report.
It states the island has demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity.
These efforts included significantly increasing investigations, improving victim screening, making efforts to address complicity among police officers and launching a public awareness campaign.
Despite this, Barbados did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas.
The report has recommended the country proactively screen vulnerable groups, vigorously investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers with adequate sentences and amend anti-trafficking law to remove sentencing provisions that allow fines in lieu of imprisonment for sex trafficking crimes among others.
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