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Forum on the role of the private sector in the fight against trafficking in persons in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago, August 24, 2021. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) participated in a virtual meeting with the private sector to discuss the importance of its role in the fight against trafficking in persons.
“Collaboration in the fight against trafficking in persons: What can the private sector do to tackle trafficking in persons?” was the name of the event that took place this afternoon with the support of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Unit of Trinidad and Tobago.
Lissette Reyes, Track4Tip officer, was in charge of a comprehensive explanation of this complex crime that has women and girls among its main victims. "The UNODC's global report on trafficking in persons puts the number of victims at 50,000 worldwide, of which 50% are captured for sexual exploitation and 38% for forced labor," she explained.
Ms. Reyes stressed to the audience that traffickers exploit victims in various ways and infiltrate the globalized legal economy. "Traffickers do not necessarily work underground in illicit markets but may be associated with officially registered companies or operate in a broader informal economic system where working conditions resort to exploitative practices to increase profits," she warned, while warning that abuses are less easy to detect and punish in situations where there are no labor inspections or police control.
Given the complex scenario, Reyes highlighted that "the fight against trafficking in persons involves all of us. Fighting it is a private sector issue and we must work together," he said.
"Globalization and increasing links between countries and businesses have made forced labor and trafficking in persons major issues within global supply chains. Companies implicated in these activities could be prosecuted with clear reputational impacts," she added.
Reyes cited the ILO and the 10 principles for business leaders to combat forced labor and trafficking in persons, how the private sector can identify these practices, and outlined some good practices at the regional level. "It is imperative that the private sector proactively takes steps to ensure this crime is not occurring within their supply chain and/or specific industry to avoid becoming directly, or even unknowingly and indirectly, complicit in the crime".
As the guardian of the Palermo Protocol, UNODC - the office responsible for promoting the fight against illicit drugs and international organized crime - has developed extensive capacity building work in more than 150 countries through regional offices, liaison offices and projects around the world.
Its work is based on crime prevention, victim protection, prosecution of traffickers and the construction of national coordination mechanisms with the support of international cooperation.
Proof of this is the development of the Track4Tip Initiative by UNODC. The overall objective of the project is to improve the regional criminal justice response to trafficking in persons among migratory flows within beneficiary countries, following a victim-centered and multidisciplinary approach, working at regional and local levels to identify, prevent and prosecute cases.

 

About TRACK4TIP
TRACK4TIP is a three-year initiative (2019-2022), implemented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with support from the U.S. Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons / JTIP.
The project benefits eight countries in South America and the Caribbean with national and regional actions in Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Curaçao and Aruba.
The overall objective of the project is to enhance the regional criminal justice response to trafficking in persons in the migratory flows of the beneficiary countries through a multidisciplinary and victim-centered approach, with actions at the regional and national levels to identify, prevent and prosecute cases.
This press release was made possible with the support of the U.S. Department of State under the terms of Agreement No. SSJTIP19CA0027. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of State.