The Bahamas has maintained a Tier 1 Ranking in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report for the third year in a row as efforts continue to fight the crime of human trafficking.
According to U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Lisa Johnson, the ranking reflects the government’s serious and sustained efforts through strong collaboration across multiple government agencies, facilitating the prosecution of traffickers and protection of victims.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson released the 2017 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the U.S. government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking.
It is also the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts and reflects the U.S. government’s commitment to global leadership on this key human rights and law enforcement issue.
It represents an updated global look at the nature and scope of trafficking in persons and the broad range of government actions to confront and eliminate it.
The U.S. government uses the TIP Report to engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms and to combat trafficking and to target resources on prevention, protection and prosecution programs.
Freeing victims, preventing trafficking, and bringing traffickers to justice are the ultimate goals of the report and of the U.S government’s anti-human trafficking policy.
In response to the release of the 2017 TIP Report, Johnson offers congratulations to the government of The Bahamas on receiving a Tier 1 ranking for its efforts to combat trafficking in persons for the third consecutive year.
The ranking reflects the government’s serious and sustained efforts through strong collaboration across multiple government agencies, facilitating the prosecution of traffickers and protection of victims.
The report revealed the government’s anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts continued at previous levels, but resulted in only 11 new labour and sex trafficking investigations involving 37 potential victims, compared with 12 new investigations involving 53 potential victims in 2015.
The Trafficking in Persons (Prevention and Suppression) Act 2008 prohibits all forms of human trafficking and prescribes penalties ranging from three years to life imprisonment and fines. These penalties are sufficiently stringent and commensurate with penalties prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.
The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking offenses.
As reported over the past five years, The Bahamas is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children from other Caribbean countries, South and Central America, and Asia subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour, including in domestic servitude and in sectors with low-skilled labourers.
The report also stated that children born in The Bahamas to foreign-born parents who do not automatically receive Bahamian citizenship and individuals involved in prostitution and exotic dancing may also be vulnerable.
Traffickers previously confiscated victims’ passports, but currently often allow victims to retain their documents in case they are questioned by law enforcement.
