Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has welcomed a probe by the TTPS into Human Trafficking.
However, she is suggesting that the police also investigate media houses that may be enabling human trafficking.
In a statement, she even went further to state that the investigation should also extend to paedophile allegations in both Sabga and Judith Jones reports.
Persad-Bissessar said:
“I condemn Human Trafficking as a vile scourge and evil in our society and all those who enable it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
In this regard:
The UNC welcomes the investigation announced by the COP and the TTPS into human trafficking by “senior government officials” as identified in the US Government State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Reports. Hopefully, the counter-trafficking unit (CTU) which was formed in 2013 by my UNC government can contribute to this investigation.
Indeed, given the fact that the US Report on Human Trafficking in T&T has been publicly raised by the UNC since the July 2022 report, it is puzzling as to why this important investigation is only now to be started.
Ever since “senior government officials” were identified by the US State Department as being involved in human trafficking, the UNC has sought to get answers in the Parliament as to what was being done about this.
The Rowley Government sat on its hands and did nothing. Its inaction caused Trinidad and Tobago to be disgracefully downgraded to the international Tier 2 Watch List for human trafficking.
When MP Rodney Charles brought up the matter once again on Friday 24 February at Prime Minister’s Question Time, Keith Rowley attempted a grand distraction by pointing fingers scandalously and maintaining that he was not responsible for taking the required action.
I call on everyone who is making allegations to now provide documented evidence to the TTPS to support the allegations they have made. The time for hearsay and mauvais langue is over.
I reiterate the call by MP Charles for The COP to interview Keith Rowley first and foremost since he (Rowley) started the furore when he claimed in Parliament to have conducted wide-ranging investigations on the matter. We need the factual basis of the information he supplied to Parliament last Friday.
I call on the TTPS to also investigate whether advertising in the daily newspapers via ads for escort and other personal services may amount to enabling human trafficking.
It’s amazing that some media continue to pontificate against human trafficking at the front of their newspapers, whilst in the back in their classified ads section, they may be actively enabling human trafficking.
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