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WE HOPE the changing of the guard this week at the Counter Trafficking Unit (CTU) at the Ministry of National Security coincides with an improvement in this country’s outlook when it comes to fighting human trafficking.
If not, the country could well be in store for a dreaded downgrade to Tier 3 in the US Department of State’s annual trafficking report, a development which would not only damage our international reputation and imperil our economic prospects, but also bring the rationale for the CTU itself into question.
With much gusto, Allan Meiguel publicly took up the mantle from Alana Wheeler, the last CTU director, who served in the post for six years right up to 2022, when the position was allowed to become vacant.
Mr Meiguel, an attorney who previously served as deputy director of the ministry’s Office of Law Enforcement Policy as well as a team lead in the Special Anti-Crime Unit (SAUTT), will be assisted in his task by Cpl Dane-Marie Marshall, the new deputy director. Both have their work cut out for them.
During her tenure, Ms Wheeler oversaw 50 investigations, drafted two national plans of action, and formulated training manuals for law enforcement.
Notwithstanding this, as observed in several broadsides from the US Department of State, no conviction for human trafficking was recorded.
That is, until last year, when the first-ever conviction was entered in a trial in what might have been, ordinarily, a hopeful development going some way to bolstering deterrence and preventing this country from sliding to Tier 3.
Instead, the mysteriously bungled case of Anthony Michael Smith, who was convicted in absentia of human trafficking because he escaped from electronic monitoring, has only damaged the State’s prospects of being perceived as serious on this issue, as well as our chances of securing Tier 2 status.
The case embodies the concerns of US officials and others. Not only did it involve reports that members of the police were clients of Mr Smith, but it also featured the involvement of minors.
That it fell to the police to locate the accused once his device had been tampered with is a fact that does not escape the notice of the public, as well as those who have broadly fingered the complicity of state and government officials in the human-trafficking trade.
While enforcement stalls, the techniques of criminals advance. About 70 per cent of trafficking victims are now found through unregulated social media.
It is worth asking whether the CTU, established 11 years ago to “secure convictions against traffickers,” is fulfilling its purpose. With concerns about complicity likely to damage trust, the unit itself needs to be converted into an independent, non-government organisation. Or else confidence might run away.
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