UN Special Rapporteur offers recommendations

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo

The government of Belize has signed and ratified numerous international human right treaties which offer protection to women, children and migrant workers. G.O.B. has also pledged to suppress and punish those who traffic persons and at the national level, it has adopted the 2013 Trafficking in Persons Provision Act. But Ezeilo says that it is not enough and offered several recommendations to fight the scourge of human trafficking.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, U.N. Special Rapporteur

“I encourage the government to continue its close cooperation with the United Nations and agencies in the country and beyond in order to access necessary technical support within the UNDAF to address in particular issues of development and human right violations that may cause and result in human trafficking. I recommend that government ratifies ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers. I also recommend that government develops a national referral mechanism that will involve social workers, NGOs and other organizations including service providers and international organizations for migration in the screening and identification of potential victims of trafficking. The government should also improve partnership with civil society organizations especially to create awareness in rural communities about forms and manifestation of human trafficking. The government should scale up training for law enforcement agents: police, immigration, customs, labor inspectors and importantly ensure their retention especially police and immigration officers to a reasonable number of years with appropriate career incentive to enhance immediate capacity for continuity in their work of identification of cases of trafficking.”

According to Ezeilo, the government through various programs such as RESTORE Belize and BOOST addresses societal problems, but there is still room for trafficking as well as the abuse of women and children.