MONTEGO BAY, St James - Attorney General and Minister of Justice A J Nicholson says his ministry has been examining ways in which laws can be enacted to prosecute parents who knowingly allow their children to become involved in human trafficking.

"We have to bring those parents to book, and I tell you that as minister of justice that persons in our ministry are looking at how parents who neglect their children and their proper upbringing can be brought to book," Nicholson said.

The justice minister, who was addressing a "Trafficking in Persons" public forum at the West Jamaica Conference Centre in Montego Bay on Wednesday, said there are some persons in the society who fall prey to human trafficking because they did not get the proper upbringing from their parents.

"As a result of this, we have to be using resources to deal with a matter which would not exist if persons had taken their responsibility seriously in the beginning," the minister said.
Trafficking in persons has, over the past year, increasingly become a matter of concern in Jamaica. It is considered a form of gender-based violence, modern-day slavery and an aspect of transnational crime.

Nicholson, who commended the organisers of the forum, said that human trafficking is a matter that should "shock our consciences" and must be given priority attention.

"Forum, seminars, discussions such as this, are steps in the right direction because it is important to gather together and reason, so that we can educate each other about the problem as it exists in Jamaica because we have to seek ways and means of preventing this malady from continuing in our country," he said.

The minister, in the meantime, called on the church to assist in the fight against human trafficking.

"I believe that this is one issue that the church can take on itself; they should grab it and run with it," he said. "It was as a result of the church's advocacy why slavery was abolished, and anytime the church put its shoulders to any issue in our district, usually the church wins," said the justice minister.

He added: "I would like to see the churches telling their members that this is something that we will have to fight on all fronts because I would like to see as many young persons as possible get the kind of exposure, training and education so that they would not fall prey to all the 'smart alecs' that come around and deal with human trafficking."

Trafficking in persons, or human trafficking, involves victims who are forced or coerced into labour or sexual exploitation. According to the United States Bureau of Public Affairs, between 600,000 and 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked across national borders annually.
These people, the US agency said, are snared into trafficking by various means, including physical force or false promises of jobs or marriages in foreign countries.

Last year, Jamaica was rated Tier 3 by the United States State Department in the 2005 annual report on trafficking in persons. During the 60-day assessment period the government accelerated its efforts to address the situation resulting in a more favourable Tier 2 rating.

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