The National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (NATFATIP) in the Ministry of National Security has students in its cross hairs as it intensifies efforts to dismantle human trafficking rings operating across Jamaica.

“The age group that normally gets impacted is the age group that we are targeting at the moment, those at the secondary level between the ages of 12 and 18,” Chenee Russell, manager of the Trafficking in Persons Secretariat in the Ministry of National Security told the Jamaica Observer. She was speaking in the aftermath of NATFATIP’s launch of Anti-Trafficking in Persons Clubs in 15 schools island wide last Thursday.

The initiative seeks to promote and maintain public involvement in Jamaica’s anti-trafficking in persons education and will, through the clubs, sensitise students and teachers to victim support, signs of trafficking as well as situations that can be potentially dangerous and lead to trafficking.

Russell said while only 15 schools were on board for the initial launch, the intention is to “launch in as many schools as possible across the island”.

“We are just building out the programme. We do want to launch in additional schools but this is the first batch. It is our intention to get it in as many schools as possible. As seen from the launch the (15) schools are (drawn) from right across Jamaica so we have schools from Kingston, Clarendon, Manchester, St. Ann, and other parishes,” Russell noted.

In the meantime she said the Ministry of National Security is working in tandem with the Ministry of Education to highlight the initiative.

“We are working …to get the message out there in terms of the club and what the club is about and how schools can come aboard. So that is a method we are employing to get more schools involved. There is a representative from the Ministry of Education on the task force as well.

The task force, and the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Vice Squad in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), are the mentors and we bring the messages to the club, we help set up the clubs, we do presentations and help with the activities,” said Russell.

Speaking at the launch of the programme at the Dunoon Park Technical High School in Kingston last week Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang said the clubs will provide a forum for students and stakeholders within the school community to become more vigilant, by learning how to identify and address instances of vulnerability. “Through increased awareness…they will learn how to detect and report suspicious activities, particularly when dealing with online predators. With more reports of potential traffickers, the security forces will be better able to infiltrate and dismantle more trafficking rings in Jamaica,” said Chang.

According to the minister with increased public awareness and participation, Jamaica should move further away from the Tier 2 classification. In 2018, a report published by the US State Department on Human Trafficking classified Jamaica as Tier 2 — a source and destination country for adults and children subjected to human trafficking and forced labour.

In the meantime the security ministry has indicated that members and mentors of the clubs will be subjected to basic vetting to prevent criminal infiltration. The clubs are operational at The Wolmer’s Boys’, Port Antonio, Garvey Maceo, Marymount, Christiana, Kingston Technical, Yallahs, Mount Alvernia, Islington, St Hilda’s Diocesan, Vere Technical, Dunoon Park Technical, Kingston, Vauxhall and Calabar high schools.

Trafficking in persons is the movement of people through fraud/deception, threat, abduction, force, abuse, of positions of power or abuse of positions of vulnerability for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation includes subjecting victims to prostitution or involuntary servitude without pay.

There are well over 1,000 schools in the island ranging from infant to tertiary.

The NATFATIP was introduced in June 2005 and focuses on deterring and suppressing trafficking in persons; the prosecution of offenders; as well as safeguarding and providing assistance to trafficking victims. More than 500 raids have been carried out since the passage of the Trafficking in Persons Act in 2007 resulting in the dismantling of three prostitution rings and the rescue of 86 persons from traffickers by the Trafficking in Persons Vice Squad of the JCF.

— Alicia Dunkley-Willis