Tourism sector urged to help combat human trafficking in Tobago

Tourism stake­hold­ers in To­ba­go are be­ing urged to play a greater role in iden­ti­fy­ing and pre­vent­ing hu­man traf­fick­ing as the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty marked World Day Against Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons 2026 with a se­ries of aware­ness ini­tia­tives on the is­land.

The Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU), in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the To­ba­go Tourism Agency Lim­it­ed (TTAL), host­ed a stake­hold­er sen­si­ti­sa­tion ses­sion on Wednes­day at the Com­fort Inn and Suites Ho­tel in Scar­bor­ough. The event brought to­geth­er about 50 rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the tourism and hos­pi­tal­i­ty sec­tor, in­clud­ing hote­liers, guest­house op­er­a­tors, trans­port providers and tourism pro­fes­sion­als.

Held un­der this year’s glob­al theme, “Trapped Be­hind the Scam,” the ses­sion fo­cused on strength­en­ing aware­ness of hu­man traf­fick­ing, im­prov­ing vig­i­lance and re­in­forc­ing the tourism in­dus­try’s role in iden­ti­fy­ing and re­port­ing sus­pect­ed cas­es.

The CTU said tourism work­ers are of­ten among the first to en­counter vul­ner­a­ble in­di­vid­u­als or ob­serve sus­pi­cious be­hav­iour and are there­fore in a unique po­si­tion to help pre­vent ex­ploita­tion.

Par­tic­i­pants re­ceived guid­ance on iden­ti­fy­ing in­di­ca­tors of traf­fick­ing, re­port­ing oblig­a­tions un­der the Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Act, and emerg­ing trends af­fect­ing To­ba­go. In­ter­ac­tive dis­cus­sions al­so ex­plored how traf­fick­ing can oc­cur with­in le­git­i­mate tourism set­tings and the im­por­tance of ear­ly in­ter­ven­tion.

Sec­re­tary of Tourism, An­tiq­ui­ties and Cre­ative In­dus­tries, As­sem­bly­man Zor­isha Hack­ett, praised the part­ner­ship be­tween the CTU and the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly.

Hack­ett en­cour­aged par­tic­i­pants to en­gage ful­ly in the pro­gramme and leave bet­ter equipped to iden­ti­fy vul­ner­a­ble in­di­vid­u­als and pro­tect those at risk.

Deputy Di­rec­tor of the Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit, Dane-Marie Mar­shall, said hu­man traf­fick­ing of­ten re­mains hid­den be­cause it re­lies on de­cep­tion and si­lence.

Mar­shall said ho­tel re­cep­tion­ists, taxi dri­vers, guest­house op­er­a­tors, tour guides and mem­bers of the pub­lic all have the po­ten­tial to recog­nise warn­ing signs and pro­tect vic­tims, adding that pre­ven­tion be­gins with aware­ness and strong part­ner­ships.

The sen­si­ti­sa­tion ses­sion formed part of the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty’s ex­pand­ed ob­ser­vance of World Day Against Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons and marked the Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit’s first ma­jor op­er­a­tional and pub­lic aware­ness de­ploy­ment in To­ba­go since its es­tab­lish­ment in 2013.

Ac­tiv­i­ties al­so in­clud­ed the un­veil­ing of a new an­ti-hu­man traf­fick­ing bill­board along Shir­van Road on Tues­day, aimed at rais­ing pub­lic aware­ness and en­cour­ag­ing the re­port­ing of sus­pect­ed traf­fick­ing.

The CTU al­so con­duct­ed an aware­ness ses­sion for about 50 chil­dren at­tend­ing the Des­tiny Em­pow­er­ment Glob­al Min­istries Sum­mer Va­ca­tion Camp in Spring Gar­den. The ses­sion fo­cused on on­line safe­ty, groom­ing be­hav­iours, de­cep­tive re­cruit­ment tac­tics and recog­nis­ing the warn­ing signs of ex­ploita­tion.

The min­istry said the ini­tia­tives form part of a co­or­di­nat­ed na­tion­al strat­e­gy to strength­en pre­ven­tion, vic­tim pro­tec­tion, pros­e­cu­tion and part­ner­ships in the fight against hu­man traf­fick­ing.