Can Belize Get To Tier Two? |
Thu, October 26, 2017 |
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Alpuche also commented on Belize's tier three ranking for Human Trafficking - one of only two or three countries in the entire western hemisphere to be so classified by the US State Department.
She was part of a rapid response team that went to Washington to meet with State Department Representatives to discuss who Belize could come up to a tier two ranking. Today she told the media that it's a process:...
Judith Alpuche, CEO - Ministry of Human Development
"We are continuing on on the road of ensuring that we address human trafficking. We cannot manufacture arrests. We cannot manufacture victims. We deal with it as we see it and one of the things that although we only have one prosecution under the new law. One case has gone before under the new law. That case was won. The person was convicted. Maybe not the penalty that we wanted for sure. We would have prefer incarceration, but that just goes to show, these things takes time, they are very complex and one of the things that we noted when we went to Washington is that they have confirmed - the FBI, the people working on these issues confirmed that it takes a very long time to investigate these things and it takes a very long time to have arrests and prosecutions."
St. Vincent and Barbados are in the second their but have zero or just one conviction.
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