Embassy of the Republic of Suriname, Washington, DC

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Inaugural Remarks by Ambassador Henry L. Illes at the Regional Meeting on Counter-Trafficking Strategies in the Caribbean

Washington DC, March 14, 2005

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very pleased to be invited by the Inter-American Commission of Women and the International Organization for Migration to speak here this morning at the opening session of this momentous and very important conference.

I am here today, first of all to listen to the contributions of the different international experts and to discuss with them, plausible solutions to the increasingly alarming problem of trafficking in persons in the Caribbean region.

Madam Chair,

The magnitude of this form of modern day slavery impacts not only the individuals in our home countries, but also has a severe influence on our societies as a whole. Trafficking of women has reached alarming proportions and the burden of this evil has become more destructive than ever before. Recent studies in the Caribbean region have revealed that every year thousands of women and girls are recruited, transported, marketed and purchased by individual buyers, traffickers and members of transnational organized crime syndicates, who operate within Caribbean countries with the main purpose of sexually exploiting these women.

Given the various characteristics of this rapidly growing category of transnational crime, allow me to take this opportunity to focus my brief remarks on one particular, but very imperative aspect of this problem, namely the centrality of corruption to the global business of human trafficking.

According to analysis offered by international NGO working to combat trafficking in persons, many citizens mistrust their local law enforcement, customs as well as immigration personnel, believing that some of them are highly corrupt. Undoubtedly, the fact is that corruption within governmental entities can contribute to the global trafficking in women and children in numerous ways.

Some striking examples of this predicament are:

The issuance of counterfeit passports and visas to facilitate trafficking;

Payoffs of customs and immigration officers to look the other way, while conducting trafficking crimes;

Payoffs of local police officers in order to gain their tolerance of brothels in their jurisdictions or to allow individuals to recruit women for prostitution purposes;

Infiltration in prosecution institutions and other information gathering channels by organized crime groups.

These examples clearly demonstrate how corruption, jointly with the availability of the technological and financial capacity of organized crime can cripple local law enforcement and immigration entities. It is therefore essential to create national, regional and hemispheric programs against corruption and the trafficking of human beings. We should make certain that our hemispheric program against corruption constitutes an important part of strategies to address those particular forms of organized crime such as the trafficking in persons.

Madam Chair,

Trafficking in persons has not spared the Caribbean, in fact as the current situation in many of our countries demonstrates; it has become increasingly worrisome for many of our citizens and societies. Indeed, Caribbean countries are vastly becoming the center of a growing sex tourism industry in our hemisphere. The picturesque Caribbean region is also becoming a transit point for trafficked women on route to Western Europe.

This problem transcends national borders. No single country, in fact not even a region like ours, can eliminate this problem by acting alone. Instead, we have no choice then to strongly join forces across national and regional borders. To be truly effective, our combined work must require the fullest involvement of Government, international agencies, civil society and private sector.

Looking around the room, it is indeed reassuring to rely on the commitment of the various experts present here today, in the fight against worldwide trafficking in women and human trafficking in the Caribbean region in particular.

The Government of Suriname is highly committed to working with the Governments in the rest of the region, as well as regional and international organizations on the fight against trafficking in women and children. I can assure you that I personally share this commitment with all of you. I am therefore looking forward to effective discussions over the next two and a half days, but more particularly to the results of this conference.

Thank you very much for your attention.