Munroe hits out over US Trafficking report

stateless persons, and foreign diplomatic missions.

Additional recommendations included: “Increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers; improve efforts to identify victims and refer them to services; reduce delays in court proceedings; ensure the process to find alternate housing for at-risk communities does not create additional vulnerabilities; include Haitian Creole and Spanish-speaking services on the trafficking hotline.”

Asked about the recommendations, Mr Munroe said the US should “assist more fulsomely”.

“They’ve given us recommendations. I picked up one of the recommendations, which is to provide designated housing for TIPS victims. That’s just one of their recommendations. It’s been one for eight years,” he said.

“They could see we just finished the Budget debate. They could see how we allocate our resources. They can see we’ve allocated resources for a safe house for victims of sexual offences. Just as they provide us tangible assistance in other areas, they could provide us tangible assistance in this area if they were so minded.”

The US reported concerns of non-government organisations, saying: “NGOs reported that although the country adopted appropriate laws and procedures, lowerlevel police, immigration officials, and labour inspectors did not implement them because of a failure to understand them, neglect, or complicity. Observers also noted some immigration officials may have solicited Haitian migrants for bribes to prevent detention.”

In response, Mr Munroe said he would not tolerate such denigration of law enforcement officials.

“I am not impressed with secondhand hearsay attributed information,” he said. “If, in effect, you’re telling me that our officials do not understand them, please provide a concrete example of why.

“Saying that somebody tells you that is the equivalent of you telling me that you’re saying that Wayne Munroe is sexy because Wayne Munroe tells you Wayne Munroe is sexy. That is not a sensible way for countries to deal with one another.

“I would expect having seen this report - and I haven’t received it yetsome detailed reporting of who has said this, what is the information and exactly how it was proffered. I am not impressed that this is a State Department report.

I’m impressed when our friends assist us to point out factual shortcomings because that is the only way that we can address them, but as far as this reference is concerned, we have no clue which NGOs these are.

“And so, comments like this are really unhelpful, and we expect that our friends will seek to assist us, and we hold ourselves open to receiving that assistance. What I do not, as the minister of national security, hold myself open to, is accepting the denigration of law enforcement officials of this country based on hearsay from unidentified sources. Our service people deserve more and better than that, and I for one will not tolerate it.”