by ALBERT BRANDFORD

BARBADOS is one of six CARICOM countries identified by the United States State Department as guilty of human trafficking for forced labour or prostitution.

The sixth annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Report released Monday said those countries, including Guyana, Jamaica, Belize and Suriname, were either source, transit or destination countries (or all three) for men, women and children forced into labour or used as sex workers.

And Jamaica has been placed on a "red list" which could see sanctions imposed if it does not improve its slipping law enforcement efforts to meet the minimum standards set in the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000.

The report said Guyanese women were trafficked to Barbados and Brazil to work as prostitutes, while children from Central America were taken to Belize for labour exploitation and Belizean women were forced into prostitution in Belize City.

Barbados is cited as a destination city, but according to a special edition online of the Bridgetown-based caribbean360.com, the United States does not regard this Eastern Caribbean state as a violator as its Government monitors and cracks down on illegal workers.

It said, however, that Guyanese children, young women, and men were trafficked for forced labour and sex.

The report added that "much of this trafficking takes place in remote areas of the interior, or involves Amerindian girls from the interior trafficked to coastal areas to engage in prostitution and involuntary domestic servitude".

"Girls promised employment as domestics, waitresses and bar attendants are trafficked into prostitution; [and] young Amerindian men are exploited under forced labour conditions in timber camps. In some instances, victims are forcibly abducted. Guyanese girls and young women are trafficked for sexual exploitation to neighbouring countries such as Suriname and Barbados."