The government and a popular restaurant franchise yesterday combined efforts in a joint initiative aimed at keeping a spotlight on the issue of human trafficking, in an effort to protect actual and potential victims.
In a special presentation at its Cable Beach location, Wendy's Bahamas announced that all of its New Providence locations will provide dine-in customers with an informational tray liner aimed at raising public awareness on the subject and to aid the country's ability to tackle the issue.
Minister of National Security Dr. Bernard Nottage said human trafficking is one of the most "vicious and cruel violations" of human rights confronting the world today.
"As unbelievable as it may seem to many of us, there are people in this world that use force, fraud or deception to recruit, transfer, harbor or receive or simply abduct other human beings for the sole purpose of exploiting them," said Nottage.
The national security minister compared human trafficking, in which victims are usually drawn away from their homes and transported to foreign countries where they are strangers and have no one to turn to, to modern day slavery.
"We want this tray liner to prompt Bahamians to begin a discourse on trafficking of persons - what it is and what it does to human beings," Dr. Nottage said
"...Up to 2011, no person claiming to be a victim of trafficking has come forward in The Bahamas and consequently no trafficker has been prosecuted. We cannot confirm, however, that there are no cases of trafficking of persons in The Bahamas. Indeed, there is anecdotal evidence to suggest otherwise, but this is a complex and well hidden crime as victims are not in a position to speak up for themselves."
The previous administration created a National Task Force on Trafficking earlier this year, comprised of the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs; the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health and Labour and Social Development; the Royal Bahamas Police and Defence Forces; the Department of Immigration and the Department of Customs.
The task force was created in an effort to make The Bahamas compliant with U.S. standards in the fight against human trafficking.
Last year, The Bahamas' human trafficking rating was downgraded after the country did not meet benchmarks set by the U.S State Department.
In 2008, the United Nations estimated that 2.5 million people from 127 countries were being trafficked around the world, with up to 80 percent of victims being women, who were being sexually assaulted.

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