Persons with tips encouraged to use confidential phone and email contacts
The Ministry of Justice National Reporting Bureau on Human Trafficking hereby would like to inform the community that persons or victims of exploitation can contact the following telephone (+721) 542-2537 number from Monday to Friday 8.00am to 5.00pm, or email na*******@gm***.com to provide confidential information about human exploitation.
Trafficking in human beings is a crime under international and national laws.
No one volunteers to be exploited. Traffickers frequently recruit people through fraudulent advertisements promising legitimate jobs as hostesses, domestics. There are signs when commercial establishments are holding people against their will.
The National Reporting Bureau on Human Trafficking has brochures in a number of languages, English, Spanish and Dutch. If you know somebody who is being exploited, ask for help by contacting the number above or sending an email.
Sint Maarten will be observing Human Trafficking Day within the Kingdom of the Netherlands on October 18.
This is in connection with a Memorandum of Understanding that was signed by the Ministers of Justice of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten in June 2011 to intensify cooperation and making it a priority to fight together within the Kingdom against human trafficking and smuggling.
The fight against human trafficking and exploitation is a top priority for the Government of Sint Maarten.
1.2 million Children are trafficked every year according to an estimate from UNICEF. 600,000-800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, and approximately 80 per cent are women and girls, and up to 50 per cent are minors (US Dept. of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2007).
At least 20.9 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Conservative research from 2012 estimated trafficking in victims as comprising some 44 per cent of this figure (ILO 2012 Global Estimate of Forced Labour).
Virtually every country in the world is affected by these crimes. The challenge for all countries, rich and poor, is to target the criminals who exploit desperate people and to protect and assist victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants, many of whom endure unimaginable hardships in their bid for a better life.
Sint Maarten supports the outcome of the recent United Nations (UN) General Assembly High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development held early October during the UN General Assembly’s 68th Session in New York which is to ensure that human rights protection is integrated into the criminal justice responses to human trafficking and migrant smuggling.