The Ministry of Justice 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 countries within the Dutch Kingdom will strive to adhere to the United Nations Treaty on Transnational Organized Criminality and all related protocols related to human trafficking and smuggling as well as the Council of Europe Treaty of 2011 related to this subject matter.
Trafficking in human beings is a multi-billion dollar form of international organized crime, constituting modern-day slavery.
Trafficking in human beings is a crime under international and national laws.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that trafficking in humans has an annual value of US$39 billion. It affects every region in the world. Human trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income worldwide exceeded only by drugs trafficking.
Victims are recruited and trafficked between countries and regions using deception or coercion. They are stripped of their autonomy, freedom of movement and choice, and face various forms of physical and mental abuse.
There are three main types of human trafficking: trafficking for forced labour; trafficking for sexual exploitation; and trafficking of organs.
Closely connected to human trafficking is the issue of people smuggling in which smugglers procure, for financial or material gain, the illegal entry of an individual into a country of which he is neither citizen nor a permanent resident.
In the Action Program 2013-2014 of the Minister of Justice Sint Maarten Hon. Dennis Richardson, all recommendations stated in the so called TIP report of the US State Department are embraced.
The recommendations concerning the combatting of human trafficking have priority and will be included in a concerted and comprehensive campaign to tackle this issue.