On Wednesday, June 10th and Thursday, June 11th the IND, together with chain partners, organized a workshop human trafficking and smuggling for its employees on Bonaire. On Friday, June 12th the heads of the partners Koninklijke Marechaussee (KMar), Social and Labor Affairs (SZW), Correctional Institution Dutch Caribbean, (Justitiële Inrichting Caribisch Nederland, JICN), Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland (BCN), Korps Politie Caribisch Nederland (KPCN) and the Public Prosecutor’s Office (OM) were on turn and established working arrangements. Said chain partners together form the working group human trafficking / smuggling of which the OM is chairman. Monday, June 15th was a day devoted to the Windward Islands of the Caribbean Netherlands where participants from Saba traveled to Statia to attend the workshop. A total of 48 people participated in this workshop.
The workshop was given by Richard Sondeijker, Coordinator Human Trafficking from IND NL. Labour exploitation is a great injustice that gets too little attention in many countries with the consequence that many perpetrators of this crime never get caught. Through this day the attention to this form of trafficking is extended. Exploitation in the construction or in the household is difficult to recognize because it often occurs in secret. This is a big difference with sexual exploitation, where public visibility is generally required in order to attract customers.
These workshops were designed to teach the employees of mentioned departments to recognize signals from exploitation and to know how to deal with it when such a case occurs. In addition, the chain partners agreed upon who does what in the chain when there is an exploitation situation. This allows the chain to act quickly and effectively to help the victims and send a clear signal to the perpetrators that human trafficking and smuggling in the Dutch Caribbean will not be tolerated.