TRAFFICKING OF PERSONS IN BELIZE - OAS

We defined the profile of the eventual victims and of the possible traffickers, the
geographical routes used to perform this crime, the legislation on migration flow
and we took a deep look at the public policies on this matter.
The methodology employed in this study included the following steps:
a) A first round of institutional basic contacts including the Task Force on
Human Trafficking created by Belize’s government (May 2004)
b) b) Adapting to the specific requests of this study the forms used by the OIM
in the region, a questionnaire was designed for a second round of contacts
and meetings with information sources.
c) Bibliographic survey of similar studies performed in Belize and the region,
including media periodical and occasional reports. The results of this
particular phase showed that - as mentioned previously – human trafficking
has recently entered Belize’s public agenda and only occasionally, specially
when isolated cases happen. On the other hand, it is very clear that
migration and cross border human flow are issues that matter a lot in the
public debate as well as in the collective imaginary of the country.
d) Second row of institutional meetings going more deeply into the subjects for
this study. These contacts included authorities of the three powers of the
State. Some of these interviews were open and others sticked to the
questionnaire already mentioned. Interviews to confidential sources where
also done, they supplied information and preferred to maintain anonymity.
Other people such as doctors, social workers, policemen and civil servants
from the visited areas (July 2004) had information to add to this research.
e) Final meeting with Task Force members and other authorities in a workshop
where the primary conclusions of this study were analyzed.
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