We’ve pointed out to the American and Belize governments that 30 percent of US-bound
Human trafficking victims get to the US via the Belize trafficking superhighway.

We arrived at these numbers using recently released United Nations information and US Justice Department data. The most recent Justice Department numbers available are from 2003. The Attorney General’s annual report to congress on human trafficking no longer offers estimates of annual incoming victims to the US. Six years ago, they estimated as many as 17, 5000 foreign nationals are trafficked into the US yearly. It’s pretty safe to conclude the numbers have not gone down.

If you do the math and apply the new UN information, you conclude that upward of 5, 500 human trafficking victims wind up in the US because of Belize’s immigration policies and practices. Specifically, its corrupt and porous borders provide an efficient corridor in which traffickers easily transport their victims.

It’s how a 17-year-old village girl from Guatemala winds up in a California or New York massage parlor, where she’s put on offer for commercial sexual exploitation and never seen by her family again. This life would not be forced on her if the traffickers were blocked at the Belize borders.

Clearly it’s in America’s interest to block one-third of its human trafficking intake by helping to staunch Belize border corruption. Equally clear, is the advantage to Belize since it’s poised to negotiate averting Tier 3 status as a worst-list human trafficking nation. It’s in both their interests to modernize, standardize and monitor Belize’s borders.

We’ve recommended the US offer its advice and expertise to Belize to overhaul its borders. Neighboring countries like El Salvador and Nicaragua have benefited from American guidance in improving and strengthening their borders in a Central American context. We have further recommended the US government negotiate overhaul of borders in an effort to avert Tier 3 status for Belize.

As well, we recommend the US government, as a complement to offering immigration advice and expertise, allocate funding to Belize for state-of-the art equipment and infrastructure. There is currently some $54 million left in the US’s anti-trafficking in persons project funding coffers. Some of the funding, if earmarked for Belize border improvement, would go a long way toward avoiding a hellish existence for so many victims.

It is also clear that better borders would do much to contribute to US efforts in their fight against Central American drug trafficking.

We have urged the Dean Barrow government can take this win: win opportunity and work with the US government to address the tide of human trafficking. And, most important, both countries have an opportunity to seriously block traffickers from destroying the lives of thousands of human trafficking victims.