By Sue-Ann Wayow
TRINIDAD and Tobago although, free from colonisation, is still experiencing crimes of the historical past, especially against women and children.
And even though Emancipation Day was recently celebrated, they continue to be enslaved at the mercy of those who run human trafficking rings.
This is according to Member of Parliament for Chaguanas West Dinesh Rambally.
The MP on Sunday during the Opposition’s media briefing, spent extensive time talking about the abuse focusing on the Venezuelan migrants.
He made reference to the torture of a young girl called Louisa Calderon a 14-year-old Trinidadian girl born to a Venezuelan migrant.
Citing his information from the book called “The Last Caribbean Frontier 1795-1815’1”, Rambally said she was tortured by means of picketing after being accused of stealing under orders from then Governor Sir Thomas Picton after whom Picton Street in Port of Spain was named after.
He said, “Like Louisa’s mother, Venezuelan migrants come here, many in desperate search for a better life. They make life compromises just to survive. Like Louisa, many young girls have their fate decided for them and are given over to men who wield power, or are trafficked by people who are often well-connected to high government officials. Louisa’s particular torture was severe, but not necessarily more than the many displaced and many orphaned children who have been put in the now notorious children’s homes.”
Rambally continued, “What happened to Louisa many years ago, continue to happen to our women folk on a daily basis in Trinidad and Tobago today. Women are tortured and abused, bludgeoned to death, they are trafficked and sold as sex slaves. Child trafficking and other horrific forms of child abuse are happening in this country because of the power of certain people who are well-connected to the upper echelons of power.”
The difference then, was that Picton was called to account to the English courts, he added.
Rambally said government continue to fail to protect citizens and the migrant population despite advances in technology and protective laws.
Describing crime as the “deepest disturbance” facing the country he admitted that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley have gotten one thing right which was declaring that crime was a public health emergency.
But neither he nor National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds has done anything to alleviate it, the MP said.
Speaking about the US Department of State report on human trafficking, Rambally said government has failed in every area.
According to the report released last month, Trinidad and Tobago remains on a Tier 2 watch list for human trafficking by the US.
“We have a damming report on the extent of human trafficking in this country yet there has been no substantive action taken by this Rowley led government to address the concerns raised by the US,” Rambally said.
Rambally said, “Right now there is a call to rename Picton street. However, if we continue to fail to learn from the horrendous acts committed by Governor Picton, then these atrocities will continue, just under new names. Could you imagine that the Government has rushed to set up a committee to possibly rename Picton Steet yet there has been no indication to address the crimes of the kind that Picton himself committed.”
At Emancipation Day celebrations, founder of the Caribbean Freedom Project Shabaka Kambon called on Government to save Trinidad and Tobago to replace streets, monuments and signs named after Picton and others like him in the lead-up to the nation’s 60th anniversary Independence Day celebrations.
