TIP

The U.S State Department has releaed its 2021 Trafficiking in Persons (TIP) reports.  Haiti is "Tier 2" country meaning it is falling short in many areas.  The economic downtown, political instability, and conflict increased vulnerability.  Of note, the government did not make efforts to combat child domestic slavery with estimates of the number of restaveks in Haiti as high as 300,000.  The number of street children has likely increased and "orphanage entrepeneurs" continue to operate unlicensed shelters as profit-making enterprises.  The concrete steps Haiti could take to improve prevention and response are laid out in the Haiti section of the report copied below. 

The U.S State Department has released the 2017 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) reports.  The Haiti Country Narrative (copied below) notes that while Haiit does not meet minimum standards for preventing and responding to TIP, it is making significant efforts to improve.  This included strengthening its interministerial anti-trafficking commision, working more closely with international organizations, improving investigations and prosecutions and obtaining convinctions under the 2014 antri-trafficking law.  In short, progress is being made although much more remains to be done. 

Anastasia Moloney (Reuters) reports that Haitian police have arrested nine people, Americans and Canadians, in connection with sex trafficking at the Kaliko Beach Club near Port au Prince.  In 2016, Haiti was downgraded to the lowest grade (level three) in the 2016 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report meaning that no progress had been made before and that foreign assistance from the United States could be reduced in certain areas. Haiti does have a national TIP action plan but it has yet to be resourced or implemented.  The arrests may be a welcome sign that the government is beginning to take TIP more seriously.