Belize News Post » The “Sugar Daddy” Phenomenon Lands Belize on Human Trafficking Watch List, Again.

According to the United States’ State Department the conditions under which “school-aged” minors are forced to provide sexual favors for wealthy older men, the sugar daddies, in exchange for school fees, money, and gifts are alive and well in Belize. So, Belize is back on the State Department’s Tier 2 Watch List for Trafficking in Humans.

According the 2009 report Belize’s government is not in compliance with “minimum” standards for the elimination of trafficking. The report is careful to say the GOB is making “significant” efforts but despite these efforts not enough is being done. “…The government did not show evidence of progress in convicting and sentencing trafficking offenders last year, and therefore Belize is placed on Tier 2 Watch List.”

In additional to the “sugar daddy” phenomenon, Belize has also been the site of the trafficking in humans for the purpose of labor. Apparently, an additional 60 victims from the hydrodam labor trafficking case were assisted by the government and repatriated to Nepal and India; transportation costs were paid by the company that had contracted the workers.

As for prevention of this problem the State Departments’s report has this to say:

“Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and convict and punish trafficking offenders, including any allegedly complicit public officials; increase law enforcement efforts against forced labor; continue to improve victim services and assistance; and increase penalties for sex trafficking crimes so they are commensurate with penalties for other grave crimes.”