Act on human trafficking

Last week’s discovery of eight Chinese nationals in an unfinished building at Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain — a stone’s throw from the National Museum, the National Academy for the Performing Arts and the Office of the President — is hardly the first time the issue of the trafficking of Chinese workers has arisen.

For decades, and under successive administrations, there have been concerns over the conditions by which Chinese labourers have been brought into the country to build billion-dollar mega-projects. The model remains unchanged: a Chinese company, hand-picked by the Chinese state, is selected to build a grand project pursuant to a secret government-to-government agreement; Chinese laborers are brought into the country. They live under deplorable conditions: denied their pay and, therefore, left restricted as to their movement and conduct.

In the push to deepen ties between the free-trade-oriented West and China, a complex quagmire of issues has festered. These issues are ethical, economic and social.

Human trafficking is the abuse of a position of power over a worker and it is clear that this is what occurs with these foreign workers, most of whom do not speak English, are brought here.

Several of our capital’s grandest buildings have been built on the back of this practice. This is a national disgrace.

Economically, the use of Chinese labour has distorted some aspects of the local labour market.

It has made the State complicit in the perpetuation of the stereotypical claim that black Trinidadian workers are lazy and do not work. It has also given certain companies unfair advantages over local contractors, threatening their viability.

Socially, we continue to see the targeting of Chinese nationals by the criminal element, a situation that is aggravated by the xenophobia generated by unfair contract awards and the use of Chinese labour by the State.

We agree with the call by contractor Emile Elias for greater enforcement of the laws of the country. The criminal law as well as a range of labour laws are clearly being breached. When our own nationals go abroad they are subject to a range of laws and procedures. Why should we not enforce our own laws with equal fervor? It is not good enough for the State to simply raid premises and detain labourers. It must bring those responsible for their presence here to account. Who is behind what transpired at Charlotte Street? Furthermore, why were Chinese labourers still at work on the National Academy for the Performing Arts as recently as last year? Under what conditions were these workers — who resided at Charlotte Street according to reports — brought into the country? The State and its agencies, cannot turn a blind eye to the practices of contractors within its employ. It is not good enough to say, as Udecott officials have, that the labour practices of contractors is the business of those contractors.

It is hoped that enough resources are being given to the State’s Counter-Trafficking Unit.

They must be allowed to do their work freely.

It is also time that we take a look at our policy when it comes to refugees as well as the facilities that have been set up to house detainees of the State. The immigration detention centre at Piarco has been subject to many complaints.

This is opportune time for us to review our policies. We must learn lessons and act