KINGSTON, Jamaica – MOST PEOPLE, we expect, will welcome the harsher penalties as well as the new offences introduced into the law against human trafficking. For our Government, this week's approval by the House of Representatives of the amendments is a signal to the United States that we are serious about the issue. We will, hopefully, now be rewarded by Washington with Jamaica, if not being completely removed, being placed in a lower-grade watch list of countries deemed not to be doing enough about the problem. Broadly, we have no problem with the changes to the law, especially elements such as those that make it an offence to force children to be on the streets, as well as make it a higher order of crime when human trafficking is accompanied by violence with weapons, and if the victims suffer from physical or mental disabilities.
