The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has appealed the non-custodial sentences handed down to human trafficking convict Joyce Lawrence, in light of the law stipulating that a jail sentence is mandatory for persons found guilty of the crime.
According to Public Relations Officer of the DPP’s office Liz Rahaman, DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack signed the necessary documentation on Friday to set the appeal in motion.
Instead of sentencing Lawrence to jail time, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan had ordered that she make restitution to the victim and fined her on a related charge of withholding the victim’s identification.
Lawrence, of Plantation Grove, was convicted of trafficking a sixteen-year-old female for labour exploitation and unlawfully withholding an identification document belonging to her. The sentence in relation to the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) charge was an order by the court to pay $884,000 as restitution to the victim or face 12 months imprisonment. Lawrence was also fined $50,000 on the charge of unlawfully withholding the identification document with an alternative of eight weeks in prison.
The Ministerial Task Force on TIP, in response to the news of the non-custodial sentences, voiced concern at the precedent that the decision to not have the perpetrator serve mandatory jail time would set, especially given that the survivor was a minor. “It is of utmost importance that offenders are dealt with in such a manner that it will serve as a strong deterrent to other potential perpetrators, thus reducing incidence of these crimes in the future,” the Task Force said in a statement.
It was noted by the Legal Issues Sub-Committee of the Task Force that Section 3. (1) of the Combating Trafficking in Persons Act, mandates that “Whoever engages in or conspires to engage in, or attempts to engage in, or assist another person to engage in or organises or directs other persons to engage in “trafficking in persons” shall – (i) on summary conviction (a) be sentenced to not less than three years nor more than five years imprisonment; (b) be subject to forfeiture of property under section 7; and (c) be ordered to pay full restitution to the trafficked person or persons under section 6.”
Further, Section 4 of the law states, “Any person who for the purpose of trafficking in persons, and acting or purporting to act as another person’s employer…knowingly procures, destroys, conceals, removes, confiscates, or possesses any passport, immigration document, whether actual or purported, belonging to another person commits an offence and shall on summary conviction be fined one million dollars together with imprisonment for not more than five years.”
The Task Force said it was clear from both of these sections of the law that imprisonment was mandated in addition to restitution and the fine.
The Task Force said that it does not seek to criticise officials regarding the carrying out of their functions, and recognises their commitment to the cause of eradicating trafficking in persons. It said that it is committed to working with the judicial and prosecutorial authorities to improve efforts in ensuring that penalties for human trafficking are commensurate with the offence committed and that they act as effective deterrents.
