It’s time to reveal that it was Belize Tourism CEO Michael Singh I was speaking with recently in an honest attempt to work with his government to address that country’s role as human trafficking super corridor. It was Mr. Singh who was the “government representative” I referred to in an earlier blog post re our sincere, and ultimately aborted, attempt to work with the Belize government to address women trafficked through and within Belize into forced prostitution.
And it was Mr. Singh I identified as a human trafficking denier. He is.
After making the initial appeal to negotiate with us, he wasted precocious time denying that forced prostitution of victims was a real force in his country, preferring to call it “voluntary” prostitution. He never once uttered, “human trafficking” in our exchanges.
Here is an excerpt from an email he sent us with his views and, and apparent experience, surveying the voluntary and enthusiastic life of prostitutes in Central America. We can verify the source of his email. It’s definitely from him.
The reason you find me to disagree a bit on the voluntary vs forced prostitution is because I have been traveling extensively in Central America for the past 12 years, as a matter of fact, I am in Honduras as we speak. There is hardly a bar or hotel that I have stayed at and not been solicited by prostitutes. In Panama, the Colombian prostitutes that are not working in strip bars/brothels cruise the hotel lobbies and bars, even upscale places. In Costa Rica, it’s the Nicaraguans, just as in Belize it’s the Hondurans and now the Dominicans. While certainly there is a huge linkage, many if not a majority of of them are engaged and cross borders for economic reasons, but of course that does not make them any less victims.
What was he thinking? Saying that, in his experience there are voluntary prostitutes everywhere he travels, and therefore, Belize is no more guilty than other countries of turning a blind eye to the crime? He has not served his government well. In fact, he’s an embarrassment to them. Worse, by not taking leadership on this issue, he left to twist in the wind all current and future victims in his country, and condemning them to a life of sex slavery in Mexico, the US and beyond.
While Mr. Singh was anxious to address the Belize tourism crisis, he was not an honest broker on behalf of his government. Our tourism boycott has enormous attention and traction globally. For good reason. People are interested in seeing Belize reform its attitudes and practices regarding easy flow of trafficking victims through its borders. Increasingly enlightened on Belize’s leniency towards this atrocity, they are boycotting Belize tourism and urging others to do the same.
We offered Mr. Singh an opportunity to work with his government to turn the situation around. We offered to help position Belize as a global anti-trafficking champion.
Instead, he chose to argue with us about the fact of inhumanity to the victims that his government condones and facilitates. He offered these observations while his own government’s police force was raiding San Pedro Ambergris Caye, calling it a human trafficking ring site. Since then, there has been another raid of human trafficking bars, with more arrests of traffickers.
Our global campaign followers, like us, do not want to punish Belize. We want to see justice done there. It is in Belize’s power to make changes to their borders and enforce their own anti-trafficking and prostitution laws.
We stand behind our commitment to work with Belize. Finding Mr. Singh’s discussions with us unacceptable, we urged him to connect us with decision-makers who can make real change. We are waiting, Mr. Singh.
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