Researchers identified patterns of transactional sex within families, most often by adult male caretakers such as step-fathers, as well as child prostitution outside the home.
Women from the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Jamaica voluntarily entered Barbados as illegal migrants, and some expected to engage in prostitution.
Some other foreign women who entered the country illegally were exploited in involuntary domestic servitude in private homes.
Traffickers used methods such as threats of physical harm or deportation, debt bondage, false contracts, psychological abuse, and confinement to force victims to work in construction, the garment industry, agriculture, or private households.
[1] In 2010 the Government of Barbados did not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it made significant efforts to do so.
[5] The Barbadian government made no discernible progress in its anti-human trafficking law enforcement efforts during the year 2010.
Sections 33 and 34 of the Offences Against the Person Act prohibit the crime of slavery; penalties for this offense range from five to fifteen years' imprisonment and are sufficiently stringent.
Most law enforcement and immigration officials still do not have the appropriate training, funding, and other necessary mechanisms to identify victims or suspected cases of trafficking.
The government provided no legal alternatives for the removal of foreign trafficking victims to countries where they may face hardship or retribution.
The Minister of Youth, Family, and Sports spoke openly against child prostitution on several occasions, a subject which had not often been raised in public before.
During the year, the government continued to host educational workshops for an unspecified number of officials and social service providers.
The course included training on responding to human trafficking, identification of fraudulent documents, interviewing techniques, and the detection of imposters.
In working together with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), improved technologies supporting the Royal Barbados Police Force's law enforcement could be implemented.