Prostitution in Trinidad and Tobago is legal but related activities such as brothel keeping, soliciting and pimping are illegal.
[5] New brothels continue to open across the country, particularly in the south where they are incorporated into small bars and rum shops and are difficult to detect, and in central, where they operate out of a normal-looking flats in a neighbourhood.
[14] After the abolition of slavery (1838), many mulatto women became prostitutes or brothel madams, often moving from rural areas to towns such as Port of Spain.
In his book, Calypso and Society, Gordon Rohlehr noted: "Some singers, indeed, presented the vocation of prostitution as the only alternative to that of housewifery, and warned young girls against leaving their mothers' homes.
When this profession is followed, it is usually for economic reasons and because the wages earned by the woman in her other occupation are often too low to obtain the necessities of life for her.
"[16] Prostitution was a boom industry in the 1940s after the allied troops, especially American, were stationed on the islands during WW2,[17][18][19] especially around Port of Spain Arima.
[20] In addition to the 100,000 troops,[21] the construction workers building the new American bases at Chaguaramas and Waller Field[17] added to the demand for prostitution.
The Governor of Trinidad and Tobago considered licensing the brothels in the country to ensure proper testing of the women, but this was never brought into force.
[21] American Lt. Col. Fox recalled that when he visited in 1941, he was assured that every taxi driver could take him to a house of pleasure with any race of woman he desired.
[19] Sociologist Lloyd Braithwaite noted in his 1953 survey Social Stratification in Trinidad wrote: "In the lower-class sections of the town many well-known prostitutes abide, even though technically some have no fixed place of abode...the straitened and precarious economic circumstances that face working-class girls, particularly in the towns, must constantly make prostitution a temptation to them.
[26] Trinidad and Tobago is a destination, transit, and source country for adults and children subjected to sex trafficking.
[23] Most of the victims of sex trafficking are brought into the country by boat, landing on southern peninsula of Trinidad in Icacos, Cedros and other neighbouring fishing villages.