• Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute traffickers, including officials who are complicit in human trafficking and foreign nationals or Jamaicans who exploit child sex trafficking victims, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.
• Develop and finalize a new national policy to combat human trafficking and allocate resources for its implementation.
• Fully implement the screening tools and the NRM to increase proactive identification and referral of potential trafficking victims among vulnerable groups – to include Chinese national workers in Jamaica and children apprehended for gang-related activity – and continue to provide consistent training for officials on implementing these tools.
• To prevent forced labor among Cuban workers in Jamaica, hire any Cuban workers directly and utilize hiring practices that are in line with domestic and international law, and provide adequate protection to Cuban victims of human trafficking.
• Increase efforts to provide more victims, whether identified in Jamaica or repatriated from abroad, with comprehensive, trauma-informed, services, including reintegration support and for the full length of any legal proceedings.
• Train criminal justice officials on provisions in the anti-trafficking law directing courts to order restitution to victims and ensure victims consistently receive court-ordered payments.
• Increase funding and human resources to ministries, departments, and agencies responsible for trafficking victim protection services, and strengthen capacity-building and risk assessment procedures within the child protection system.
• Allow adult victims greater independence to make informed choices about their own security needs and do not impose restriction of movement on adult victims while in the government’s care.
• Amend the anti-trafficking law to prescribe penalties for sex trafficking that are commensurate with penalties for other grave crimes by increasing the available maximum imprisonment term.
• Implement legal or policy changes to enhance law enforcement officials’ ability to classify children subjected to forced criminality as trafficking victims.
• Increase resources to ONRTIP to provide independent monitoring and oversight of the government’s anti-trafficking response.
• Strengthen systems to collect, share, and analyze integrated case data on suspected and confirmed trafficking cases among relevant ministries, departments, and agencies, and increase the use of data and data-driven research to inform policy and programs.

The government slightly increased law enforcement efforts. Although it investigated fewer cases, the government convicted traffickers under the trafficking law, resulting in sentences that included significant terms of imprisonment.

The government criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking through its Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Suppression, and Punishment) Act. The law prescribes penalties of up to 20 years’ imprisonment for offenses involving an adult victim and up to 30 years’ imprisonment for those involving a child victim. These penalties were sufficiently stringent; however, with respect to sex trafficking, by prescribing a lower maximum imprisonment term, these penalties were not commensurate with those for other grave crimes, such as rape. ONRTIP has recommended legal amendments to define forced criminal activity more clearly as a form of trafficking to strengthen the tools available to criminal justice officials seeking justice for victims of these crimes.

Officials opened investigations into 39 cases, 38 involving sex trafficking, and one involving an unspecified form of trafficking; this was a decrease from the previous reporting period when officials opened investigation into 61 cases (48 involving sex trafficking, six involving labor trafficking, and seven involving unspecified forms of trafficking). Authorities initiated prosecutions of five suspects, all for sex trafficking, compared to eight suspects in the previous reporting period (six for sex trafficking and two for labor trafficking). Authorities also continued previously initiated prosecutions of eight defendants (six for sex trafficking and two for forced labor). Authorities convicted two traffickers, one for sex trafficking and one child labor trafficking, compared to convicting three sex traffickers during the previous reporting period. The government convicted both traffickers under the anti-trafficking law, compared to the prior year when it did not convict any traffickers under the trafficking law. Courts sentenced the sex trafficker to serve 11 years and six months in prison and to pay a restitution in the amount of two million Jamaican dollars ($12,579), and the labor trafficker to serve two years’ imprisonment. In comparison, during the previous reporting period, courts sentenced three convicted sex traffickers to serve six months in prison or pay a fine of 200,000 Jamaican dollars ($1,257) each. The slow pace at which cases moved through the courts impacted efforts to hold traffickers criminally accountable and deterred victims from serving as witnesses. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in trafficking crimes; however, endemic corruption and official complicity, including within law enforcement, remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) maintained a specialized police unit with island-wide jurisdiction to investigate human trafficking and vice crimes. The JCF’s Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse unit specialized in cases involving child victims and/or sexual abuse, and officials in these units also identified trafficking victims. Jamaica’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions maintained a team of prosecutors specialized in human rights, intellectual property, and sexual offenses, including trafficking. The team received specialized training on prosecuting trafficking cases. The government continued annual trainings for police officers on investigating trafficking cases and identifying victims. Anti-trafficking police conducted 30 surveillance operations of locations in 12 of Jamaica’s 14 parishes believed to be high-risk for trafficking and arrested three individuals as a result. Some individual judges had specialized trafficking experience, but there was no formal mechanism to assign trafficking cases to these judges. The government reported initiating an extradition request for a Jamaican national charged with child trafficking in 2021, who may have fled to the United States.

The government maintained efforts to protect victims.

The government identified and assisted 23 individuals, including 10 confirmed sex trafficking victims (all girls), 13 potential sex trafficking victims (eight girls and five women), and two labor trafficking victims (both girls). This was compared with 29 confirmed and potential victims identified in 2023. The government reported referring all 23 victims to services and providing care, including accommodation, counseling and psycho-social support, and medical care. The government provided services to one adult Jamaican victim exploited abroad upon her self-funded repatriation to Jamaica. The government did not report how many child victims the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) assisted in residential facilities in 2024, compared with five victims cared for in these facilities in 2023. Children could leave shelters daily to attend school and the government provided educational services inside shelters to three children. CPFSA provided mental health support to the child victims in its care. The Ministry of Justice’s Victim Services Division (VSD) continued to provide counseling sessions for victims. The government reported spending 3.7 million Jamaican dollars ($23,270) on victim protection services, a decrease from 9.6 million Jamaican dollars ($60,377) dedicated to victim protection services in 2023.

Officials continued to implement a victim identification and referral mechanism to proactively screen for possible child trafficking victims among the populations they served and refer possible child victims to specialized authorities and service providers. Relevant ministries, agencies, and departments including CPFSA, VSD, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MLSS), the JCF’s anti-trafficking unit, and the Passport, Immigration, and Citizenship Agency (PICA) utilized ministry-specific screening tools to guide officials in assessing behavioral, situational, health, and other factors to identify potential child trafficking victims among vulnerable groups; victim intake and case management forms; and an NRM to standardize procedures for victim referral and management of care across government. ONRTIP launched a publicly available online training for front-line officers and first responders on trafficking indicators, identifying victims, and locating resources for victims. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade had a handbook on human trafficking for diplomatic and consular staff, including criteria for identifying victims, but did not identify any Jamaican victims exploited abroad. The Ministry of Education and Youth approved and disseminated an anti-trafficking manual to schools, developed during a previous reporting period, designed to guide school officials, students, and families on addressing child trafficking issues within the education system. PICA continued to operate a team established in the previous reporting period to respond to human trafficking, and continued to implement SOPs on victim identification, assistance, and referral. CPFSA reported screening 35 potential child victims of trafficking and identified five confirmed victims. Officials did not always effectively screen all vulnerable children, and authorities classified some child sex trafficking victims as victims of other crimes. JCF’s anti-trafficking unit continued to implement SOPs to screen for trafficking when apprehending vulnerable individuals, including migrants and persons engaged in commercial sex. Non-specialized police screened and identified four victims and referred them to services; however, they did not typically screen for trafficking indicators among vulnerable groups, including children apprehended for gang-related activity. Authorities did not acknowledge Cuban regime-affiliated workers as being at high risk for forced labor or screen these workers for indicators of trafficking, despite ongoing concerns by international experts that the Cuban regime may force them to work. The government did not proactively screen Chinese nationals working in construction sites under labor agreements with the Chinese government, for trafficking indicators.

The NRM required all reports of suspected trafficking go through the JCF’s anti-trafficking and vice crimes unit for formal identification and investigation, but it established a stronger role for service providers in conducting needs assessments and providing case management to child victims. JCF, NATFATIP, and in the case of child victims, CPFSA, collaborated to arrange short- or long-term accommodation and other services to victims. CPFSA provided child victims with services that were tailored to individual needs and typically included counseling and psycho-social support, educational support, and reintegration assistance. JCF’s anti-trafficking unit and the Ministry of Justice’s Victim Services Branch also provided these services to some victims, including adults. Local experts reported the government likely provided shelter or other services to some child trafficking victims it did not formally identify and classified as victims of other crimes.

NATFATIP operated a shelter exclusively for women and child trafficking victims, which could accommodate a total of 15 victims, and arranged private lodging for some victims, including men and foreign victims prior to repatriation. CPFSA placed child victims in residential facilities managed by the government and NGOs that were not exclusive to trafficking victims. The government reported placing child victims in foster care when this option was available and feasible. The government reported adult victims had the option of residing in the government’s specialized shelter or in private accommodation; in practice, however, authorities limited some victims’ options based on an independent police assessment of the victim’s security risks. Adult victims could refuse placement in shelters regardless of security assessment outcomes. Authorities placed victims deemed to be at high risk in private accommodations guarded by police. All victims could leave the shelter unchaperoned. The government acquired a property it plans to develop into a shelter for male trafficking victims, but it did not begin its refurbishment during the year.

The government reported holding a training and capacity building session for 25 CPFSA social workers on identifying, referring, and providing care for child trafficking survivors throughout different stages of the agency’s interactions with victims. CPFSA also facilitated continuing education training for its psychologists on the impacts of trauma and therapeutic interventions for child survivors. The government reported installing security cameras and improving lighting in CPFSA residential childcare facilities, in addition to conducting risk assessments of children placed under CPFSA care, in response to a January 2023 Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) report that exposed serious failures in Jamaica’s child protection system and called for extensive capacity building and improved risk assessment to protect children from experiencing abuse while in CPFSA care.

The government provided limited long-term services to support victims’ reintegration, prevent re-exploitation, or sustain protection throughout the duration of lengthy court cases, though the NRM included the need for reintegration support. The government continued supporting a survivor who has been a resident of the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (NATFATIP) shelter since 2013 and authorities began assisting her safe transition to long-term independence outside the shelter. Foreign victims were able to access the same services as Jamaican victims. The government did not have a formal policy to provide residency to foreign victims who faced hardship or retribution upon return to their home countries, but authorities could provide this assistance to victims on a case-by-case basis. One foreign victim received residency.

The government continued operating 10 child-friendly spaces for interviewing and assisting child victims. These multidisciplinary spaces, developed with donor funding and technical assistance from an NGO, provided child victims and witnesses with a safe and private location to access immediate law enforcement and medical attention, as well as referral to additional services in a trauma-informed setting. The government reported a CPFSA social worker typically accompanied children to interviews with law enforcement. NATFATIP continued implementing a guide, developed with assistance from an NGO, for interviewing child victims and witnesses using a child-friendly, trauma-informed approach.

VSD provided court orientation sessions for victims participating in the judicial process, including children, and officers from VSD or CPFSA accompanied victims testifying in court. The government provided assistance to victims participating in court cases, including three victims involved in new prosecutions; these services included counseling, transportation, meals, and enhanced security when safety risks were assessed. The government continued to make efforts to ensure continuity once a case was assigned to a prosecutor, to foster trust and to minimize the need for repeated victim interviews. In certain instances, justice officials permitted victims to provide testimony through video or written statements, and some child-friendly spaces were equipped with recording technology to streamline child victims’ interviews. However, the government did not always allocate adequate human or financial resources to provide victims with sustained support during legal processes, and authorities did not always employ victim-centered procedures. Years-long court cases, re-traumatization during the criminal justice process, and fear of reprisal further disincentivized victims from reporting cases or participating in trials.

Jamaica’s anti-trafficking law directed the court to order restitution to victims. The victim did not receive the restitution payment the court ordered a convicted sex trafficker to pay as of the end of the reporting period due to the trafficker’s insolvency. Jamaican law protected trafficking victims from prosecution for immigration or commercial sex offenses committed solely as a direct result of being trafficked, but it did not provide immunity for other unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Due to inadequate screening among vulnerable populations, including children apprehended for gang-related criminal activity, the government did not take effective measures to prevent the inappropriate penalization of potential victims solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked.

The government maintained efforts to prevent trafficking.

NATFATIP, which was chaired by the Ministry of National Security and included representatives from relevant government institutions and select NGOs, met quarterly to coordinate, implement, and evaluate national anti-trafficking efforts. The government reported its 2018-2021 national action plan (NAP), though expired, continued to guide NATFATIP’s activities. The government did not approve a draft national policy to combat trafficking, drafted and submitted for cabinet approval in 2022, to replace the NAP. The government allocated 19 million Jamaican dollars ($119,500) to NATFATIP, compared to approximately 11 million Jamaican dollars ($69,200) allocated to NATFATIP in the previous reporting period. The government also allocated approximately 50 million Jamaican dollars ($314,465) to ONRTIP. Ministries also funded anti-trafficking activities from their individual budgets. ONRTIP and CPFSA, and other agencies held numerous educational sessions for government officials, students, teachers, doctors, community organizations, and members of the public. Public officials utilized television, radio, newspaper, billboards, brochures, SMS messaging, social media, and other online platforms to disseminate messages on the risks of human trafficking and encouraging the public to identify and report suspected cases, with some materials available in English and Patois.

ONRTIP drafted, but did not finalize or release, a report identifying gaps and challenges in Jamaica’s anti-trafficking efforts. ONRTIP maintained an online resource library providing the public with access to a collection of research and other materials on trafficking. NATFATIP maintained a database to collect information on traffickers and victims provided in monthly reports from its member institutions, and ONRTIP provided independent oversight of the government’s anti-trafficking efforts. ONRTIP has reported shortcomings in data entry and insufficient access to the data across government sectors. Key government institutions maintained an MOU on data sharing, which aimed to allow more timely and comprehensive access to data on anti-trafficking efforts, but officials reported data collection remained weak. ONRTIP provided independent oversight and reporting on the government’s anti-trafficking response and, together with OCA, worked to protect the rights of trafficking victims and vulnerable children. Experts reported ONRTIP needed greater resources to fulfill its role.

The government operated three 24-hour hotlines that accepted reports of human trafficking and were available in English and Patois, the local dialect. CPFSA operated a hotline for reporting cases of child abuse, including human trafficking; the Office of the Children’s Advocate operated a phone line and messaging platform to provide immediate psycho-social support directly to children; and police operated an emergency line. The government reported identifying four potential victims and initiating four investigations as a result of calls and messages to the JCF and CPFSA hotlines, an increase from identifying two child victims and initiating two investigations from calls to the hotlines during the previous reporting period.

The Employment Agencies Regulation Act set guidelines for the licensing of employment agencies and prohibited charging some workers recruitment fees, but this only applied to participants in overseas programs in which host governments had prohibited such fees. Separate laws prohibited fraudulent recruitment practices such as contract switching. MLSS officials reported coordinating with police on investigations and prosecutions of private employment agencies suspected of operating illegally. MLSS conducted pre-departure orientation sessions for migrant workers in the hospitality and agricultural sectors in the United States and Canada, including information on types of human trafficking, identifying and avoiding potential risks, and who to contact for assistance. The government maintained liaison officers in Canada, under the auspices of a bilateral MOU, to protect the interests of overseas workers. These officials were ostensibly available to workers 24 hours a day and seven days a week, including via a new hotline, but the government employed only 13 liaison officers to support approximately 10,000 Jamaican workers across 10 Canadian provinces and many workers reported they failed to provide adequate support. The government operated a liaison service in the United States, but only certain categories of Jamaican temporary workers were eligible for this assistance, leaving more than half of all Jamaican temporary workers in the United States ineligible. The government participated in a program with authorities in the United States to limit the entry into Jamaica of sex offenders convicted in the United States. The Ministry of Tourism held training sessions for the tourist sector on preventing human trafficking and identifying, assisting, and referring victims exploited within the tourism sector.

Trafficking affects all communities. This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Jamaica, and traffickers exploit victims from Jamaica abroad. Sex trafficking of Jamaican and foreign women and children, including boys, reportedly occurs on streets and in nightclubs, bars, massage parlors, hotels, and private homes, including in resort towns. Traffickers use social media platforms and false job offers to recruit victims; local experts report the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend, as traffickers adapted by seeking methods to recruit individuals, especially children, in their own homes. According to experts, communities vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labor include children and young adults from poor households; child survivors of sexual abuse; runaway children; adults engaged in commercial sex; persons experiencing homelessness; youth identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual; residents of Jamaica’s poverty-stricken areas effectively controlled by criminal “dons;” migrant workers; and workers in the informal sector, particularly on family farms and in markets and shops. Traffickers subject children and adults to forced begging and women and children to domestic servitude. Girls, sometimes coerced by family members, are subjected to sex trafficking by men who provide monetary or material payment to the girls or their families in exchange for sex acts; local observers report this form of child sex trafficking is widespread in some communities. Local NGOs report parents frequently facilitated their children’s exploitation at the onset of the pandemic, making home life increasingly unsafe for children, especially girls from lower socio-economic groups. Experts report many children who flee persecution and bullying faced in their homes or communities on the basis of their sexual orientation or identity are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking. Children from rural Jamaica, and possibly from other Caribbean countries, who are sent to live with more affluent family members or acquaintances sometimes become exploited in forced labor in private households, markets, or shops. The government and an IO previously reported that young people in state care were highly vulnerable to trafficking, particularly as they aged out of the welfare system. The government reported previously incarcerated individuals are at heightened risk of trafficking. Gang members exploit children – typically boys from disadvantaged backgrounds – in forced begging or in forced criminal activity including as lookouts, armed gunmen, or couriers of weapons and drugs; there were reports criminal organizations exploited children in forced criminal activity in lotto-scamming. Local observers identified increased risks of forced criminal activity for boys during the pandemic. Many children are reported missing in Jamaica; traffickers exploit some of these children in forced labor or sex trafficking. A prevalence research study completed in 2023 found an estimated 6.3 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 17 experienced or were currently experiencing conditions indicative of human trafficking. Research findings indicate forced child labor, including domestic servitude, is the most prevalent form of child trafficking in Jamaica and that child sex trafficking more frequently occurs through private transactions than in commercial establishments. Researchers found boys reported experiencing exploitation in forced child labor outside the home and exploitation in forced criminal activity by gangs at higher rates, girls reported higher rates of exploitation in sex trafficking, and girls and boys reported similar rates of exploitation in domestic servitude. The research found similar rates of child trafficking in households both above and below the poverty line.

Traffickers exploit Jamaican individuals in sex trafficking and forced labor abroad, including in other Caribbean countries, Latin America, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. NGOs and government officials report poverty-stricken families, or parents of children with behavioral problems, often send children to live with relatives or acquaintances overseas in order to access additional opportunities or to avoid the juvenile justice system; some of these children become victims of sex trafficking or forced labor, including domestic servitude. Jamaican temporary farmworkers in Canada reported some employers subjected them to abusive conditions indicative of trafficking, including insufficient food; verbal and physical intimidation and threats; and inadequate, surveillance-filled living quarters. A Jamaican government fact-finding report published in 2023 found some Jamaican farmworkers in Canada were forced to sign new contracts upon arrival in Canada and some workers reported being forced to work overtime and during illness. Jamaican women have reported being charged recruitment fees, being misled about their terms of employment, and compelled through threats to continue working in the U.S. hospitality industry.

Traffickers exploit foreign nationals, including men, women, and children from South and East Asia, Latin America, and other Caribbean countries, in forced labor and sex trafficking in Jamaica. There have been reports of forced labor of foreign nationals aboard foreign-flagged fishing vessels operating in Jamaican waters. The government had a contractual agreement with the Cuban regime for the hiring of medical and teaching professionals. In 2025, there were 440 Cuban regime-affiliated health workers in Jamaica, including doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers, and technicians. An investigative report documenting the experiences of survivors who were forced to work in Jamaica reported the Cuban regime coerced them to remit 50 percent of their salaries to the Cuban regime, confiscated workers’ passports, and subjected them to unreasonable restrictions of movement and association. Jamaican officials reported the labor agreement with the Cuban regime ended and remained pending renegotiation. Cuban regime authorities reportedly returned workers’ passports in early 2025. The Cuban regime forced Cuban regime-affiliated professionals in Jamaica to work. Chinese nationals may have been forced to work at worksites operated by Chinese government-owned enterprises. Children are subjected to sex trafficking in Jamaica’s resort areas frequented by tourists, sometimes with their parents’ involvement. Endemic corruption and complicity, including within law enforcement, remain significant obstacles to anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.