By Andre Bagoo Tuesday, October 20 2009

NOTWITHSTANDING confirmation that Chinese workers employed by the Beijing Liujian Construction Company (TT) Limited are not paid their salaries directly, the Office of the Attorney General yesterday said the issue of human trafficking does not arise in the current circumstances.

In reply to questions sent to Jeremie last week, legal consultant in the Office of the Attorney General, Nafeesa Mohammed, responded yesterday in a one-page statement on the issue.

“The issue of human trafficking does not arise in relation to the Chinese construction workers’ protest that was reported in the newspapers on Wednesday 14th October, 2009,” Mohammed, a member of the Ministry’s Civil Child Abduction Authority as well as a PNM deputy political leader wrote.

She continued, “The protesting workers are employees of the Beijing Liujian Construction Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago which had obtained valid work permits for their employees. These workers were all in Trinidad legally, but a dispute arose between the workers and their employers.

“This is therefore a matter to be resolved between the employer and the employees in accordance with the obligations contained in the respective contracts of employment.

The labour laws of Trinidad and Tobago as well as other existing laws are available to deal with the situation as the need arises,” she said.

The matter is currently being monitored by the Ministry of Labour for appropriate action as required.

Last Friday Beijing Liujing Construction Company (TT) Limited confirmed that it does not pay salaries directly to the immigrant Chinese workers it employs, but rather to their families in mainland China.

The company indicated that Beijing Liujing Construction Company (TT) Limited was a Chinese state-owned company that operated in conformity with other state enterprises of China, the company said in a press release.

“The payment of workers salaries directly from the head office in China to their families at home (minus approved allowances to employees at the work site) is an accepted practice for workers contracted on overseas projects,” the statement said.

It is unclear whether the workers were told that they would not receive their salaries while in Trinidad, and that these would be paid to their families in mainland China.

Asked last week if the workers were told that they would not be paid directly while in Trinidad, Daisy Feng, assistant to the managing director of Beijing Liujing, referred all queries to the company’s attorney, Phillip Lamont.

Asked the same question, Lamont said, I dont know. I have no instructions on that.”

The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime, to which this country became a signatory on September 26, 2001, defines human trafficking as, the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat, or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability, or of the giving, or receiving of payments, or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

The Attorney General was asked last week to respond to the following questions: What steps will this Government take in relation to reports that Chinese labourers in this country have been subject to human trafficking via the denial of wages? Do we have adequate laws to prosecute persons/companies suspected of trans-national human trafficking? And what legal means are available to deal with this situation?