Trinidad & Tobago’s failure to act on decades of abuse allegations has done unspeakable damage to children in state care · Global Voices
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“Because we know what we capable of as a society is why we belly hurting so yuh know. We know we selves.” Blogger <PERSON>'s May 10 Facebook status was referring to the disappearance of two-year-old <PERSON>, who had gone missing in south Trinidad the day before. The entire nation remained on tenterhooks hoping for his safe return (he was later discovered drowned) — but following a recent task force report documenting widespread abuse in state-run and funded residential children's homes, her words cut deeper than ever.
The findings in the <PERSON> Task Force report, which detailed everything from drug transactions to rape of minors, spurred calls for the Children's Authority, the state body charged with promoting and ensuring the rights of children as laid out in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Declaration and Convention on the Rights of the Child, to do its job and act in defence of the minors it is charged with protecting. However, this latest report is not the first that has documented the horrors in children's homes across the country.
Twenty-five years ago, under the United National Congress administration led by then prime minister <PERSON>, the Sabga Task Force conducted a report into children’s homes, via the ministry of <PERSON>, who was minister of social development at the time. The 1997 report was damning. The seven-member task force mandated to investigate the conditions and treatment of children in homes run by state and religious organisations alleged that there were “brutal episodes of neglect and physical, psychological, and emotional abuse” by a nun at a well-known home for girls, as well as repeated sexual abuse of children by a male employee at another home.
In a May 5 interview with the Trinidad Express newspaper, a former task force member, under condition of anonymity, said the report — which was never laid in parliament — was “heavily sanitised” and “treated as a big secret”:
We were advised that a copy be sent to the then-Social Development Minister and told to destroy the copies we had. Several high-profile persons were implicated when we conducted interviews, including nuns and businessmen. Racism was also uncovered at some of these homes. 271
It was toxic. The homes were failing their charges and financial impropriety was rampant.
The task force member added that reading the <PERSON> report decades later, was “like déjà vu.”
The report noted that the allegations were never properly looked into, either by the Catholic Church, which claimed that it was “unable to act on behalf of the Statutory Authorities Service Commission” (which had employed the nun in question), by the police, or by the state agencies overseeing the running of the homes.
Quite apart from the abhorrence of the crimes, it is this inaction and unwillingness to actively confront such horrendous injustice, that is hitting citizens hard. One newspaper editorial put it bluntly:
That team’s probe unearthed layers of corruption [in 1997]. Young victims shared accounts of being groomed for the sexual gratification of politicians, business people and staff members and there was evidence of physical abuse, fraud and misappropriation of government funds.
Although the report was handed in to former social development minister <PERSON> […] and got approval from the then <PERSON> for further action, to this day there have been no arrests and no one has been held accountable.
Little has changed. If anything, conditions are worse.
Following this most recent <PERSON> Task Force report, however, Minister of Gender and Child Affairs <PERSON> announced the current government's 126 million Trinidad and Tobago dollar action plan (the equivalent of about 18.5 million United States dollars). The task force has been given six weeks, from the time the report was laid in parliament on April 29, to submit an action plan. The report had been presented to the relevant authorities in December 2021, prompting questions as to why such an urgent issue took four months to be tabled in parliament.
The Facebook page Newsauce, run by the blogger <PERSON>, who some deem a sympathiser to the current government because she provides communications services for a state agency, commented:
What angers me about this story is that none of this is new. Webster-Roy has been there 6 yrs now. Why after 6 more years of exploitation and abuse we yet again discussing putting measures in place?
Why are sex abusers still working at these homes and not charged?
Until I see drastic action Webster-Roy's words [that perpetrators will be dealt with] remain lip service. 271