The United States Department of State has unveiled its 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report, highlighting the status of several Caribbean nations in combating human trafficking. The report underscores that ‘trafficking in persons’ and ‘human trafficking’ are interchangeable terms describing crimes where traffickers exploit individuals, including children, for forced labor or commercial sex. The State Department emphasized that any involvement of minors under 18 in commercial sex acts constitutes a crime, irrespective of coercion or fraud. The report categorizes countries into tiers based on their adherence to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) standards. The Bahamas, Guyana, and Suriname were placed in Tier 1, signifying full compliance with TVPA standards. Tier 2 includes Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Belize, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Curaçao, the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago, which are making significant efforts toward compliance. St Lucia and Barbados were placed on the Tier 2 Watch List due to increasing trafficking cases and insufficient actions. Saint Maarten, Venezuela, and Cuba were relegated to Tier 3 for failing to meet minimum standards and lacking significant efforts. Haiti, along with Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, was classified as a ‘Special Case.’ The report also outlined potential consequences for Tier 3 countries, including restrictions on foreign assistance and opposition to multilateral development bank loans. The TVPA defines severe forms of trafficking and aligns with the UN TIP Protocol, ratified by over 180 countries, to combat this global issue.