CARICOM Headquarters Georgetown, Guyana.
Zandoli International Foundation is lobbying organizations throughout the Caribbean to petition their governments to encourage them to set up individual Sex Offender Registries.
“We have made calls for a Sex Offender Registry in Barbados last week and we are working with a number of regional organizations which are all poised to petition their respective governments,” Communications Director of Zandoli International Foundation Norbert Williams said.
The Foundation has also formed an organization with members throughout the Caribbean called Caribbean Committee Against Sex Crimes, which is being chaired by a Trinidad attorney.
During the past year, Zandoli International Foundation has also been working on a treaty which it plans to present to CARICOM towards the end of this year for consideration of a Regional Sex Offenders Registry.
Williams said his organization is taking swift action because the Caribbean sex industry is growing rapidly and in some cases children are also involved in these illegal activities.
He said now that the US has been calling on countries in South East Asia to tighten enforcement, these predators are likely to find vulnerable countries to continue their illegal behaviour.
“What we find happening now is the path of these resistance is going to be us. So these sex tourists who want to capitalize on the weaker legislation or enforcement will gravitate to islands here,” he remarked.
Williams pointed to a recent move made by US President Barrack Obama to sign the International Megans Law which requires the US to report to any country, sex offenders who are travelling.
“So any sex offender in the US who is on the Sex Offender Registry will have an identifier placed on their passport. Once that is swiped at the airport or any port of entry or exit a flag is going to come up on the computer and the country they are travelling to will be notified,” he explained.
Within that same law, countries with their own Sex Offender Registry are required to inform the US of sex offenders travel to the US.
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