Trinidad and To­ba­go has re­tained its Tier 2 rank­ing in the Unit­ed States De­part­ment of State’s 2026 Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Re­port.

The des­ig­na­tion is un­changed from the 2025 re­port.

Tier 2 means the Gov­ern­ment does not ful­ly meet the min­i­mum stan­dards for the elim­i­na­tion of hu­man traf­fick­ing but is mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant ef­forts to do so.

The rank­ing fol­lows the coun­try’s re­moval from the Tier 2 Watch List in 2024, when the US State De­part­ment cit­ed in­creased ef­forts to in­ves­ti­gate and pros­e­cute traf­fick­ing cas­es and iden­ti­fy vic­tims.

The Tier 2 des­ig­na­tion does not mean traf­fick­ing has been elim­i­nat­ed. It in­di­cates that ef­forts are be­ing made to ad­dress the crime, while the min­i­mum stan­dards have not been ful­ly met.

In March, four Venezue­lan na­tion­als, in­clud­ing two mi­nors, were iden­ti­fied as traf­fick­ing vic­tims dur­ing a Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit op­er­a­tion at a prop­er­ty on Fras­er Street, Rio Claro.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors re­port­ed signs of pro­longed abuse, con­fine­ment and ex­ploita­tion.

Months lat­er, in May, two men were charged with a to­tal of 29 of­fences fol­low­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, dubbed Op­er­a­tion Pur­ple Rain.

The charges in­clud­ed of­fences un­der the Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Act, the Chil­dren Act and the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act. The mat­ter re­mains be­fore the courts.