The 2010 Counter-Trafficking Act criminalized sex and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of up to five years imprisonment or fines up to 100,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars ($37,040). This penalty was sufficiently stringent; however, by allowing for a fine in lieu of imprisonment, the prescribed punishment for sex trafficking was not commensurate with those for other serious crimes, such as rape. The government did not conduct any investigations during the reporting period; this compared to three in 2016 and one in 2015. The police reported monitoring suspicious establishments.

As reported over the past five years, St. Lucia is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. Local adolescents are the groups most vulnerable to trafficking. Documented and undocumented migrants from the Caribbean and South Asia, including domestic workers, are also vulnerable to trafficking. Local children are subjected to sex trafficking. Government officials, civil society, and educators reported St. Lucian children from economically disadvantaged families are vulnerable to unorganized commercial sexual exploitation often encouraged or forced by caretakers in exchange for goods or services. Foreign women who work in strip clubs and in prostitution are also vulnerable to sex trafficking. NGOs report disadvantaged young women from rural areas are vulnerable to sex trafficking. According to the government, business owners from St. Lucia, India, China, Cuba, and Russia are the most likely trafficking perpetrators in the country. Civil society has also reported women, or in some cases older teenagers, recruiting younger adolescents to provide transactional sex with adults at street parties.