The United States has accused Guyana of doing nothing to prevent the trafficking in people but this accusation certainly cannot find favour with the administration.
This is a major indictment, given that most countries in the world seek to protect people from exploitation in any form. And to press its point, the United States has given Guyana 60 days to get its house in order as far as this issue is concerned.
For some time now, the news media have been reporting that there are unscrupulous people who journey to various parts of the country to recruit young women. And many women respond because of their poverty and the need for jobs. On the Essequibo Coast, many young women travel from the North West and the Pomeroon at the behest of shop owners, with offers to work in hotels and restaurants.
When they get there, it turns out that these girls are required to work as prostitutes. This feature was also common to the Corentyne where girls recruited from various parts of the country ended up in the same bind.
We are aware that in certain cases, the girls recruited from some far-flung area were suddenly told that they owed the employer and therefore had to work to repay whatever the proprietor said they owed. Sometimes, their personal belongings were taken as a form of security, although the girls would protest most vehemently.
There have been reports of girls who tried to escape being beaten after they were recaptured. Basically, they were held under conditions of slavery. Some actually died, having been killed by an overzealous lover or by people in the community in which these girls worked.
Cases of abuse were dutifully reported, first to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, and later to other representatives of either the government or the leaders in the villages from which these girls came.
Unfortunately, no one has ever been prosecuted for the abuses since Guyana either lacked the investigative capability or the ability to extract information from the victims themselves.
It must be that the Americans noted these things and arrived at their conclusion. Our officials, however, say that this cannot be a fair evaluation of the situation since the government has expended resources to alleviate this problem.
Yet, given that no one has ever been prosecuted and given that the trend of recruiting hapless girls from the hinterland continues, one can only conclude that the measures pursued by the government have fallen short of what is desired.
There is also the case of the drug smuggler who used women to transport their illegal substances. Many are languishing in both foreign and local jails. One may argue that this practice is a simple case of an employee recruiting an individual to undertake a task for which she is paid.
However, everyone knows that the women who often become drug mules are those who need money and therefore succumb to the lure of the perceived big money. This too represents a case of trafficking in people.
In Guyana, the mules are imprisoned but the person who recruits them is generally not brought to book. The legal experts would argue that they find it difficult to convict a person on the mere “say so” of another person. The United States views the situation differently and acts differently. This, then, must be among the reasons why that country has placed Guyana so low on the list of countries doing something to curb trafficking in persons.
We have not addressed cases of children being forced to work for a pittance because the adult recognises that the labour is cheap.
We see too many children around our market places, even children who should be in school. Again, there are no prosecutions. How then can we expect people to take us seriously when we insist that we are indeed doing something about the trafficking in people?