HUMAN Services and Social Security Minister, Ms. Bibi Shadick, yesterday opened a series of meetings with key groups to brief them on the campaign against trafficking in persons.
She met members of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce to discuss the issue of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and opened her presentation with a definition of TIP as set out by the United Nations Convention (2002) Against Trans-National Organised Crime’s Supplementary Protocol on Trafficking in Persons.
“It says,” she reported, “that ‘Trafficking in Persons’ shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons by means of either threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion; of abduction; of fraud; of deception; of the abuse of power; or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation.”
The minister also noted that exploitation as set out by the protocol covers prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation and forced labour, slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
Shadick said the meeting was called as part of the ministry’s efforts to inform the public about the issue in light of Guyana’s Tier Three rating by the U.S. State Department’s most recent annual report.
“Tier Three,” she said, “means that trafficking goes on in this country and that we have not done nothing about…or not even the minimum things.”
These, according to the minister, include legislation, public relations campaigns and other preventative measures against TIP.
She said that countries which fall into the Tier Three can face sanctions by donor agencies until they improve their TIP status.
“Our aim,” said the minister, “is that we have to move first from Tier Three to Tier Two at least, and then to Tier One.”
She stressed that Guyana did not take action against trafficking only after the report came out.
“During last year, our Women’s Affairs Bureau went with the National Commission on Women to several regions in this country and got some disturbing reports about things that were going on.
“We had a Children and Violence Project and they also brought back stories that they were told about children leaving schools and going into mining areas…”
The minister said that although existing legislation deals with some issues associated with TIP, there is no legislation specifically linked to the phenomenon since the UN TIP definition she quoted only came out in December of last year.
Yesterday’s meeting with the GCC was part of an overall national plan of action to combat TIP in Guyana, other components of which include a media campaign; meeting with other chambers of commerce across the country; working closer with the Police Force to ensure that existing penalties under the law are applied; and anti-TIP legislation, an initial draft of which should be ready by next week.