THE government is intensifying its efforts to reach the 60-day deadline set last month by the U.S. government to comply with the minimum standards established by the UN Protocol on Trafficking in Persons (TIP).
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, D r. Roger Luncheon said the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security has completed a plan of action to deal with the problem of trafficking in persons, while a public awareness campaign on the issue is ongoing in the administrative regions.
Reiterating the government’s resolve to address the problem, h e noted that draft legislation is being finalised at the Attorney General’s Chambers to recognise trafficking in hum ans as a specific crime in Guyana and to apply sanctions.
He said as a result of the awareness campaign public confidence has been aroused and numerous complaints have been received by state agencies about commercial activities suspected to be associated with trafficking.
Police were conducting investigations in several areas, Luncheon said but refrained from giving any details pointing out that no analysis of the probes had been done as yet.
Asked if the steps taken by the government in relation to the issue would forestall or remove permanently possible sanctions by the U.S. administration, he said the matter is not one for “speculation or hypotheses” but essentially one that is “rules based.”
He added that once it has been recognised that the government has adopted measures that have been successfully implemented and create the requisite environment to deal with the trafficking in persons, a reclassification “would be in order.”
“I have, indeed, been advised that the actions taken are quite consistent with actions taken by other countries which have been successfully reclassified and on that basis reveal that we have committed ourselves to a course of action, that would indeed lead to Guyana’s leaving behind that Tier-three classification,” Luncheon asserted.
Human Services and Social Security Minister, Ms. Bibi Shadick, last week opened a series of meetings with key groups to brief them on the campaign against trafficking in persons.
Under the UN protocol, TIP means 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.
Ms. Shadick has 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.
She said the series of meetings 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 U.S. report came out last month.
“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…”