UNITED States officials who were here last week to assess Guyana’s campaign against trafficking in persons (TIP) were encouraged by their findings, according to the point man on the issue at the U.S. Embassy here.
TIP Coordinator at the embassy, Mr Timothy Berner, said the State Department officials who observed steps taken by the government to implement measures against human trafficking were “encouraged with what they found.”
He told the Chronicle that Ms Rachel Owen and Mr Eric Falls are yet to hand in their report on their findings to Washington.
The State Department has found Guyana wanting in the anti-TIP fight and in June implemented a 60-day deadline for the administration here to tighten the campaign or face possible trade and aid sanctions.
Government spokesmen have protested the adverse U.S. Tier 3 ranking slapped on Guyana and Ms Bibi Shadick, the Cabinet Minister charged with spearheading the anti-TIP campaign yesterday insisted there was no evidence of human trafficking here.
Owen, one of the drafters of the 2004 State Department Report on TIP which gave Guyana the Tier 3 listing, and Falls, from the Bureau of Western Hemispheric Affairs, accompanied by Berner, last week met Shadick, Minister of Human Services.
They also met President Bharrat Jagdeo and visited Region One (Barima-Waini) – one of the areas in which TIP is said to be most prevalent – with Ms Shadick.
Berner yesterday said a final decision is unlikely until the 60-day deadline which ends on August 13 is up.
Asked how soon after the final report is made is Guyana likely to re-classified, he indicated that Guyana is among many countries being monitored by the U.S., including itself, and as such a timeframe could not be given.
However, he assured that the matter will be handled expeditiously.
Shadick yesterday told the Government Information Agency (GINA) there was no evidence to sustain Guyana's Tier 3 listing by the U.S.
The U.S. authorities on TIP have expressed a desire to work with the Government of Guyana to get Guyana off the Tier 3 status, she told the agency.
She said the two State Department officers, who spent several days here, were pleased with what Guyana was doing but were unable to give evidence of particular cases dealing with TIP.
She said the two stated that they received their information for the report from remote areas in the country.
The minister told GINA that on their visit to Region One, there was evidence of children working with porknockers (gold miners) for money and prostitution, but none of this constituted trafficking in persons.
Shadick will be visiting Bartica today as part of her TIP sensitisation campaign.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, was last week confident that Guyana could achieve the required benchmarks and avoid possible U.S. trade and aid sanctions by being removed from the present Tier 3 classification to Tier 2 or 1.
He noted that an adverse human trafficking rating by the U.S. State Department could also affect Guyana’s relations with multilateral agencies over which the U.S. has an "inordinate influence", such as International Financial Institutions (IFIs).
Luncheon said the government was still uncertain about how Guyana was classified as a Tier 3 country, but recognising the serious implications of not reaching the targets set by the U.S., it has been working towards meeting those benchmarks.
Luncheon said the two State Department officials here last week were exposed to the campaigns being mounted by the government as well as the social reality in Guyana.
He noted too that a bill on criminalising trafficking in persons and providing for penalising those who are guilty of the offence is to be laid in Parliament tomorrow.
Cabinet has authorised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to accede to the United Nations Protocol to prevent trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Luncheon said.
He noted that Guyana has already acceded to the International Convention against Trans-national Organised Crime.
The UN has defined TIP as 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.
Exploitation as set out by the UN protocol covers prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation and forced labour, slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.