ON JUNE 15 2004, US State Department released its annual Trafficking in Persons Report, accusing Guyana and nine other nations of not doing enough to stop the trafficking of thousands of people forced into servitude or the sex trade every year. The US State Department says that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked globally each year. This practice is described as "a modern form of slavery".
The Tier Classification
In assessing the problem of human trafficking, the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons evaluates, in its view, the effort foreign governments apply toward curbing trafficking, not simply the raw numbers or scope of the problem in a country.
The annual report ranks countries into a three-tier system. A `Tier 3’ country is the worst and is subject to economic sanctions from the United States. In the Americas, just two countries — Canada and Colombia — received the `Tier 1’ classification. The majority fall in the middle, but four countries — Cuba, Ecuador, Guyana and Venezuela — received the lowest rating.
Other countries with the `Tier 3’ rating are Bangladesh, Burma, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. All countries with this rating may face US sanctions for not fully complying with the minimum standards (according to US law) and not making significant efforts to do so.
The US could also oppose assistance, except for humanitarian, trade-related, and certain development-related assistance, from international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and multilateral development banks such as the World Bank.
Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorisation Act of 2003, the US may withhold non-humanitarian, non-trade-related assistance and this could result in withholding of funding for participation in educational and cultural exchange programs.
Definition
The United Nations has only quite recently explained what is meant by “trafficking in persons”. The international organisation gives the legal definition 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.
This recently formulated definition will force countries to amend their existing laws against human trafficking to take into consideration the new variables as set out by the United Nations.
With respect to Guyana, the US State Department Report says: “Guyana is a country of origin, transit, and destination for young women and children trafficked primarily for sexual exploitation. Much of the trafficking takes place in the interior of the country, where observers indicate that likely over 100 persons are engaged in forced prostitution in isolated settlements. Victims are also found in prostitution centres in Georgetown and New Amsterdam. Guyanese victims originate mainly from Amerindian communities; some come from coastal urban centres. Most foreign victims are trafficked from northern Brazil; some may also come from Venezuela. Guyana is also a transit country for victims trafficked into Suriname. More complete information, pointing to a significant number of trafficking victims, has made it possible to include Guyana in the report for the first time.”
In an address on July 9 to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Mr. Philip Linderman of the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, singled out Guyana by saying "very few, if any efforts" were made last year by the Guyanese government to fight trafficking. A UN Wire report of 12 July stated that Linderman, in examining the problem in other countries in the hemisphere, mentioned that the problem is very serious in Ecuador where the International Labour Organisation believes 5,000 minors work as prostitutes.
Objections by Ecuador and Venezuela
Ecuador feels that human trafficking is a totally new problem and to combat it, more financial assistance from the US and other developed countries is necessary. Ecuador has pointed out that much of its resources are being used to pay its external debt and to strengthen security.
Venezuela, too, has hit out hard against its categorization. Arevalo Mendez, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela said that the trafficking of humans is an international problem that is more prevalent in developed countries. “It is ironic that the US is pretending to accuse others, when it is one of the countries that have achieved the least in that matter,” he said in Caracas on 16 June. “An important part of that trafficking enters through Miami, practically converting the South of Florida into a distribution hub. Once there, the victims are sent to exquisite markets of high demand such as Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles,” he added.
Actually, the State Department “Trafficking in Persons Report” of 2003, admitted that the US is mainly a transit and destination country for trafficking in persons. That Report estimated that 18,000 to 20,000 people, primarily women and children, are trafficked to the US annually. At the same time, it spoke of the US government’s strong commitment to combating trafficking in persons at home and abroad. As part of this commitment, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2002 gives protection to trafficking victims and provides certain benefits and services to victims of severe forms of trafficking.
But not only the countries placed in the `Tier 3’ have objected to being placed in that position. New Zealand, given a `Tier 1’ rating, objected to being placed in the Report which, according to its Foreign Minister, created a misleading impression that children were being trafficked for prostitution in that country.
OAS Efforts
In the American hemisphere, the issue of human trafficking entered the OAS agenda when the issue was raised since 1999 at meetings of the Inter-American Commission of Women during the presidency of Mrs. Indranie Chandarpal, who was at that time Guyana’s Minister responsible for Human Services and Social Security. The problem was discussed at length during the meeting of hemispheric Justice Ministers last year in Ottawa, Canada. Also last year, the General Assembly in Santiago, Chile, agreed for a new post of special coordinator for trafficking to be set up at OAS headquarters in Washington. By establishing this office, the OAS is emphasizing that trafficking is a priority issue in the hemisphere.
Actually, the priority nature of this problem was raised by Guyana last year at the annual meeting of the Inter American Commission of Women (CIM). Guyana urged the hemispheric women’s organisation and the OAS to stop focussing on human trafficking only in Latin America, and pointed out that some attention must be given to the Caribbean which has "its own special brand of the problem."
Since then, the CIM, in conjunction with the International Organisation for Migration, has planned a series of seven seminars for Guyana, Bahamas, Barbados, Netherlands Antilles, St Lucia and Suriname to formulate a strategy to combat the problem.
Fast Track Plans in Guyana
How was the latest Report on human trafficking received in Guyana? The initial reaction was one of shock. Guyana’s Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Mrs. Bibi Shadick, addressing a seminar on trafficking in persons just one day after the release of the Report, stated that by ranking Guyana in `Tier 3’ the US government was very unfair in its assessment of Guyana's efforts to combat human trafficking especially after considering “all the work we have been doing.” At the same time, the Guyana government promised to fast-track plans to avoid a cut in funding from US and international lending agencies.
Guyana, like the other countries in `Tier 3’ were given 60 days – with a deadline of 13 August – to put their houses in order, failing which US sanctions would be implemented. It is expected that the US government will by mid-September re-assess the corrective actions by these countries and decide if sanctions will be applied.
Guyana has certainly done much in that 60-day period to take corrective measures. The police raided a number of mining camps in the interior and some liquor restaurants on the coastland to remove mainly Amerindian women and girls recruited as prostitutes, or to provide cheap and forced labour. Persons involved in these human trafficking offences have been charged and are being prosecuted under the existing law.
Minister Shadick has personally plunged herself into a countrywide campaign to investigate the issue and to educate various communities in the remote interior of the country of the problems associated with human trafficking. This is very commendable since it is very unusual for a cabinet minister in the Latin America and Caribbean region, or anywhere else, to be involved so directly in trying to stamp out a social scourge.
Even though this problem is not totally new, it has now taken on an international dimension as a result of the concerns raised in the State Department’s Report. As the Guyana government steps up its work in many geographical areas against human trafficking, it will have to apply a variety of measures, and government and civic organisations throughout the entire country will have to work together to find a remedy for the problem.
At the end of July officials from the United States State Department visited Guyana to assess the campaign against trafficking in persons and were encouraged by their findings. They met with Minister Shadick and President Bharrat Jagdeo, and accompanied the minister on a visit to the Barima-Waini region where trafficking in persons is regarded as prevalent.
After the visit, the minister said there was no evidence to keep Guyana in the `Tier 3’ listing by the US, and that the visiting officials expressed a desire to work with the Guyana government to get the country removed from that status.
New Legislation for Parliament
In the meantime, the government has decided to accede to the United Nations Protocol to prevent trafficking in persons, especially women and children. Guyana has already acceded to the International Convention against Trans-national Organised Crime.
The government moved a step further on 5 August when it tabled in Parliament a 36-page `Combating Trafficking in Persons’ Bill which stipulates tough penalties for those convicted of trafficking in persons.
Among the penalties proposed for convicted persons are sentences to any term of years of imprisonment or life imprisonment, forfeiture of property, and payment of full restitution to the trafficked person or persons.
The proposed legislation, to be debated in Parliament in October, includes penalties in cases where the victim of trafficking is exposed to life-threatening disease such as HIV/AIDS.
The Bill also proposes that within one year of its enactment, the Ministry of Home Affairs, along with the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and civil representatives of society, must provide appropriate services to victims of trafficking and their dependent children. These include appropriate housing, psychological counselling, employment and educational and training opportunities.
To do all of these, new resources have to be found. The USAID has already committed US$100,000 to assist Guyana in its education outreach programme. But much more will be needed. It will be recalled that when President Bush addressed the United Nations in 2003, he announced a $50 million initiative to combat trafficking in persons. The countries receiving this funding include Brazil, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Moldova, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. It will be good if Guyana can gain access to this assistance.
(Dr. Odeen Ishmael is Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela.)