Stiff jail terms, million-dollar fines, property forfeiture and radical witness protection are among key parts of a sweeping bill tabled in Parliament yesterday to halt trafficking in persons (TIP) as the government scrambled to evade threatened US sanctions.
Yesterday's TIP bill was presented for first reading by Human Services Minister Bibi Shadick but is not likely to be passed until October as Parliament adjourned for its annual recess yesterday.
Shadick told Stabroek News that Guyana has already avoided the sanctions the US government has threatened to impose if countries listed in Tier 3 in the US State Department report on TIP released on June 14 failed to comply with the minimum requirements as stated in the US TIP act. She said that even before the report was released Guyana had already had in place a draft plan of action to deal with the issue of exploitation and trafficking of persons and since the US report was made public that plan was finalised.
A number of actions have been taken to deal with the issue including visits to hinterland locations and vulnerable areas in which members of the US State Department dealing with the issue of TIP took part.
Asked what was the basis for the US State Department classification of Guyana Shadick said that the recent US team that accompanied her on a visit to Region One only said that they had their report from sources in remote areas of the country.
Locally, TIP is said to be manifested mainly in the practice where young hinterland girls are lured to the coast to work in restaurants and bars and are forced to provide sexual services to customers.
The bill is made up of six parts dealing with criminal offences and related provisions; assistance and protection for victims; misuse of commercial transportation; preventing of trafficking; and security and control of documents.
Part One defines the various conditions which constitute offences such as abusing a position of vulnerability, debt bondage, coercion, forced labour and "practices similar to slavery". Exploitation has been defined in part as keeping a person in a state of slavery, compelling or causing a person to provide forced labour or services, engaging in any form of commercial sexual exploitation and illicit removal of human organs.
The criminal offences and related provisions state that anyone who engages, conspires or attempts to engage, or assists another person to engage in, or organises or directs other persons in TIP shall be sentenced to any term of years of imprisonment; be subject to forfeiture of property; and be ordered by the court to pay full restitution to the trafficked person or persons.
Clause 8 of the bill contains sentencing guidelines which say that if the convicted person threatened the use of force in the commission of the offence, two years shall be added to the minimum sentence. If, however, a trafficked person dies as a result of the trafficking, the convicted trafficker shall be sentenced to between 20-30 years imprisonment.
Restitution according to the bill means compensating the victims for among other things, costs of medical and psychological treatment, costs of physical and occupational therapy and rehabilitation, costs of necessary transportation, temporary housing, and child care, lost income, attorney's fees and related costs, compensation for emotional distress, pain and suffering and any other losses suffered by the victim.
Clause 34 says the Minister of Home Affairs shall periodically identify in a public report every person who is a trafficker of persons or who had knowingly assisted or conspired with another to traffic in persons. Such persons would be denied entrance or transit visas for Guyana or their visas would be revoked.
Part II of the bill also deals with the unlawful withholding of identification papers; transporting a person for the purpose of exploiting such person's prostitution; forfeiture - including overseas assets that can be retrieved by the government; the irrelevance of consent or past sexual behaviour history of victims; victim immunity from prosecution; and extradition.
In relation to witness protection, Part III provides for victims of trafficking who are witnesses or potential witnesses to apply for witness relocation and protection programmes. The programme may include relocation, new identity with relevant documents establishing identity, new residence, employment, work permits, and protection of confidentiality of identity and location.
The practicability of these witness protection provisions is likely to be questioned as doubt has already been raised by the authorities over whether this could be provided nationally in other areas such as in the recent death squad furore.
In terms of support for victims, the bill said that within one year of the enactment of the provisions, the Ministry of Home Affairs in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security shall develop plans, in consultation with non-governmental organisations and other representatives of civil society, for the provision of appropriate services, from governmental and non-governmental sources, for victims of trafficking and dependent children accompanying the victims.
Support will include among others, appropriate housing taking into account the person's status as a victim of crime and including safe conditions for sleeping, food and personal hygiene; employment, educational and training opportunities and legal assistance or legal information in a language the victim understands.
In Part III there are also provisions for the protection in court of the privacy of victims; opportunity for presentation of victims' views and concerns; support for victims; assistance for victims and permanent resident victims abroad; verification of citizen and permanent resident status and age; return of victims to country of citizenship etc.
Under Part IV which deals with the misuse of commercial transportation, the bill says that when a transportation company knowingly transports victims of trafficking into a country, that company shall be liable for costs associated with providing accommodation and meals for the victim and any accompanying dependent children for the duration of the victims stay in facilities deemed fit and shall bear the costs of their transportation to a port of entry of the country of which the victim is a citizen or holds residency.
On the role of the government, the bill says that governments should take steps to educate citizens about sex tourism and it should warn them that travelling to another country to engage in sex with a minor or a trafficked person may be a crime in the destination or home country.
Steps to be taken by the government should include among others cooperating with the airline industry, hotel industry, taxi industry, and others to jointly produce educational materials alerting them to evidence of sex tourism by their customers and warning them against facilitating such behaviours; and giving them up-to-date information about the links between HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and trafficking.
Other provisions in Part IV include responsibilities of international transportation companies; the liability of international companies; and measures to ensure the safety of children travelling unattended across international borders.
Part V makes provision for a National Task Force for the prevention of trafficking. The President shall establish this task force as an international agency task force to develop and implement a National Plan of Action for the prevention of trafficking in persons. It will include all aspects of trafficking including sex and labour trafficking.
At present a steering committee has been set up to deal with TIP and has put in train a national plan of action. The task force will also coordinate the implementation of the plan and the collection and sharing of trafficking data among government agencies. All data collected shall respect the privacy of victims of trafficking.
On the issue of border inspections, provision is made for the Ministry of Home Affairs to appoint a committee to monitor the quality of travel and identity documents issued by the ministry to ensure that they comply with the International Civil Aviation Organisation standards and that they cannot be easily misused and readily falsified or unlawfully altered, replicated or issued.
In relation to the applicability of labour standards, the labour ministry shall investigate complaints of unlawful working conditions without regard to the immigration status of complainants and without regard to the nature of the work or services.
Critics have said that legislation of this type has been frequently presented and passed in the National Assembly but hardly ever enforced.