The government has “rejected” the recent U.S State Department findings on human trafficking in Guyana, saying its report is “riddled with fabrication” and ignores efforts at combatting the situation.
The Donald Ramotar administration has also announced that it would no longer be submitting responses in the US Embassy’s annual survey on Trafficking in Persons (TIP), complaining that these responses are not accurately reflected in the State Department’s report on the country.
In this year’s report, Guyana has been downgraded from Tier 2 to the Tier 2 Watch List for failing to demonstrate evidence of increasing efforts to hold trafficking offenders accountable with jail time over the previous reporting period. “While there have been some efforts to protect victims, the lack of punishment for trafficking offenders creates an enabling environment for continued human trafficking. The government did not provide evidence that it followed through with prosecution for high-profile suspected child trafficking cases reported in the media,” the report said.
But in a statement issued through the Home Affairs Ministry on Tuesday, the Ministerial Task Force on Trafficking in Persons said it was “deeply concerned” that Guyana was not reviewed fairly, charging that the US report contained “inaccuracies and misrepresentations” about the scope of human trafficking in Guyana and that government was given little recognition for its efforts.
In particular, it challenged cases listed in the report and concerns over the treatment of victims while also emphasising that the failure to prosecute and jail traffickers is the fault of the judiciary and Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), over which it said it has no control.
“…The Ministerial Task Force is of the firm view that there is no excuse for the US State Department’s Report to ignore the gains made by Guyana in addressing Trafficking in Persons,” it said. “The Task Force views the Report as lacking credibility and therefore rejects the Report,” it added.
“The Government of Guyana regrets that the US Embassy, though it requests every year responses of the Government of Guyana to a questionnaire on TIPs, does not accurately reflect these responses in its Annual Report. Consequently, the Government of Guyana wishes to make it clear that in future such questionnaires will not be completed and returned to the US authorities,” it further said.
Among the misrepresentations in the report, according to the Task Force, is the listing of the murder of a child in the interior.
“While the Government of Guyana has established that the child was indeed sadly murdered, it is of the view that the US Report has not provided a shred of evidence to link the child’s death to the offence of trafficking in persons,” it said, while adding that the inclusion of the case was intended to “sex up” the report.
It also challenged the claim that “Indonesian workers were subjected to forced labor on several Guyanese-flagged fishing boats off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago during the reporting period.”
The Task Force said government considered the claim as spurious, since the case fell completely outside the jurisdiction of Guyana. Further, it said government has no knowledge of the case whatsoever and “considers it a brazen attempt on the part of the US State Department to resort to an extraterritorial issue in an effort to bring some degree of credence to a Report that is riddled with fabrications.”
It also said that by including the case in the report without providing information on it to the government, the US State Department has contravened an agreement between US Embassy officials and Ministers of the Task Force to share information on trafficking in persons.
The US report noted that efforts to protect trafficking victims were hindered by the lack of accountability for perpetrators of the crime. It said government reported no convictions of sex or labour trafficking offenders, while adding that the great majority of prosecutions initiated in other reporting periods were dismissed when the prosecutors were unable to proceed, usually because witnesses declined to testify. It also said the government did not report any investigations or prosecutions of government employees for complicity in trafficking-related offences during the reporting period.
In response, the Task Force said all reports of trafficking in persons are investigated, charges are instituted based on the evidence and the courts decide on the culpability of the alleged perpetrator.
While saying that government has passed stringent legislation and put in place the institutional arrangements to ensure that perpetrators are answerable for their crimes, it added that it has told the US government on numerous occasions that it has no control over the judiciary and the magistracy and that the DPP’s Chambers is a Public Office whose independence is preserved in the constitution.
“The decision to convict or not is one exclusively for the Court. …the Government of Guyana does not hold persons accountable with jail time, the court does,” it said.
It added that the government is aware that it is not uncommon throughout the world for witnesses to decline to testify. “Prospective witnesses cannot be forced to testify. Guyana is not unique in this respect. It is an individual’s right to be able to decide whether or not he/she wants to testify in a Court case. Essentially, what matters is the expeditious dispensing of trials so as to facilitate the ready availability of witnesses to testify,” it added, while noting that it has no control over backlogs and delays in the court system.
In addition, it said the government could not report on complicity of public employees in such crimes there were no such cases and it would not manufacture charges against its public officers so as to satisfy a report.
The Task Force also identified what it called “falsehoods” in the US report about the government’s handling of trafficking cases. Up to this week, Guyana Women Miners Organisation President Simona Broomes, who was recognised as an anti-TIP hero by the US for her efforts to fight the problem, raised concerns about the Human Services Ministry’s handling of females recently rescued from the 14 Miles backdam in Region Seven.
But while the US report said stakeholders reported that the lack of transparent public standard operating procedures for handling trafficking cases was an obstacle to progress, the Task Force dubbed this assertion “an unadulterated falsehood” and said that standard operating procedures, which are being updated, are being applied nationally.
It also denied that specialized care for adult male victims is not provided, saying that such care is provided for alleged victims of trafficking, whether male or female.
Addressing concerns that longer term shelter and protection is not available, thereby putting victims at risk of traffickers’ reprisals since the government failed to punish most trafficking offenders with incarceration, the Task Force said Guyana has never had an experience where a person who was allegedly trafficked suffered reprisal. “However, there is provision for long term shelter and protection for alleged victims of trafficking in persons, if they so request. Long term shelter is provided by Help and Shelter,” it said.
According to the Task Force, the government “is being as vigorous as it can be” in investigating allegations of human trafficking and will continue to robustly make efforts to hold trafficking offenders accountable as it possesses the appropriate mechanisms to respond to the situation.
It noted that human trafficking is discussed publicly and no attempt is made to prohibit this and it pointed to debates in the National Assembly, live television and radio call in programmes as well as newspaper reports which feature aspects of the issue to sensitise the populace.
“As far as the Government is concerned there is nothing to hide. Guyana is not a closed society where these matters are kept secret. An analysis may well show that the amount of resources expended on this issue is disproportionate to the scale of the problem,” it added
The Task Force was established by Cabinet on February 6, 2007 and comprises the Ministry of Home Affairs; the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security; the Ministry of Legal Affairs; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs; the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development; the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment; the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission; the Guyana Police Force; the Indigenous Peoples’ Association; Help and Shelter; and Food for the Poor.
