Defending the raid at a Bartica nightclub which resulted in several women suspected of being trafficked being taken into custody but no charges being laid against the alleged traffickers to date, junior Minister of Social Security Simona Broomes says that there is need for a proper unit to tackle this crime.
She said that the new administration would put mechanisms in place to effectively fight the scourge of human trafficking and contended that this was an issue that was ignored by the past administration.
Two Saturdays ago, Broomes and members of the police and the Guyana Women Miners Organisa-tion (GWMO) – which she had previously headed – swooped on the Top Notch Restaurant and Bar in Bartica and another location and removed 29 persons.
Since then, the raid has been criticized particularly in light of the fact that some of the women have since been charged with immigration-related offences. Some have questioned whether the minister knows the difference between prostitution and Trafficking in Persons (TIP).
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Broomes maintained that she received credible reports that the women were being trafficked. She declared that there is need for a special unit in the Guyana Police Force to specifically address the issue since at the moment, the force is not equipped to effectively conduct such investigations. She also said that the TIP Unit in her ministry is not equipped to fight the crime as, apart from the employees having a filthy room for an office, they are not trained nor do they even have a vehicle at their disposal to respond to TIP reports.
Asked about the reported victims from Bartica being charged with immigration offences when she had assured the women that they had nothing to fear, the minister pointed out that she was not conducting the investigation but suggested that the police should have gotten the International Organisa-tion for Migration (IOM) office involved before instituting charges.
When contacted yesterday, Crime Chief Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum told Stabroek News that the police are investigating allegations of trafficking in persons. The investigation is about to wrap up and the file would be sent for legal advice after which the police would act on whatever advice is given, he said.
Blanhum disclosed that two persons – including the operator of the bar – are under investigation and they have both since denied the allegations. He said that they are reporting on a regular basis to the police which was a stipulation of their release from custody.
Crime Chief Blanhum said that statements have been taken from the alleged victims, some of whom he acknowledged were charged and placed before the court for immigration breaches. Asked whether the women would return to Guyana to testify should charges be instituted, the crime chief said it would not be a problem as Guyana’s courts are now equipped to have witnesses testify via video link.
‘Know the difference’
Yesterday, Broomes, who said that she is not against the public debate and the relevant issues that are being raised, made it clear that she understands the differences between human trafficking and also knows what is child labour. She pointed out that while she was President of the GWMO, she would have conducted raids and the police would have conducted investigations, sent the file the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for advice, instituted charges and persons were convicted.
“This to me sets the tone that I understand the differences between human trafficking and prostitution,” the minister said while pointing out that many of the victims from those raids were under-aged girls.
Speaking about the recent raid, the minister said that she was shocked to observe that at the police station, the operator of the bar was seen talking and instructing the women who were removed. “He should not have even had access to the women, he had their passports in his possession. And then the police at Bartica had no interpreter and had to rely on one of the women…”
Broomes related that it was one of the GWMO members Irene Sears, who speaks Portuguese, who later assisted as the young women only spoke broken English. The minister also believes that she missed about 20 women who were allegedly being trafficked but were removed from a house after word got around.
For her, citizens should understand that Guyana has a serious TIP problem and she said that the new government “has to quickly come together and build a task force to deal with this issue and set up a special unit in the police force to fight this crime.”
While not blaming the police, who she said are not trained to effectively investigate TIP, Broomes said that it is revealing that she has since received a threatening phone call from someone connected to one of the businesses that was raided and she will be reporting this threat to the police. “I want Guyanese to understand that I am risking my life out there, it is a serious issue and it is not a walk in the park,” the minister said pointing out that she is from Bartica.
She is also worried about a woman whose passport turned up at the station but she could not be found. When the crime chief was asked about this, he said that he was unware of such a passport.
Three individuals
Broomes decried the lack of mechanisms in place to fight TIP and said that it is a shame on the part of the past administration. “This TIP unit is three individuals…there is not a vehicle assigned to that unit, the members were not trained for a TIP raid,” the minister said while adding that she is yet to ascertain what was the mandate of the unit.
“All I can hear is the challenges and difficulties in wanting to respond,” she had told Stabroek News in a previous interview. “They are in a filthy office, it is dirty. I am now looking for an area to remove them from there, there is not even proper furniture in there, it is dirty,” Broomes said while further revealing that she had personnel from the Ministry’s health and safety department inspect the office and found that “it is in breach of everything.”
“It is horrible,” she stressed and revealed that they are operating with one computer and it is not internet ready and cellular phones are being used for the hotline. “They are not prepared, I think that is clear, they were never prepared to deal with human trafficking,” the minister declared adding that she is still waiting to be told what was the unit’s structure of work.
Giving an example of how ill-equipped the unit is, Broomes said that recently, the unit received a call on the hotline informing that a woman was being trafficked on the East Coast. Around 11pm, one of the employees called her requesting help to access transportation to get to the location.
“So even though there is a hotline, there is no way for them to respond so she is calling me late in the night to tell me she has no transportation and it is not that she could go and catch a bus or the way government is structured, hire a taxi or anything of such,” Broomes said.
One of the three officers is on leave and Broomes said that it was not until the following day that the two others got the transportation and by then, they could not locate the reported victim. Being new to the office and at the hour of the night, the minister said, it was difficult for her to find a driver and as such she believes that the unit needs a vehicle assigned to them for the purposes of responding to reports.
The employees of the unit are also unfamiliar with the various interior locations and other parts of Guyana. “They are not out there, and they can’t respond to calls and all of that so what is the purpose of that unit,” she questioned.
According to Broomes, these concerns are shared by her senior minister Volda Lawrence and Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan. “We have to now build a structure, we have to build a unit. We now as a government have to be prepared to deal with human trafficking…it is not only there is no mechanism to rescue them in the first place, there is no mechanism to rescue them and conduct proper investigations,” she asserted.
Saying that she is not boasting, the minister said that the GWMO with little funding did much more than the previous government’s unit did for victims and she is “shocked” by what she has seen. “The last administration didn’t see TIP as a problem, they didn’t care, and they didn’t want to address it,” she asserted.
