For a third consecutive year Guyana has been placed on the Tier 2 Watch List of the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Person (TIP) report as the country is again deemed one that is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour.
According to the report, which was released yesterday, women and children from Guyana, Venezuela, Suriname, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic are subjected to sex trafficking in mining communities in the interior and in urban areas. It also added that victims are subjected to forced labour in the mining, agriculture, and forestry sectors, as well as in domestic service and shops.
“Children are particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking and forced labour. Limited government presence in the interior renders the full scope of trafficking crimes unknown. Guy-anese nationals are subjected to sex and labour trafficking in Suriname, Jamaica, and other countries in the Caribbean region. Some police officers are complicit in trafficking crimes, and corruption impedes anti-trafficking efforts,” the report said.
It also stated that government sustained some efforts to identify victims, but victim assistance remained insufficient, and the government penalised some suspected trafficking victims.
It revealed that the then Ministry of Labour, Human Services, and Social Security reported 16 potential victims to care—largely provided by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) —between April 2014 and January 2015. “The government did not provide information on how many victims were adults or children, male or female, or sex or labour trafficking victims. In comparison, the government reported identifying 23 victims in 2013, including 10 children, five male labour trafficking victims, and 18 sex trafficking victims,” the report said. It added that government resources devoted to victim protection remained inadequate, and authorities did not consistently provide assistance specific to the needs of trafficking survivors.
Prosecution
In the area of prosecution the report said that law enforcement efforts remained insufficient as while the Combating Trafficking of Persons Act of 2005 prohibits all forms of trafficking and the penalties under the law are commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes such as rape, weak law enforcement efforts hindered the process of holding traffickers accountable. According to the report, between April 2014 and January 2015, the government investigated seven trafficking cases involving an unknown number of suspects and prosecuted four suspected traffickers. One trafficker, a policeman, was found guilty in 2013 and he was sentenced to four years in prison for trafficking a child but he was later granted bail after he appeared the sentence. Three other convicted traffickers were also granted bail after they appealed their sentences. The report also spoke of a number of trafficking cases that were dismissed in the courts. The government had trained eight police officers on identifying trafficking victims.
Further, the report said that victims often did not testify in court as officials failed to locate them and inform them of court dates. Victims also did not testify when they had no transportation to courts or could not afford residency in Guyana in the months before their court date. The government did not adequately address this problem, which contributed to the low number of trafficking convictions.
“Guyana’s law protects victims from punishment for crimes committed as a result of being subjected to human trafficking; however, in November, the government charged, and subsequently placed in police custody, a group of Nepalese suspected to have been subjected to trafficking while illegally present in Guyana,” the report pointed out.
Government officials, the report said, reported cooperation with NGOs to develop child-sensitive investigation and prosecution procedures; a lack of these procedures put children at risk of reprisal from traffickers. Guyana’s law provides relief from deportation for foreign victims; the government did not report extending such relief to foreign victims over the past year.
Meantime, the report said that assistance for victims remained insufficient and some were penalized.
“Government resources devoted to victim protection remained inadequate, and authorities did not consistently provide assistance specific to the needs of trafficking victims,” the report said.
The report recommended vigorous investigation and prosecution of sex and labour trafficking cases and for convicted traffickers be held accountable with time in prison that is commensurate with the severity of the crime. Also the government should provide increased funding for NGOs to identify and assist victims; investigate, prosecute, and convict government officials complicit in trafficking. The government is also asked to make additional efforts to enable victims to appear in court and testify against traffickers in a way that does not further endanger victims; develop child-sensitive investigation procedures and court procedures that protect the privacy of children and minimize their re-traumatization. And in partnership with NGOs, the government should develop and publicize written standard operating procedures to guide and encourage front-line officials—including police, health, immigration, labour, mining, and forestry personnel—to identify and protect victims of forced labour and forced prostitution. Victims also should not be punished for crimes committed as a result of being subjected to human trafficking but rather offered increased protection and assistance for victims near mining communities.
The Tier 2 Watch List is for countries where governments do not fully comply with the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards. The report indicated that the country was granted a waiver from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3 because government has a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, and it has committed to devoting sufficient resources to implement that plan. “The government released its anti-trafficking action plan in June 2014; however, the government made uneven efforts to implement it during the reporting period,” the report said.
For years, the then PPP/C government has strenuously objected to the TIP report on Guyana as recent as last year then Minister of Human Services & Social Security Jennifer Webster had said that once more the scope of the problem in Guyana was being misrepresented in the report. She had said that Guyana had not been fairly reviewed.
While in opposition APNU and the AFC, who have now come together to form the coalition government, had criticized the then administration over its apparent denial of the magnitude of the problem. President David Granger, then opposition leader, had even called for a commission of inquiry (COI), in trafficking in persons in Guyana. Junior Minister of Social Security Simona Broomes, who was named one of the 2013 Trafficking in Person heroes in the US, headed the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO) up to the time she took up her ministerial post and is known for her efforts in fighting for the justice and rights of TIP victims.
The administration’s position on the issue did not get off on a good footing as since coming in to office several women suspected of being trafficked and, who were rescued by the minister herself had been charged with illegal entry into Guyana and placed before the court while no suspected trafficker has so far been charged.
In an interview with this newspaper following that very raid, Broomes had 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. She had 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 had also said that the TIP Unit in her ministry was not equipped, 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.
