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Six confirmed TIP cases before the courts – Human Services Minister

Jan 08, 2013 News

Of the32 reported cases of Trafficking in Persons (TIP), a mere six were confirmed by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security last year. At least this is according to the Minister with responsibility for the Ministry, Ms Jennifer Webster, during a press conference yesterday.
The Minister’s claims come days after her colleague, Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai, told another press conference that there were no reported cases of TIP in Amerindian communities.
However, Minister Webster was not in a position yesterday to tell media operatives where the confirmed cases of TIP occurred last year. She did note that following investigations six cases were confirmed and they are currently before the Magistrates’ Court.
The Minister was at pains to tell reporters, “Our Government is committed to ensuring that we do not have a lot of cases of trafficking in persons and we will aggressively, this year, undertake various methods.”
According to her, once there are reported cases of TIP, every effort will be made to investigate them in detail, since it is the intention of Government to have those culpable be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
However, based on the reported instances of TIP, the Minister is convinced that the numbers are not significant, considering the size of the population.
“We are a small society and it is insignificant…I know there are all these groups who speak about TIP, but I would still say that it is still small in proportion to the size of the population.”
She emphasised the need to draw a clear distinction between incidents of TIP and prostitution, even as she sought to explain that some of the cases that have been reported as TIP were in fact cases of prostitution, where women were actually above the age of consent.
TIP, according to Minister Webster, is regarded a horrible crime and “I think it is about the world’s second largest (worst) crime after drug trafficking.”
Webster said that the Ministry has in place a Counter TIP Unit, complete with a Hotline to allow for callers to report suspected cases. This operation is backed by a Task Force which works in collaboration with the Ministries of Amerindian Affairs, Natural Resources and Home Affairs. In fact, the Minister revealed that the Task Force will soon issue a detailed report on the state of TIP in Guyana.
As part of its mandate, the Human Services Ministry is responsible for providing victims with support, according to the law. And during the course of last year, the Minister said that the Ministry worked with all victims, providing them with counselling and other support. Two of the victims were offered additional assistance to enrol in training institutions, so as to ensure that they did not return to activities that constitute TIP, Minister Webster said. “We continue to work throughout our communities; we have been doing a number of training programmes too.”
During the latter part of last year, the Human Services Ministry in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) spearheaded training programmes aimed at sensitising focal points on how to deal with the TIP situation.
The Ministry, Ms. Webster said, has been able to identify a number of persons as focal points in various Regions, who were able to benefit from the recent training sessions. Such efforts, according to her, will be sustained countrywide and there is also a plan to beef-up staff countrywide, even as the collaboration between the involved Ministries intensifies.

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