From the Diaspora…PLEASE DON’T TERM PROSTITUTION TRAFFICKING

Jun 14, 2015 News

---

By Ralph Seeram
Bai dem gyals does do more than dem gyal here does do. Dem Spanish gyal can suck “cane” good. My friend on the other end of the phone was calling me from the heart of the jungle in Guyana, from one of the gold mining areas in the interior. This was some three weeks ago.
I was trying to get some info on life in the goldfields; I could not have asked for a better person. She worked in different mining areas, and currently she was doing two jobs, by day working in the fields and at night, running a bar. She made it clear to me that she doesn’t “hustle”. So I asked her how much money she makes, and was surprised when she told me the money she saved in two weeks. She said sometimes she would get her tips in gold.
She saved over G$150,000 in that period, “but I don’t hustle” she insisted, “Dem gyals does mek mo”. “Things dear hay; a bottle of Banks Beer cost a thousand dollars”.
So I asked her to tell me more about “dem gyals”. She said they come from “all about”, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and Dominican Republic mainly. “Dem man like dem foreign gyal”.
So it was with some amusement when I read of Simona Broomes’s big public display of rounding up “victims” in Trafficking in Persons (TIP). I knew all she did round up was a set of sex workers. It had nothing to do with TIP, and I rather believe Simona Broomes knew that before she started the exercise.
I knew all she rounded up under the pretence of TIP were women who either overstayed their visa or entered the country illegally. That was eventually brought out in Court, where it was proved that the women were not victims of TIP but were merely in the country illegally. What a waste of resources!! No wonder she complained before about not getting the cooperation of police before, I rather suspect the police has more important things to than rounding up members of the world’s oldest profession.
Broomes built her reputation on fighting TIP. I said last week that her work is overrated at best; her actions in her latest raid, proved this.
Trafficking in Persons is a serious international problem; it is also something difficult to prove in court. I did a little research to make sure I understood the definition clearly. Under the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) which other agencies take their cue they defined it as:
(a)    Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
(b)    Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in sub paragraph (a) of this article;
“Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.
Basically if a child is less than 18yrs engaged as sex workers, those responsible are automatically guilty of TIP.
It is a different story when you have adults of their own free who come to “hustle” for whatever reason.
If Broomes wants to be a Morality police she should come out and say so, but don’t go rounding up whores under the pretext of fighting Trafficking in Person.
Now lots of pork knockers are angry. The price has gone up for them; demand and supply have stepped in— fewer gyals more money. At least Broomes has reduced the competition for the local girls, and I am sure they can step to the competition and do better than what “dem foreign Spanish gyals can do”.
I am sure it will not take long to fill the vacancies left by the women that were deported. Some may have already started making their way back. After all, they have customers to ‘service”. Look let’s be real here, prostitution is not called the world’s oldest profession for nothing. You can’t get rid of it, so leave dem gyals alone. They are doing a service. If you don’t believe me go ask dem pork knockers who miss dem gyals.
What is needed is for the authorities to focus their energies on child sex exploitation in the country especially in the interior. They are the ones more vulnerable to the charms of exploiters.
According to UNICEF “as many as two million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade.
International covenants and protocols obligate criminalization of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The use of children in the commercial sex trade is prohibited under both U.S. law and the Palermo Protocol as well as by legislation in countries around the world. There can be no exceptions and no cultural or socio-economic rationalizations preventing the rescue of children from sexual servitude. Sex trafficking has devastating consequences for minors, including long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, disease (including HIV/AIDS), drug addiction, unintended pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism and death.”
This is the area I think the focus should be for the Guyana Government.
I will have to ask my friend if the recent raids scared away the “foreign gyals” in her area. I know the raids were not in her area, but I must remember to ask her if there are any underage girls in the “business in her area’. She should know. She shares a room at the back of the bar, and as you know a barman or in this case barwoman knows everybody’s business.
Maybe I can give Ms Broomes some real info on TIP.
Oh so I asked my friend what Smart Phone she was using since the reception for both Skype and phone conversation was good; she said a Samsung Galaxy S6. I said to myself wow she must be making good money. However she still insisted “I don’t hustle”
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: [email protected] and Face book

---

---