Govt. touts broad-based, tougher approach to human trafficking

Aug 06, 2015 News

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For the first time in years, the United States Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report which placed Guyana on the Tier 2 Watch List, has not been met with opposition. In fact, the new government, through the Ministry of Social Protection, is seeking to up the ante in its battle to stamp out human trafficking in Guyana.
Minister of Social Protection, Volda Lawrence said the government recognises the impact of human trafficking and will be working with a short term plan, which culminates at the end of the year, to handle the issue.
Next year, she said, the government will be rolling out a long term plan to attack human trafficking holistically.
From all indications, the new government will not only be targeting the masterminds behind the sexual exploitation operations, but those who collude with them will also come under fire for the roles they knowingly played.
The Social Protection Minister, who spoke to Kaieteur News recently, has also made known that avenues available to law enforcers and officials, hitherto unexplored, will be taken into consideration by the Ministry.
Lawrence said that for years, while in Opposition, they had been knocking at the then ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)’s door to take the issue of TIP seriously, but this was to no avail. Nonetheless, now given a chance to effect change, Lawrence has not disputed the latest TIP Report by the US State Department.
Lawrence told this publication “We are taking responsibility for what is happening. We do have an Act (Trafficking in Persons Act No. 2 of 2005) but what we have found is that the same way in which the previous government behaved towards the report, it’s the same way they treated with it in the Ministry.”
In the past, the US TIP report was met with opposition from the then government which always insisted that Guyana was not home to such gross human rights violations.
The recently appointed Minister explained, however, that the Counter Trafficking in Persons Unit is currently understaffed and does not have the equipment and items necessary to put up a serious fight against the TIP.
The Social Protection Minister told this publication, too, that in the past no budget was ever prepared to fight against TIP. These are things the new government plans to change.
Lawrence said the Ministry has been gathering data on trafficking in persons with intent of formulating a short-term programme that will run until the end of the year. After that, the government will be focusing on a plan for 2016.
“We are going to address the issue from the perspective that the victim is a victim,” Lawrence said. Victims, she commented, often face further victimization when brought into the system.
“We are going after the perpetrators: the people who lure these women and girls into the various interior locations. We are going to go after those who transport them knowingly and those persons who hoard them for the business of selling their bodies,” the Minister added.
According to Lawrence, the government will be looking to bring the masterminds, transporters and hoarders to justice. The Act, she explained, allows for the seizure of their property once convicted.
Their properties can be used for the benefit for the victims and these are avenues that will be explored. The Social Protection Minister divulged that they will be tackling this issue in a collaborative manner.

JUDICIARY
Though the Minister refrained from criticizing the judiciary’s handling of TIP cases, she intimated that keen attention ought to be paid to the way in which the entire process is being handled from the time the incident is identified, the manner in which interviews are conducted and the way the victim and perpetrator are treated.
“It seems to have become an episode of a movie: everyone wants to know who it is, how old they are and all sorts of things. People seem to lose the focus that something wrong and inhumane was done to them (TIP victims) and I think that is where we need to turn the community focus back on that trafficking should not be condoned. It is very bad for society and very bad for humans to do that to other humans”
She expressed that greater results can be achieved with assistance from other agencies such as the police, community leaders and society as a whole.
“We have to begin to make people angry about what is happening and not allow people to see it as something passive and say ‘this is where we are going.’”
The latest TIP report has urged that Guyana up the ante in its battle to stamp out trafficking in persons. For the third consecutive year, Guyana was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List and the US has recommended that the country move quickly to increase funding to special organizations tasked with assisting victims.
Tier Two level is accorded to countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
The TIP report said that law enforcement efforts remained insufficient when it came to battling the problem. Noting that Guyana has a law in place, the report was critical of weak law enforcement efforts which hindered the process of holding traffickers accountable.
The US had said too that Government resources devoted to victim protection remained inadequate, and authorities did not consistently provide assistance specific to the needs of trafficking survivors, leaving donor-funded organizations to provide much of the support for victims.
In areas outside of the capital, NGOs provided shelter and assistance to victims, often in dangerous conditions, without any Government funding. Longer-term shelter and protection was not available in Guyana, putting victims at risk of traffickers’ reprisals, as the government did not punish most traffickers with incarceration.
The US report indicated that identified victims were re-trafficked or became homeless after receiving inadequate protection services from the government. The report, regarding Guyana, said the country is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour.
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, the report said.
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.
According to the report, limited government presence in the interior masks the full scope of trafficking crimes.
“Some police officers are complicit in trafficking crimes, and corruption impedes anti-trafficking efforts.”
It had said that the Government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.
In its recommendations, the US called for Guyana to vigorously investigate and prosecute sex and labour trafficking cases and hold convicted traffickers accountable with time in prison that is commensurate with the severity of the crime.
The country is also expected to provide increased funding for NGOs to identify and assist victims; investigate, prosecute, and convict government officials complicit in trafficking; 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.
Also, in partnership with NGOs, it is expected that the authorities will 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; not punish victims for crimes committed as a result of being subjected to human trafficking.
It was stressed that increased protection and assistance for victims near mining communities must be provided.
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report is the U.S. Government’s principal diplomatic tool to engage foreign governments on human trafficking.

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