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Region Two medical practitioners trained to identify, handle TIP cases
Regional Executive Officer, Region Two, Dennis Jaikaran; Coordinator and C-TIP Unit, Ministry of Social Protection, Tanisha Williams – Corbin, are flanked by medical practitioners and members of the RDC.
Medical practitioners, including doctors, nurses and medics in Region Two [Pomeroon- Supenaam], are better equipped with the requisite skills and knowledge to identify and handle Trafficking in Persons [TIP] cases.
This follows a TIP structured Awareness Training for medical practitioners, hosted on Tuesday, by the Ministry of Social Protection’s Counter-Trafficking in Persons Unit (C-TIP) at the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) office in Anna Regina.
Regional Executive Officer, Region Two, Dennis Jaikaran, commended the C-TIP Unit for hosting the training programme, especially at a time when the region is said to have many unaddressed cases of TIP.
He encouraged the participants to use the skills and knowledge gained to aid in alleviating the instances of TIP in the region.
“Participants, your mandate would be given by the unit and that you should follow. Whatever mandate is given to the region; it is our duty to formulate a programme guided by the unit to take it to the next stage. TIP has become a serious thing and we all have to work together to address it,” Jaikaran remarked.
The training programme was developed with the primary objectives of helping the participants to understand the crime of TIP, how the anti-TIP legislation in Guyana is applied and the national referral mechanism for combating TIP in Guyana.
C-TIP Unit Coordinator within the Ministry of Social Protection, Tanisha Williams-Corbin, agreed that the training is indeed timely since the Unit has been receiving many reports of TIP cases in the region.
According to Williams-Corbin, TIP is a violation of human rights. She said the act of recruiting an individual, by means of threat or force and for the purpose of exploitation such as prostitution or slavery, must be present and connected to each other for the crime of adult TIP to occur. In the case of child TIP, the individual must be below the age of 18.
Common forms of TIP include domestic servitude, servile and child marriages, child soldiers, forced labour and begging, sexual slavery, prostitution of another and illicit removal of organs. TIP victims suffer from physical injuries and disabilities to victims, sexually transmitted diseases, psychological or mental issues and substance or alcohol abuse.
Williams-Corbin stressed that “trafficking like other forms of violence is a health problem and should be addressed in a clinical encounter. Therefore, health workers should stay within the confines of diagnosing medical problems and not ask patients about exploitative situations or trafficking in persons.”
Coordinator of the Ministerial Task Force for TIP, Oliver Profitt, explained that during 2018 there has been a significance increase in TIP. However, the Task Force was able to conduct awareness in many regions and training of Corps of Wardens, Diplomats, Mines Officers and Interpreters.
The Task Force also completed a User-Friendly Booklet on TIP Act and drafted a proposal for increasing the efficiency of the Judicial Sector in addressing TIP cases.
According to Profitt, a 2019-2020 National Plan of Action for the Prevention and Response to Trafficking in Persons is in place to address the issue countrywide. The Action Plan is divided into four main parts; prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership.
The training, which also targeted time teachers and members of civil society in Region Two, was slated to conclude yesterday [Wednesday, February 27, 2019].
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