TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) – A WICKED CRIME THAT MUST ALWAYS BE COMBATED

Aug 18, 2024 Consumer Concerns, News

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CONSUMER CONCERNS
PAT  DIAL

Kaieteur News – Though Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is such a heinous crime and affects more than 50 million people worldwide, there is a lack of awareness and knowledge of it among the general public.   The main reason for this is the clandestine nature of the crime and this lack of clear visibility allows it to be blended into the flow of ordinary life so that one is not aware of the constituents of the crime and the many forms it can take and even potential victims are unaware of their danger.

In the Laws of Guyana, by Act no.2 of 2005, ‘Trafficking in Persons  is defined as ” the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a person through force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or payments to exploit the person”.  No definition could fully describe so complex a crime but the Guyana legal definition is adequate.  This manifests itself as Slavery and in all its various guises  of forced labour;  Sexual servitude – forcing persons to be engaged in sexual activity, forcing persons to be engaged in prostitution, including practices like pimping and pandering, profiting from  sexual activities including running brothels and pornography;  child pornography and child servitude;  and illicit removal of human organs. When these definitions and descriptions translate into actuality, their horrific nature is seen and understood. Before giving examples of the crime of TIP, it is useful to know what causes the crime.

TIP victims are found among poor families and communities; among the uneducated; in situations of war and other widespread displacement of persons; in broken or unhappy homes where children are neglected;  in very unhappy social and familial milieus which force children to run away;  and in every community, there are predators ranging from confidence tricksters to kidnappers who prey upon victims.

Sometimes commentators and journalists tend to use the terms “trafficking” and “smuggling” interchangeably though they are very different.  Smuggling of millions of persons is at present occurring in Europe where people from Third World countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Nigeria pay people smugglers a fee to take them to gateways of Europe, mainly Italy and Turkey.  Others cross the English Channel from France in flimsy craft arranged by people smugglers and illegally land in England. The relationship between smuggler and person smuggled is a contractual one and ends when the smuggled person reaches one of the “gates” of Europe.  With regards to TIP, the relationship between victim and predator is a longer one.  For example, a child soldier in Africa has to remain with his captor indefinitely or a woman caught in commercial prostitution could be victimized for years. Most of the victims of TIP are females, over 80%, and they are forced into prostitution or various forms of unpaid labour.  Most of the remainder are children with a small number of males.  These victims are invariably beaten and maltreated and sometimes their bodily organs are removed and sold. The traffickers lure their victims with the promise of work, of education and of a better life which lead to the victims finding  themselves entrapped  into conditions from which they cannot escape.

The Guyana Association of Women Judges (GAWJ) has been quietly working to raise awareness of TIP and in a recent media release, it speaks of the characteristics of survivors and the help they may accession: “Survivors suffer immense trauma, enduring physical, emotional and psychological scars that can last a lifetime.  Recognizing that survivors are often in dire need  of shelter, food, legal assistance, social support and psychological treatment the Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act provides a range of protective measures to support their recovery and reintegration into Society”.

In Guyana, the vast majority of Trafficking in Persons and the crimes associated could be found in three areas:  Among the large Venezuelan refugee population,  it is mainly prostitution and exploitation of labour;  the second area is in the countryside among the youth who are mired in poverty, with little education and absence of parental support and are easily lured into prostitution and labour exploitation;  and the third area is the Mining districts where the main crime associated with TIP is prostitution. With the increase of knowledge of TIP among the public and the bureaucracy, Law enforcement by the Police in these targeted areas is becoming more alert and vigilant and it is expected that there would now be more TIP control and prosecutions.

 

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