Trafficking in Persons

There is some degree of confusion on the substance of the charges by the US State Department that Guyana is not taking effective steps in confronting Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in this country. The US annual report is an undertaking consequent to a UN initiative in 2000 to supplement the UN Convention Against Transnational Organisational Crime. The expanded approach was signed in the Italian city of Palermo (hence the name “Palermo Protocol&rdquo and its name is very explicit in its aims: “UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children.”
While the original Convention spoke to “transnational organisational crime”, the Protocol also concerns itself with human trafficking within countries. In our case, the US reports allude to both transnational instances (e.g. “ Brazilian women&rdquo and intra-national (“women from the Coast trafficked into the interior&rdquo. Article 3 of the Palermo Protocol attempts an exhaustive definition of “Trafficking in Persons”:
“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 a position of vulnerability, or 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. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal or organs.”
There are three main elements to the crime that should be noted: the movement of the persons, the “control” over them and the purpose for their movement. The element of “movement” includes recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons. In Guyana, for instance, women and girls are routinely recruited to work in the interior as cooks, shop assistants etc. to service the gold mining camps. As we have heard in several publicised cases recently, once in the interior, these females are then told to engage in prostitution. This is the classic case of “TIP”.
In Guyana, most citizens, and evidently members of the government’s enforcement agencies operate on the premise that these recruited women “should have known what is going on”. That postulate is irrelevant to the crime: once the person was recruited for one job and then given one in the prohibited categories, the requisite “consent” is missing. “Exploitation vulnerability” is standard in the poor communities – especially Amerindian villages – and also vitiates purported “consent”. It is important to note that children cannot give consent: the situation is analogous to “statutory rape”.
As far as “purpose” is concerned, prostitution is not the only prohibited purpose to constitute TIP: there is the clause that forbids recruitment and movement resulting in “forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery.” There are many instances of individuals being moved that would qualify under his clause especially in the forestry and mining industries. We need to be educated to the implications of moving individuals into isolated working conditions and then forcing them to work in sub-human conditions: this is tantamount to involuntary servitude and constitutes TIP.
Finally there is the “control” element of the crime. Once the individual has been moved, and subsequently threats, use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or the giving of payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim are being employed, this will satisfy the requirement for TIP. The most egregious instance is the “abuse of power” by individuals in positions of authority such as business owners or law enforcement officials that might cow victims into “accepting” their exploitation.
There is also some confusion between TIP and “human smuggling”. In the latter case, the element of exploitation is missing, which, if it occurs, would convert the smuggling of the persons into TIP.
It is obvious that all Guyanese ought to be aware of the nuances of TIP and do their part to combat it.