US condemns Guyana again on human trafficking

- cites little money, poor prosecution

For the fourth year running, Guyana has been placed on the Tier 2 Watch List of the US Trafficking

Simona Broomes, President of the Guyana Women Miners Organisation, during one of her campaigns.

in Persons (TIP) 2014 report that was released yesterday.
In a scathing report on Guyana that is bound to again elicit a dismissive response from Government, the US said that the country is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour.
Released by Secretary of State, John Kerry, the report said that Guyana made minimal efforts to prevent trafficking. A Government’s ministerial taskforce that was designated to monitor and assess the government’s anti-trafficking efforts did not report any results.
The report was also critical of a delay by the taskforce to allow the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO), a “leading” non-governmental organisation, to be part of it. GWMO which has actively been highlighting cases had requested to be part of the body but has not received a reply.
GWMO President, Simona Broomes, was honored by the US for her work in highlighting incidences of human trafficking.
The annual report of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons which falls under the United States Department of State, is designed to record investigations and create programmes to prevent human trafficking globally.
The office presents the report annually to Congress and is designed to raise awareness about human exploitation and trafficking, and to prevent it.
According to the 2014 report, while the full extent of forced labour is unknown in Guyana, there have been reports of forced labour in the mining, agriculture, and forestry sectors, as well as in domestic service and shops.

Mining attraction
“Traffickers are attracted to Guyana’s interior mining communities where there is limited government control, but Guyanese and foreign nationals are also vulnerable to trafficking in urban centers and elsewhere in the country. Children are particularly vulnerable to forced labour.”
Guyanese nationals are also subjected to human trafficking in other countries in the Caribbean region.
“The Government of Guyana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government’s Ministry of Labour, Human Services, and Social Security demonstrated concrete efforts to assist trafficking victims.”
Despite these efforts, the government did not demonstrate evidence of overall increasing efforts to address human trafficking over the previous reporting period.
“Guyana has an adequate trafficking law and achieved three trafficking convictions during the reporting period; however, all three convicted traffickers were released on bail pending the appeal of their convictions.”
The US report said that the Government of Guyana did not provide information regarding the basis on which the defendants sought to appeal their convictions or on which the court determined to grant them bail.
“The inability to hold traffickers accountable creates an enabling environment for human trafficking. Trafficking victims have accused police officers and other government employees of cooperating with traffickers.”
Law enforcement officials did not provide data on the number of trafficking investigations they undertook during the reporting period, compared with two labour trafficking investigations and 16 sex trafficking investigations the previous year.
The TIP report disclosed that according to a statement by an official from the Human Services Ministry before Parliament, authorities “brought before the courts” six trafficking cases, one of which was dismissed, compared with seven prosecutions during the previous period.
The government confirmed that a police officer was accused of trafficking, and the Guyana Police Force and Office of Public Prosecution were reviewing the allegation.

Dismissed cases
“For many years, the majority of Guyana’s trafficking prosecutions have ultimately been dismissed. A high-profile prosecution of child trafficking covered in the media was dismissed late in the reporting period, with the magistrate citing a lack of evidence.”
In that case, the US said, NGOs claimed that trafficking victims willing to testify were not notified of court dates and were not allowed to present evidence. The government did not report any additional action involving prosecution of a high-profile child trafficking case investigated in 2012, and there were reports that police did not investigate all alleged incidents of human trafficking.”
“The government did not report that it provided any specialized anti-trafficking training for law enforcement in 2013.”
While Guyana made efforts to protect victims of trafficking, the continued lack of accountability for perpetrators further endangered victims.
“The Human Services Ministry reported identifying 23 victims in 2013, among them 10 children, five male labour trafficking victims, and 18 sex trafficking victims, compared with 19 girls, two boys, three women, and two adult men identified the previous year.”
One NGO reported rescuing 29 victims, mostly children, in 2013 and additional victims in 2014. “The Human Services Ministry reported that 16 victims consented to be referred to care facilities during the reporting period. Government-provided services reportedly consisted of psycho-social support, basic medical care, transportation, and some assistance for victims’ reintegration, but sources claimed that government resources devoted to victim protection were inadequate.”
There were reports that authorities failed to provide assistance specific to the needs of trafficking survivors, and that victims who had been rescued were re-trafficked or became homeless after they did not receive adequate protection services from the government.

Little money
“An NGO operated a shelter for victims of domestic violence, as well as a “safe home” for children in the capital that reportedly provided assistance to trafficking victims during the reporting period. The shelter received a government subsidy of the equivalent of approximately US$14,800.”
The Government also paid the equivalent of approximately US$1,452 for alternative accommodation for three victims.
“The Government reportedly provided specialized care for adult male victims. Donor-funded organizations provided much of the support for victims. In areas outside of the capital, NGOs provided shelter and assistance to trafficking victims, often in dangerous conditions, without any funding from the government.”
The US report said that it found longer-term shelter and protection was not available in Guyana, putting victims at risk of traffickers’ reprisals, as the government also failed to punish most traffickers with incarceration.
“Stakeholders reported that there were still no clear, written, government-wide operating procedures to guide officials in handling human trafficking cases in coordination with NGO partners.”
While Guyana’s law contains incentives to encourage victims to participate in the prosecution of traffickers, including protection from punishment for crimes committed as a result of being subjected to human trafficking, in practice, victims often did not testify in court.
“Media reports indicate that many trafficking prosecutions were dismissed because victims, many of whom were children, did not appear in court; the government did not take steps to ameliorate this problem. Guyana has not adopted methods of allowing children to testify that ensure their safety and officials reportedly did not inform victims of court dates nor take them to testify.”
Under the four-tiered ranking system Tier One is a country that is meeting the minimum standards of fighting human trafficking.
A Tier Two country is one that is not meeting those goals but is striving to do so. A Tier Two Watch List is a warning that countries are in danger of falling to Tier Three, which says that there is not sufficient response to the trafficking problem.
Last year, the Government of Guyana made it clear that it will not be responding to the yearly questionnaires on trafficking in persons as requested by the embassy of the United States of America in Georgetown. This was following another unfavourable US State Department report on Guyana’s position on Trafficking in Persons.
The Ministerial Task Force on Trafficking in Persons (MTFTIP) had expressed deep concern that the 2013 US State Department’s Report on TIP in Guyana has not reviewed Guyana fairly. “Consequently, the Government of Guyana wishes to make it clear that in the future it will not be completing and returning questionnaires on trafficking in persons to the US authorities.” the MTFTIP said in a statement yesterday.
The task force, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, said that the Report contains several inaccuracies and misrepresentations with regard to the scope of trafficking in persons in Guyana and therefore attracts little merit on the part of the Government of Guyana.