I wish to refute the article based on the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) report, that government’s efforts to stem trafficking in persons (TIP) in Guyana are inadequate.

First the US State Department, erroneously placed Guyana on the Tier 2 watch list for TIP, and now the ITUC.

The Government has never denied nor overlooked the fact that there are rogue elements in our society, but as far as TIP is concerned, for some reason or the other, there always seem to be an elaborate exaggeration.

The US State Department report was heavily based on second-hand data and the credibility of its TIP country report begs the question of the quality of the sources of information. The methodological section of the Report does not provide practical indicators by which the Government of Guyana can assess its own anti-trafficking efforts, relative to the criteria by which they are evaluated.

The Government has put a number of legislations in place to make sexual crimes more punishable, only recently at the last sitting of the National Assembly, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Priya Manickchand, tabled the Sexual Offences Bill 2009 to ensure that measures are put in place at the highest level to protect the vulnerable section of society.

Minister Manickchand who has the responsibility to ensure that it does not become ingrained, is adamant that any one found guilty of the act will be prosecuted.

The TIP law of 2005 states that if anyone is an accomplice in TIP they can be charged.

Since the release of the faulty report by the US, Government has expanded prevention measures coupled with heightened activity from law enforcement agencies, as well as vigorous enforcement and sensitization measures at the national level, have made it difficult for human traffickers to carry out this practice.

The government has made it crystal clear that no report made on TIP will go uninvestigated and the resuscitation of the entire justice system through the Justice Sector Reform Strategy, will guarantee a faster, more effective way to deal with these issues.

To say that Guyana’s efforts to combat TIP are inadequate is a very inaccurate conclusion for an organisation such as the ITUC to make public, when the evidence of Government’s efforts overwhelmingly refuses this
L. BROWN