– `Something sinister’, Luncheon says
SHEER ‘eye pass’, crap and diatribe summed up Guyana’s outright dismissal of the latest Trafficking in People (TIP) report issued yesterday on this country by the United States (U.S.) State Department.
The government was quick to register its outrage at the document which it said does not reflect the dedicated initiatives Guyana has taken against people trafficking and announced that the Foreign Ministry here will be formally communicating this to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, charged that there was “something sinister” behind the issuing of the report.
He said Cabinet was outraged when it was advised about the contents of the U.S. 2010 report and Human Services and Social Security Minister, Ms. Priya Manickchand declared that there was no justification for the U.S. to place Guyana on a TIP watch list because there are no significant numbers of people trafficking victims in this country.
The U.S. released its 2010 report mid-morning yesterday and Guyana registered its protest at a noon press conference with Luncheon, Manickchand, Home Affairs Minister, Mr. Clement Rohee and Education Minister, Mr. Shaik Baksh at the Office of the President complex in Georgetown.
TIP has been described as a form of modern day slavery but the Cabinet ministers and Luncheon yesterday maintained that while there may be instances of exploitation here, Guyana has an aggressive programme to address human trafficking across the country.
Luncheon declared that the report being sent to the U.S. Congress by a TIP unit in the U.S. State Department was opaque and unable to sustain the diatribe published on Guyana with any specifics.
He said there was a ruse to link child labour with trafficking and stated that Guyana has responded comprehensively to TIP in a manner consistent with its culture and these responses have been progressive.
The U.S. report said Guyana is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically conditions of forced prostitution and forced labour.
It added: “Guyanese trafficking victim cases have been identified in the country, as well as in other countries in the region. Identified foreign victims have come from Venezuela and Brazil. Forced prostitution occurs in brothels on the coast and around mining camps as well as in rum shops and Chinese restaurants. The common Guyanese practice of poor, rural families sending children to live with higher income family members or acquaintances in more populated areas has the potential to evolve into forced domestic servitude.”
It charged that the Guyana Government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but said it, however, is “making significant efforts to do so.”
At the press conference, Manickchand provided an overview of Guyana’s anti-TIP programme and was firm that the U.S. should withdraw its report on Guyana and apologise to this country.
She asked whether the U.S. will be forthcoming with an apology for including Guyana in a report in which the country should have never been included in the first place. “After all, that would be the decent and friendly thing to do,” she said.
She added: “There is no justification for Guyana’s placement on the Tier 2 watch list. The United States and Guyana are friends and have enjoyed very good relations over the years. This inaccurate report hurts this friendship. This report is crap.”
Baksh and Rohee briefed reporters on initiatives undertaken by their ministries in tandem with the overall governmental thrust.
Rohee said “we are rather bewildered by these entreaties that we must carry out activities which we are already carrying out”.
Baksh said no case of children under 15 years being employed, while they should have been in school, was reported over the last school year and pointed to a recent report by the U.S. department of labour which found a low incidence of children involved in the drugs and sex trades.
He declared that the allegations about child labour in the report were unfounded.
Manickchand said that from almost the beginning, Guyana objected to being considered a country that should attract the attention of the U.S.
She noted that because of the U.S. law on TIP, which said that a country must have significant numbers of victims before that country could be included in the report, it would have been unlawful for the U.S. to have included Guyana.
“Recognising and understanding the intention of the U.S. law throughout the years, Guyana has protested its inclusion in the report and specifically, in more recent years, the tier ranking given,” Manickchand said.
She expects that the current U.S. trend will almost certainly lead to Guyana being classified as a Tier 3 country in 2011 and this can result in American sanctions on non-trade and humanitarian aid.
She said that in Guyana the lines continue to be blurred between trafficking in persons and sexual exploitation or prostitution. Not every case of prostitution or exploitation fits the definition of trafficking in persons, she added.
She argued that the amendment to the U.S. legislation on TIP means that a country with one case can find itself on the watch list.
Manickchand stated that the government’s allocation of resources to combatting TIP could be called excessive when the scale of the problem which is miniscule is compared to the “other numerous social ills that we have to fight.”
The minister said that from the passage of the local legislation on TIP in 2004, Guyana has seen fewer than 20 charges and prosecution begun against persons alleged to be perpetrators of trafficking.
“This is even after all the awareness sessions, training and equipping of focal point persons in every region of Guyana. The U.S. has never asserted that our non-compliance with the minimum standards and our low ranking was as a result of us failing to charge and/or prosecute persons who were alleged to have been traffickers. It has always been because we failed to churn out mass numbers of prosecutions of victims and convictions,” Manickchand said.
“Guyana has not prosecuted and/or convicted large numbers of persons for trafficking. And for this Guyana should make no apology. Every citizen is guaranteed the right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. We hold this presumption and its constitutional guarantee very dear to us. It must be protected at all times,” the minister said.
She said that if a magistrate cites lack of evidence, or a victim withdraws from a matter and refuses to give evidence, it is the duty of the court to acquit or discharge an accused.
“To do anything else would be to render an injustice to a citizen who is guaranteed a right to a fair trial and due process. The government cannot therefore ‘ensure’ convictions,” she said.
Luncheon said: “What we have done and what we are doing [are] consistent with our reality…the NGOs and the communities in Guyana should have
a keen interest in how this government is being held up and put to shame by the U.S. on the most nebulous of grounds.”
He said there is no doubt that trafficking exists but the report is opaque in its justifications for classifying Guyana the way it has.
Rohee recalled the establishment of the special ministerial task force several years ago to address TIP and said that every single report of TIP in Guyana is investigated, but the pace of that investigation may not find favour with everyone.