At OAS supported workshop…
MINISTER of Home Affairs, Mr. Clement Rohee yesterday announced a 10-point plan to deal, locally, with Trafficking in Persons (TIP).
He made the announcement at a workshop themed ‘Strengthening capacity of law enforcement officials, judges and prosecutors in the Caribbean to identify and combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), especially women and children’ .
Addressing the forum, at Regency Suites hotel, Hadfield Street, Stabroek, Georgetown, Rohee said TIP is more than the organised movement of persons for profit and includes deception, force and coercion.
To combat it, he said the Government of Guyana, has adopted a number of methods, among them:
* the development of adequate legal frameworks to address the problem. In 2005, the TIP Act criminalised this activity in this country and it is comprehensive in nature, as it covers areas of victim support, assistance and reintegration;
* Government, at the level of Cabinet, has created a ministerial task force for combating TIP and it meets on a monthly basis to monitor national response to TIP;
* the National Action Plan for combating TIP has been revised and Government has given due attention to the protection and support of victims, by creating points of contacts in all responding agencies and supporting non-governmental organisations (NGOs);
* Government protection efforts are supplemented by way of preventative measures;
* more creative and victim effective censorhip of law enforcement has been devised;
* Government has implemented a range of social prevention methonds which include focus on economic and social issues that create vulnerability to trafficking;
* Government has formulated training for Police officers, prosecutors and immigration personnel, with a view to identifying trafficking victims and prosecuting offenders;
* community focal points have been created to provide regular contact and the alerting of the relevant authority to suspected trafficking;
* cross border cooperation with countries such as Suriname and Brazil has been instituted and
* on April 29, 2010, the first conviction under the TIP Act  was secured.

According to Rohee, TIP is a lucrative industry and estimates, by researchers, established that it is now the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.

ARMS TRADE

He said, usually, it is tied to the arms trade as the second largest criminal activity, following the drug trade and TIP mostly affects women and children.
Rohee said the total annual revenue from TIP, worldwide, is estimated at between US$5 billion and US$9 billion and has a devastating impact on individuals and victims who have suffered physical and emotional abuse.
He said the types of victimisation include rape, threats against self and family, passport theft and even death.
“As we focus on this social phenomenon, we must not lose track of the fact that trafficking not only deprives people of their human right and freedom but also increases the human health risks and impacts the growth of organised crime,” Rohee said.
He said, incidentally, an overseas representative visited Guyana to discuss TIP and said this country does not have an impressive track record in respect of convictions.
Rohee said the Ministerial Task Force has, since, compiled several reports which have been published and is working on another national compilation.
He acknowledged that training is critical to the prevention and protection in TIP and increases awareness in enforcement, as it strengthens Police prosecutors and Courts in the capacity of laws to combat TIP and strengthen inter-agencies involved to protect victims.
Organisation of American States (OAS) Representative in Guyana, Mr. Dennis Moses welcomed the opportunity to participate in initiatives to improve the lives of its citizenry and the development of the country.
He said, as such, it is in this context the OAS feels honoured to contribute to this TIP training over two days.
Moses said the capacity building exercise has already been conducted in several Caricom member States and beyond and they, therefore, stand to benefit even more from these interactive sessions.
He said, over the recent past, the OAS has had the good fortune of collaborating with the Home Affairs Ministry in a number of areas, primarily in training activities and enabled participation of members of staff of the Ministry and its related agencies in meetings in different countries.
Moses said the merit of access of such exposure resides in shared experiences and best practices networking and the availability of functioning networks in specific fields and joint actions in areas that are resistant to treatment by solely national efforts, up to date information on and approaches and treating specific areas and sharpening the skills and competence of meeting participants to the their job responsibilities.
He recalled several training programmes facilitated by the OAS and underscored the importance of them.
MODERN SLAVERY

Coordinator of the OAS Anti-TIP Unit, Department of Public Security, Mr. Fernando Garcia-Robles added that TIP is considered a form of modern slavery and violation of human rights, including sexual exploitation of labour, tourism, begging, formed domestic services, illegal trafficking of organs and adoptions.
He said it is important to note that trafficking is not only perpetrated by individuals or acquaintances of the victims but by organised crime groups which benefit, substantially, from crime and profit from the sale of arms and drugs.
Garcia-Robles concurred that TIP is the fastest growing national criminal activity in the world and said the Caribbean is not an exception.
He said one concept of TIP that might still be new to some societies is that the international community believes this criminal activity is performed by various forms of exploitation in all regions of the world.
Garcia-Robles explained that this crime affects millions of people worldwide and targets labour, commercial sex and exploitation and, every year, demoralises the vulnerable populations.
He said OAS and International Organisation for Migration 2005 statistics indicated that trans border human trafficking exists in many Caribbean member States and that many other countries interconnected with the Caribbean are also affected as source transit or destination countries.
Garcia-Robles said, although namely a source region, the Caribbean is becoming a  region for traffic in women and men, rerouted to Europe and Asia or more economically developed countries and the Western Hemisphere.
Recent reports are that a number of Caribbean countries deemed as tourist destinations are the centre of a growing sex tourism industry, he stated.
Garcia-Robles said, every year, men, women and children are recruited, transported, marketed and purchased by individuals, buyers, traffickers and members of transnational organised groups with the main purpose of sexual exploitation.
He sad, too, that women, children, adolescents, boys and girls are included in between one and four millions victims of trafficking.
Obviously, in order to combat this, it is necessary to go beyond the countries of origin, transit and destination, Garcia-Robles posited.
“It is vital to address more than just the recruiters, transporters, clients and beneficiaries. Essentially, it is a job that requires conjunction and coordination at the institutional and multi-dimensional levels, taking into account the prevention and apprehension of criminals and protection of victims,” he advocated.
The two-day workshop was organised by the OAS in collaboration with the Home Affairs Ministry, which conducted two similar exercises last year, that focused on capacity building to combat TIP.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Mr. Trevor Thomas said the activity is very important as the counter trafficking unit is responsible, to a larger extent for the national response to TIP.
He said: “While, in Guyana, we have not yet been able to identify the numbers of victims that have been reported in various reports, as a Ministry, we believe that one victim is too many and that is why the Ministry welcomes any initiative to respond to human trafficking.”
Thomas said: “We believe that, if our response is to be vigorous and robust, we need to have an integrated and coordinated approach to human trafficking and the workshop will strengthen our national response and I believe participants will not only be provided with useful information but will leave with a renewed commitment to strengthen our national response, in Guyana, to ensure that human trafficking does not spiral out of control.”