IN an effort to stop Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in Guyana’s hinterland regions, Government is taking strict measures to ensure that children are kept out of mining and logging areas.Minister within the Ministry of Natural Resources Simona Broomes, on Tuesday said that no one should enter a mining district without producing a privilege at the various ports of entry.
The minister was speaking to officers within the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and rangers from the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) at a TIP workshop to train officers.
“Anyone entering into a mining district is supposed to present what you call a privilege. The days are gone when men and women will traverse the sector and say ‘this is my neighbour daughter,’ ‘this is my daughter,’ ‘this is my niece’ or ‘this is my cousin’.”
She told the officers if a privilege cannot be produced for an individual, then they must “hold the regulation” and refuse them entry into the district.

“One of the first things that we will address is the recklessness in shops throughout the mining sector. We will address that, because the more remote is the location, is the more vulnerable people out there.”
The minister said of the four pillars in TIP — protection, prevention, partnership, prosecution — the two agencies must make “prevention and partnership” the two fundamentals in the execution of their duties.
“You know why I know that you can deal with prevention? It is because within the same regulation and the same act that governs the sector, it makes provision… In the Human Trafficking Act of 2005, it says clearly, “any child”, meaning below the age of 18. You cannot leave a 15-year, a 14-year, a 13-year-old to die!”
Broomes said though some human-trafficking victims are still alive, it takes God’s intervention for their lives to return to normalcy.
“I wanna tell you, a victim of trafficking in persons can never, ever, ever, ever find their way again, except with God himself. They wake up today happy, and tomorrow they’re sad. When the phone rings – “Mommy (That’s what they call her), I know that nothing good cyan come, I try everything you tell me. I try but I is no good! Is best I dead! Mommy you don’t know wha you talking, you only telling people, this is me!”
The minister said she has received 82 such stories and hundreds of calls, and though she has her own children, she still has to offer hope to the helpless.
“Either I have to reach where they are in the morning at 03:00 hrs, I have to post money, I have to send a driver, I have to say take a taxi and bring them right away. But I have to respond!”
The minister recalled doing it her own way since the Government of the past was in denial that TIP is prevalent in Guyana and pushed her around many times. She said the APNU+AFC Government is determined to eliminate TIP.
“You have a Government who is not denying trafficking in persons, but we are going to confront slavery in Guyana. In our interior, in our hinterland, we are going to fight that crime!”
While Government does not expect the officers to do a policeman’s job, and her ministry does not directly have responsibility for TIP, she said, “Every ministry has a responsibility… we will do our bit.”
Minister Broomes assured the officers that Government will address the challenges they face in the fields, as the various ministries collaborate to make things better.
She referred to the terrible state of the Konawaruk Bridge, and added: “These conditions that the officers are faced with out there, we’re gonna change them, we’re gonna change it together.”
She urged the officers to be on the lookout for the vulnerable and do what they can to rescue victims of trafficking in persons.
“Why are you seeing them and leave them? Why? You can do something!” Minister Broomes told the officers.