…moves to Tier 1 after robust fight against TIP

GUYANA has climbed to Tier 1 in the U.S. Department of Statement Trafficking in Persons (TIP), ranking, which signifies that this country has fully met the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards.
Guyana’s new ranking was announced when the State Department published its 2017 TIP report on Tuesday. Guyana’s latest rank was at Tier 2. With Guyana putting into practice the recommendations listed in the 2016 report, the 2017 report highlighted that the government has made key achievements during the 11 months, thus resulting in its upgrade.

These achievements include approving the 2017-2018 national action plan for combating TIP; increasing the number of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions; and identifying and assisting more victims for the second year in a row. The Ministry of Social Protection’s Anti-Trafficking Unit (ATU) added three new officers responsible for planning and executing the unit’s site visits and victim-extraction exercises. The government’s inter-ministerial taskforce coordinated a number of successful police operations, which resulted in a number of investigations, prosecutions and convictions.

Since last year, more stringent penalties were enacted for the traffickers. These ranged from three years to life imprisonment and were commensurate with those prescribed for other serious offences such as rape. The ATU, in coordination with the Guyana Police Force also developed identification procedures that field officers used informally during the reporting period, pending their formal review and approval from the taskforce. These procedures allowed for the identification of 98 trafficking victims in 2016 (80 for sex-trafficking and 18 for labour trafficking), compared with 56 in 2015. The government signed a MOU with an anti-trafficking NGO during the previous reporting period and committed public funding to the NGO-run shelter for the provision of enhanced psycho-social services to adult female trafficking victims referred by the government.

More work to be done
Despite being upgraded, the report stated that all TIP issues have not been eradicated and therefore the fight continues. The 2017 report listed new recommendations and highlighted areas that need more attention. The report highlighted that the government did not increase protection and services for victims outside the capital or provide adequate protection and shelter for child and male victims. Recommendations were made for more funding towards specialised victim services, including those offered by NGOs. It also mandated for continuous vigorous investigation, prosecution of sex and labour-trafficking cases and hold convicted traffickers, including complicit public officials accountable, by imposing sufficiently stringent sentences. More training should also be given to law-enforcement officers, judiciary officials, and frontline responders. The report called for more victim assistance, especially in areas outside the capital and for male victims. More effort should be put in place for the reduction of the demand for commercial sex acts.

Guyana continues to be seen as a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex-trafficking and forced labour. Women and children from Guyana, Brazil, The Dominican Republic, Suriname, and Venezuela are subjected to sex-trafficking in mining communities in the interior and urban areas.

The U.S. Government uses the TIP Report to engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms and to combat trafficking and to target resources on prevention, protection and prosecution programmes. In the TIP Report, the Department of State places each country onto one of three tiers based on the extent of their governments’ efforts to comply with the “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” The Tier 1 ranking indicates that a government has acknowledged the existence of human trafficking, made efforts to address the problem, and complies with the TVPA’s minimum standards.