THE Ministerial Task Force on Trafficking in Persons (TIP), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE), on Wednesday, held a Training Course for schools’ guidance counsellors and welfare officers, at the Police Training Centre, Camp Street.

The training focused on educating the participants on how to identify students who may be victims of TIP, and to better equip them on how to deal with such cases. Delivering the feature address at the event’s opening ceremony, Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan, noted that it is imperative that the fight against TIP be taken to the schools to increase the awareness of the issue in Guyana. “It is important for those who will be interacting with children in our school system to have a grasp of this scourge and how it happens in corners you would least expect it. You would not expect your neighbour or close relative is doing something so repugnant all because of the profit behind it,” Ramjattan said.

For the first half of 2019 Guyana has had 18 reported TIP cases, which involved some 131 alleged victims. Notwithstanding, over the past four years, Guyana has seen much improvement in its fight against the crime. In 2017 Guyana was elevated to Tier 1, in the United States Department of State’s 2017 Annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, moving from the Tier 2 watch list.

The highest attainable level, Tier 1, represents countries whose governments fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. Countries on the Tier 2 watch list are those which do not fully comply with the standards and are making efforts to become compliant.

Minister Ramjattan emphasised that the business of TIP could not be allowed to thrive in Guyana, or any part of the world, particularly because of the inclination for TIP to lead to other illicit trades including the trafficking of human organs, and the use of vulnerable persons in the trafficking of drugs.

In Guyana TIP is most prevalent in Regions 2, 3, 4 and 7, particularly among Guyana’s indigenous people. The country also sees the prevalence of many foreigners, particularly from our continental neighbour, Venezuela, becoming victims. “It is important that we see trafficking in persons for what it is. Women and children are most vulnerable. In Guyana women and children of our indigenous people are the most vulnerable,” Ramjattan noted.
TIP among school-aged children in Guyana is not a widespread issue; nonetheless they are not immune, and should any student be a victim it is hoped that trained counsellors should be able to pick up on the issue and be able to know how to treat with the situation.
Task Force Coordinator, Oliver Profitt, said Wednesday’s training was more about focusing on prevention. “In Guyana school-aged youths have not been our main concern, but sometimes these crimes do occur in cycles and it could come to students being targeted regularly again. So we have to work with youths to prevent that cycle from coming around in the future,” Profit explained.

“We have to target at-risk youths, and target persons who spend more time with those youths — welfare officers and counsellors, who have a very important role to play in the growth of school aged youth. We have to make them more equipped in their duties; while they assist students with the issues they face, they can give guidance on how to avoid being a TIP victim, so that we can ensure Guyana, as a whole, becomes a less fertile territory for this crime. No country is immune to TIP, traffickers prey on those most vulnerable, and many times that would include our youth population. So the world over we have seen a focus on youth.”

Wednesday’s training session was one of many that the Task Force has been holding in the fight against TIP. Profitt noted that there are plans in the pipeline for training of other groups, emphasising that there is also need for training to be done with the media corps, given their role in getting the right message out in helping to combat the scourge.