Govt, U.S. and Canadian embassies closing in on backtrackers

U.S. wants Guyana to prosecute Trafficking in Persons offenders

Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon said evidence have supported allegations that backtracking is taking place at significant levels here, and he announced that an ongoing probe could snare old operators in the illegal business.
Dr Luncheon’s comments came on the heel of the United States urging the Guyana government to go after human smugglers, even as it concluded that this country was not fully complying with the U.S.’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards, but is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with those standards.
It is believed that a number of prominent businessmen in Guyana are part of a network of backtrackers. The United States had gone further in stating in a leaked Wikileaks cable that publisher of the Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, was a person with a “sketchy past” was allegedly involved in “alien smuggling” and had “links to the underworld”.
The cable stated that: “He translated a shoe trading business and rumoured involvement with alien smuggling into a muckraking independent newspaper. He has also been accused of having his finger on the pulse of Guyana’s underworld, which serves his media enterprise well,” the cable said. The then political officer in the U.S. embassy in Georgetown, Benjamin Canavan had spoken with Lall, whose correct name is Mohan Lall, prior to the writing of the cable. Lall has never publicly denied the allegations. At one time when approached by this newspaper he declined to comment.
Meanwhile, in an invited comment following a news conference at the Office of the President on Wednesday as to what government was doing to  curb alien smuggling, Dr Luncheon said that would have a lot to do “with us unveiling more investigations, much more investigations in trying to come to grips with that historical period”. He assured however, that because the administration was aware of those allegations, the Home Affairs Ministry working in conjunction with the General Registrar’s Office and particularly with the American and Canadian embassies, “We have been able to penetrate those circles in Guyana that have been involved historically in this illegal activity…”
Dr Luncheon said government was doing this not only in the case of its own criminal investigations, but in support of the Americans and the Canadians, who provide information in other areas to follow-up on allegations of the past, “to see how it was done, who was implicated, and it is on that basis that we’re becoming even more aware of what we are dealing with, and how to handle that situation”. He stressed that these investigations are ongoing.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her 2012 TIP report stated that Guyana is a source and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labour.
Guyanese nationals have been subjected to human trafficking in other countries in the Caribbean region. Cases of human trafficking reported in the media generally involved women and girls in forced prostitution. According to the report, the country experts expressed concern that exploitative child labour practices occur within the mining industry, agriculture, and forestry sector. “The limited government control of Guyana’s vast interior regions, combined with profits from gold mining and the prostitution that accompanies the industry, provide conditions conducive for trafficking.”
The report cited that people in domestic service in Guyana are vulnerable to human trafficking, and instances of the common Guyanese practice of poor, rural families sending children to live with higher-income family members or acquaintances in more populated areas creates conditions conducive to domestic servitude.
“Guyanese from rural, economically depressed areas are particularly vulnerable to trafficking in mining areas and urban centres. There is additional concern that young Brazilian women in prostitution are vulnerable to trafficking as well,” the report added. The report noted that the absence of formal standard operating procedures to guide officials in victim identification and protection, disincentives for reporting and working on trafficking cases, as well as lack of action to address perceived official complicity, were obstacles to progress.
The U.S. recommended that Guyana boost efforts to hold trafficking offenders accountable by vigorously and appropriately investigating and prosecuting forced prostitution and forced labour, including police, customs, and immigration officers complicit in trafficking; in partnership with NGOs, develop standard operating procedures to guide and encourage front line officials, including police, health, immigration, labour, mining, and forestry personnel in the identification and protection of forced labour and forced prostitution, ensuring that victims are not punished for crimes committed as a result of being in a trafficking situation; foster a climate of open dialogue on trafficking and encouraging people to come forward to authorities on potential cases; and consider developing a working level task force to complement the policy level task force that would be able to coordinate the day-to-day efforts of law enforcement, NGOs, prosecutors, as well as labour, health, mining, and forestry officials to address obstacles, plan strategy, and work together on specific cases. Additionally, the report cited that trafficking victims in Guyana faced disincentives to seek help from authorities, due to fear of retribution from trafficking offenders and fear of arrest.