Members of the National Taskforce on TIP meeting U.S. officials to discuss human trafficking in the boardroom of the Home Affairs Ministry
The National Taskforce on Trafficking in Persons met officials of the United States Embassy in Guyana on February 15th, as part of ongoing efforts to improve the country’s standing in the fight against the scourge of trafficking in persons.
The meeting took place at the Office of Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, who chairs the task force.
In brief remarks, Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues- Birkett said the Guyana government takes the issue of human trafficking seriously, and that the presence of the two U. S. officials at the meeting was evidence of this fact.
She is hopeful that the meeting would give impetus to the already ongoing discussions aimed at addressing the global phenomenon.
“We are hoping that, in meetings such as these, you would gain a better understanding of the issues we face here, and (we) are hopeful that this meeting would be a success, which we hope would be reflected in the (U. S. TIP) report that should be coming out later this year,” the minister expressed.
She was joined by the ministers of Human Services, Labour and Home Affairs: Priya Manickchand, Manzoor Nadir and Clement Rohee, as well as Presidential Adviser on Governance, Gail Teixeira.
The U. S. team comprised recently appointed Charge d’affaires, Thomas Pearce and Patrick Ball.
Last June, the U. S. State Department had placed Guyana on the Tier Two watch list in its 2010 Trafficking in Persons report for the fourth consecutive year. The report had said: “Guyana is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons; specifically, conditions of forced prostitution and forced labour”. This description of Guyana was met with protest from the Guyana government, led by Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand, who had labelled the document “non sense”. After the more- than two- hour- long closed- door meeting had ended, U. S. Charge d’affaires Thomas Pearce confirmed for Guyana Times International that they had “talked about mutual cooperation on addressing the issue of trafficking”, but he refused to give more details.
Asked whether Guyana’s concerns relating to its Tier Two ranking were addressed, Pierce had this to say: “This is a process that we’re working with the government on. I’m hoping that we can continue to make progress in this area, to help stem this scourge of human trafficking.” The 2010 report had said that a country is placed on the Tier Two watch list if that country failed to take steps to combat TIP in the last year; did not make significant efforts based on commitments to anti-trafficking reforms; and had significant numbers of trafficking victims. The report further stated that the Guyana “government did not initiate any new prosecutions of trafficking of fences during the reporting period, and has yet to convict or punish any trafficking offenders under its five-year- old anti-human trafficking law”. But Manickchand said the report was “wrong again” in its findings, and the country does not have significant numbers of trafficked persons, as there is no evidence to support this claim. She also pointed out that the government has no control over the judicial system, which was criticised because of its sloth in addressing the cases.
A Justice Sector Reform Project is expected to address this anomaly.
Guyana has set up a National Taskforce on Trafficking in Persons, which consists of several personnel from government ministries, including the Amerindian Affairs Ministry. This taskforce meets on a monthly basis and produces its own annual report, the latest of which supported government’s position that there are few cases of human trafficking.
