Only one charge of trafficking in persons was instituted for last year from the ten suspicious matters that reached the attention of the authorities, while the country recorded its first conviction of the crime last month.
In its 2009 report the National Task Force for Combating Trafficking in Persons (TIP) reported that of the ten suspicious matters reaching its attention, eight were referred to the police who in turn instituted charges in one of the cases.
The report was made public at a media briefing held yesterday by Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee at his Brickdam office where he disclosed that on April 29 the country recorded its first TIP conviction.
Wesley Benn was sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty of trafficking in two girls at One Mile Potaro Road, Bartica.
According to the task force, which slapped down the US State Department’s report on Guyana last year, seven of the eight reported matters were fully investigated by the police and in six instances there was no evidence to support any allegation that the individuals were involved in TIP.
However, in one of the matters a father and son were charged with harbouring for the purpose of prostitution and managing a bawdy house.
Meanwhile, the force is currently investigating a report of two Amerindian females being trafficked to a Chinese Restaurant in McKenzie, Linden.
Giving the specifics of the ten reported cases the task force said the police investigated two cases involving 13-year-old girls, one in Rasville and another at Strathspey, East Coast Demerara, but found that the children were not victims of trafficking. Another case involving young women ages 19 and eighteen at Unity, Mahaica also did not involve trafficking while the case of a Trinidadian woman found in Georgetown was found to be a “stranded migrant” and not a victim of trafficking.
The father and son were charged with harbouring persons for prostitution after five young women, ages 18, 19 and 20, were found in their bawdy Better Hope house.
A matter involving two young women in Linden is still under investigation while there was a case of a 16-year-old boy who was allegedly trafficked in Trinidad but it was found that he “was invited to Trinidad with his girlfriend” but he requested no police action.
And the task force has requested a review of the matter involving a 19-year-old Venezuelan woman who was found at West Coast Demerara who police said entered Guyana illegally with her boyfriend.
In another matter involving an 18-year-old woman in Mahdia, the alleged victim requested no action while two persons were charged in connection with the trafficking of a 15-year-old in Berbice.
Meanwhile the task force in the report spoke about the training that persons around the country received on TIP.
Minister Rohee said the report was not in response to the US State Department’s annual report on Guyana but rather the government felt “obliged” to put out its own report with “our own views out there rather than have our views suffused in a US State Department report.”
According to the report the training covered topical issues such as victim identification and screening, potential challenges faced in investigating and prosecuting traffickers and inter-agency and community collaboration among other subjects.
No justification
Echoing the sentiments expressed by Minister of Human Services & Social Security, Priya Manickchand, the task force protested the US State Department’s 2009 report which placed Guyana on the Tier 2 Watch List and said there is no justification for the country to be so characterised.
“The National Task Force in Trafficking in Persons categorically rejects the US State Department’s labeling of Guyana as a Tier 2 Watch List Country,” the report said, adding that the US continually mischaracterizes Guyana as a trafficking in persons’ haven.
It was pointed out that over the years the reports have been clear that as a country, Guyana has made significant strides and increasing efforts at preventing and addressing trafficking and protecting victims and vulnerable persons who are potential victims.
“From almost the beginning, Guyana objected to being a country that should attract the attention of the US on the expenditure of the US tax payers’ dollars, asserting that Guyana did not have significant numbers of trafficking victims,” the report said.
It was noted that there has never been a claim by the US Government that Guyana or its officials are complicit in the crime of trafficking but rather made positive assertions to the contrary.
The task force said Guyana will make no apology for not prosecuting and or convicting any large numbers of persons for trafficking, a claim made in the US report.
“Every citizen is guaranteed the right to be presumed innocent until found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. We hold this presumption and its constitutional guarantee very dear to us. It must be protected at all times,” the report said.
And, according to the report, the sloth of the justice system is being addressed through a massive investment programme and at the end of it all matters should be dealt with expeditiously.
From its findings in 2009 the task force said its report indicates that trafficking in persons is not a major problem in Guyana and it shows that Guyana has made significant advances in responding to potential threats of trafficking in persons.
The national task force was born out of a desire to present to citizens “a factual and authentic picture of the nature and magnitude of trafficking in persons in Guyana and a straightforward documentation of Guyana’s response to this phenomenon.”
It was formed as a direct result of a Cabinet mandate in Fe
bruary of 2007 and it comprises persons from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Human Services, Legal Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Amerindian Affairs; Help & Shelter and Food for the Poor.
