Latest update November 8th, 2024 1:00 AM
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Awareness in TIP sees more cases being reported – Ministerial Advisor
With more education and sensitization being placed on trafficking in persons (TIP) issues, the Ministry of Social Protection is seeing an increase in the number of reported cases being made to the Guyana Police Force.
At the launch of a three-day “Peer-to-Peer Exchange Meeting” organized by the Organization for Migration (IOM), it was revealed that in 2014 there were 40 identified victims, 59 the following year, and 98 in 2016.
It is believed that these cases are being reported to the police, mainly because of the heightened awareness and education campaign by the government on the issue.
Alicia Reece, the Ministerial Advisor at the Ministry of Social Protection, said that Guyana is honoured to host the significant ACP-EU (African, Caribbean and Pacific Group Exchange- European Union) Peer-to-Peer Exchange meeting.
The event will focus on the topics of counter-trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants. It will bring to the region 60 delegates of ACP states and of the European Union to debate effective means of countering both phenomena at the local, regional and global levels.
Reece said that the Government has over the years demonstrated its continuous commitment to counter trafficking in human beings as well as the smuggling of migrants.
This was done through the adoption and implementation of legislation and international treaties relevant to human rights and the movement of persons across borders.
“Stakeholders from across the globe are gathered here because trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants is a global issue and efforts to combat these crimes which violates one’s basic human rights required robust, sustained intervention particularly through exchange and experiences on policy implementation and best practices among counties,” Reece pointed out.
She explained that the country has ratified the Protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air, and the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, both of which supplement the United Nations Convention against transnational organized crime.
The Ministerial Advisor told the gathering that in 2005, Guyana passed the Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act in the National Assembly which is in line with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.
It defines trafficking in persons as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other means of coercion, or by abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or a position of vulnerability, or by the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
According to Reece, in January last, the national plan of action for the prevention and response to trafficking in persons 2017-2018 was launched. It is a comprehensive plan which focuses on “prevention, protection, prosecution and partnerships” to combat trafficking.
It includes a victim–centred and rights–based approach in assisting and protecting trafficked victims and mechanisms to ensure that victims are protected throughout law enforcement as well as methods to strengthen the judicial process to handle cases.
Training progammes for medical practitioners and police officers are constantly conducted to guide these front line officials on victim identification, referral to services, victim-centered investigations and protection of victims.
These training programmes are intended to improve the capacity of these front-line officials to handle cases.
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