Every TIP report is vigorously investigated - Manickchand
“We will not manufacture charges to satisfy any statistic.”
Kaieteur News, 14 June 2007
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Priya Manickchand, has
mixed reactions to Guyana's placement on the United States' “Tier 2
Watch List” for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts
to combat trafficking in persons (TIP) over the past year, particularly
in terms of convicting and sentencing human traffickers.
In brief comments, yesterday, Manickchand told Kaieteur News that every
single reported case of TIP is vigorously investigated with a view to
getting a conviction.
But she added that Government will not call for conviction, since every
suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
She added that the U.S. report did recognise the efforts being made by
Government to address the problem, especially the enactment of the
Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, which spells out stiff
penalties for offenders.
However, the report also noted that Government has yet to obtain an
anti-trafficking conviction.
“We will not be manufacturing any charges against anyone to satisfy any
statistic, but we continue to work with the Guyana Police Force to
vigorously investigate any reported cases of human trafficking,”
Manickchand stated.
The U.S. 2007 TIP Report, released on Tuesday by the U.S. State
Department, firmly stated that the government should aggressively
investigate and arrest suspected traffickers, and make every effort to
move their cases through the criminal justice system.
The report also recommended that Government expand training for judges
and magistrates who handle trafficking cases, especially in remote
areas, where the bulk of trafficking occurs.
Manickchand conceded that there needs to be swifter hearings in TIP
cases, noting that approaches will be made to the judiciary to have the
issue discussed.
At the beginning of the year, Manickchand, in addressing the issue of
prosecution of suspected traffickers, had called on the police to do
more to encourage reporting of trafficking crimes and had expressed
dissatisfaction with the pace at which the cases were proceeding in the
courts.
The U.S. report noted that six criminal cases were opened against
alleged traffickers in 2006, with two of the cases being dismissed, and
four were still pending.
According to the U.S. report, this represents a modest increase from
2005, when three prosecutions were initiated.
It added that prosecutors report that rural magistrates remain
unfamiliar with the new trafficking law, and cases tried in the capital
move at a slow pace due to the judicial backlog.
There was reliable evidence of some public complicity in trafficking by
lower-level officials, and a conspiracy charge was filed against a
police officer for such an offence in 2006, the U.S. report noted.
The U.S. State Department recommended that in the coming year the
government should intensify its efforts to expedite cases against
traffickers.
The report noted that Guyana made modest progress in providing victim
assistance during last year, while it included limited NGO funding
assistance in its 2007 Budget and provided training for police and
public officials on identifying trafficking victims.
According to the report, Guyana is principally a source country for
men, women, and children trafficked within the country for the purposes
of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.
The U.S. report stated that Amerindian girls from the interior are
trafficked to coastal areas for sexual exploitation, and young
Amerindian men are exploited under forced labour conditions in timber
camps. In some instances, victims are abducted.
Additionally, Guyanese women and girls are trafficked for sexual
exploitation to neighbouring countries such as Suriname, Barbados,
Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Brazil, and the U.S., the report
stated.
Guyana had previously bypassed the “watch list” category and entered
onto the list of countries at Tier 2 after a countrywide campaign was
launched by the government in response to a previous report which
listed the country at Tier 3, the worst possible ranking.
Countries placed on the watch list in the report will be re-examined in
an interim assessment to be submitted to the U.S. Congress by February
1, 2008.
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