President accuses U.S. of double standard

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TIP report…
President accuses U.S. of double standard
Kaieteur News, 15 June 2007

President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday accused the United States of having
double standards on human trafficking which is considered the modern
day form of slavery.

The Head of State was responding to Guyana's placement on the United
States's “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.

“If the U.S. were to be judged on the same standards that we are being
judged they will be on Tier 3, the worst scale…with hundreds of young
girls, teenage girls who are trafficked from Central America into
slavery into the United States of America. There are hundreds of that
and we don't have that in Guyana,” President Jagdeo stated.

He echoed statements by Human Services and Social Security Minister,
Priya Manickchand, who said that Government will not be manufacturing
any charges against anyone to satisfy any statistic, but will continue
to work with the Guyana Police Force to vigorously investigate any
reported cases of human trafficking.

The U.S. 2007 Trafficking In Persons (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.

Ms Manickchand had 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.

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 still pending.

According to the U.S. report, this represents a modest increase from
2005, when three prosecutions were initiated.

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.