For the fourth consecutive year, Guyana has maintained its Tier 1 ranking for its efforts to combat human trafficking.
Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, said her ministry would continue to work with all stakeholders to maintain this status.
“There are a number of recommendations provided to the Ministry, and we will work tirelessly to implement those recommendations.”
Among these is the training of law enforcement officials and frontline responders in Written Trauma-Informed Victim Identification and Referral procedures.
“Because of the issue of language barriers when dealing with migrants, there will be a move to fund specialised victim services for children and adults and particularly in the Guyana context Venezuelan migrants. As well as vigorously investigating and prosecuting those cases under the TIP Act.”
She revealed that extra protection layers would be reviewed to ensure TIP victims are not re-traumatised. In this regard, there are plans on stream to enhance the capacity of labour inspectors to be able to identify and refer victims of human trafficking.
The Combating Trafficking in Persons Bill will also be reviewed this year. The Minister said the government is working to table a new Bill which will be in keeping with international standards and best practices, early in 2021.
The focus of this Bill will centre on victim care and protection, recovery, and reintegration of victims. The existing Counter-Trafficking in Person Unit will continue to work with partners in areas such as sensitisation, awareness, and victim report services.
While Tier 1 is the highest-ranking, it does not mean that a country has no human trafficking problems or that it is doing enough to address them. Rather, the ranking, as explained that a government had made efforts to address the problems that meet the US’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards.
As such, to maintain the Tier 1 ranking, governments need to demonstrate appreciable progress each year in combatting trafficking.
According to the report, the Government of Guyana fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking as it continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting year.
[Extracted and Modified from DPI]
