Guyana retains Tier 1 ranking in US State Department 2023 TIP report

For the seventh consecutive year, Guyana has maintained its Tier 1 status in the US Department of State 2023 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, which recognised that the Government continues to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts to combat this crime during the reporting period.
Guyana is one of two – the other being The Bahamas – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) members that were given Tier 1 ranking in this latest TIP report, which was released on Thursday.
Among its efforts to maintain its ranking, according to the State Department, included convicting three traffickers; identifying more victims and referring them to services; consistently implementing a 10-day reflection period, including shelter for victims; raising awareness in Indigenous languages; expanding the inclusivity of the Ministerial Task Force on Trafficking in Persons (the Task Force); and initiating a program to screen children in situations of homelessness.
However, the report noted that although the Guyana Government meets the minimum standards, it neither increased investigations and prosecutions nor formally approved the National Action Plan (NAP). The government also did not adequately oversee recruitment agencies or adequately screen for trafficking victims in the interior of the country.
During the reporting period, Guyana initiated investigations in 28 cases involving 25 suspects (20 for sex trafficking and five for labor trafficking), compared with 38 cases involving 57 suspects in 2021 and 31 cases in 2020.
Moreover, it was outlined that the government has initiated prosecutions of four alleged traffickers including one female for sex trafficking and one female for labor trafficking under the anti-trafficking act and two suspected traffickers under other laws, compared with prosecutions of three suspected traffickers in 2021 and one prosecution in 2020.
The report also highlighted that the courts convicted three traffickers including one female sex trafficker, who was sentenced to three years in prison for an adult female victim. In February 2023, a court convicted a man of two counts of labour trafficking in a 2018 case with a three-year sentence on each count and restitution for one victim totalling $2.13 million.
It also cited local reports in March this year of a Guyanese man in a 2021 labour trafficking case of two Jamaican nationals being imprisoned to four years’ imprisonment along with another year for withholding the foreign nationals’ passports and a $200,000 fine with $6.3 million in restitution to the victims.
Recommendations
According to the 2023 report, the government did not report any new investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in trafficking crimes.
Nevertheless, the State Department’s prioritised recommendations in the report include increasing prosecutions and convictions in sex and labor trafficking cases; increasing the number of Spanish-speaking officials supporting anti-trafficking efforts; reviewing existing legislation on labour requirement practices in Guyana, enforcing restitution orders; formally approving the 2021-2025 NAP; reducing the reliance on victims to serve as witnesses in prosecutions; and proactively screen vulnerable populations, including Haitian migrants and Cuban medical workers, for trafficking indicators, refer them to services, and ensure potential victims are not deported without screening.
Meanwhile in a statement on Thursday evening on the 2023 TIP Report, Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn, who co-chairs Guyana’s Ministerial Taskforce on Trafficking in Persons with Human Services and Social Security Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud, said: “This is a testament of the hard work and dedication of individual members of the Task Force, Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and all other stakeholders who assisted through increased reporting, training, awareness, proactive investigations, victim protection and international and local partnership.”
According to Benn, notwithstanding the universal challenges of human trafficking, the 2023 TIP Report has recognised Guyana’s efforts to combat this crime, and more so, during and post a global health pandemic, increased use of online platforms, increasing acts of migrant smuggling and evolving recruitment tactics of human traffickers.
With regard to the recommendations that will enhance Guyana’s efforts to combat this crime and offer greater support to victims of human trafficking, the Minister indicated that efforts have commenced to implement these.
“To this end, the Ministry of Home Affairs and other key Task Force member agencies, and stakeholders will incorporate these recommendations into our work plans,” Benn noted.

Half-year progress on combatting TIP
However, the Home Affairs Minister disclosed that for the first half of 2023, the Guyana Police Force – Trafficking in Persons Unit investigated 21 reported trafficking in persons’ cases, of which, 244 alleged victims were interviewed and screened with 23 of them being under 18 years of age.
He also reported that five persons were officially charged and placed before the court between January to May this year for offences ranging from trafficking in persons, assault, forgery of currency notes and the operation of a Brothel.
It was noted too that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has recommended that one of the alleged perpetrators, who was charged and sentenced to prison for the operation of a Brothel in May, 2023, be further charged with two counts of trafficking in persons. The Guyana Police Force – TIP Unit will institute these charges shortly, the Minister stated.
Moreover, Benn pointed out that in order to build capacity, over 170 law–enforcement and community policing groups were trained on the indicators of human trafficking and migrant smuggling along with national referral mechanisms in place to report such acts.
Awareness and sensitisation were also done with a number of secondary school students in Regions One, Three, Four, and Six through a joint initiative between the Home Affairs Ministry, the Police Force and the Customs Anti- Narcotics Unit (CANU).
Going forward, Minister Benn said it is paramount that Guyana continues its partnerships with both local and international stakeholders to enhance local efforts to combat this heinous crime.
According to Benn, he wants to “…assure the general public that the Ministry of Home Affairs and its key partners …are committed to investing the necessary resources to strengthen current strategies, and implementing new ones to build and improve on the achievements gained to effectively and efficiently combat this crime and hold traffickers accountable.” (G-8)