Identify, assist human trafficking victims – Magistrate urges public

The Second Vice President of the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers (GAWL), Magistrate Christel Lambert lamented the urgency in raising awareness of Trafficking in Persons (TIP), even as she called on the general populace to report suspicious situations to the national hotline.
In observance of World Day against Trafficking in Persons, which is held annually on July 30, GAWL held a discussion on the National Communications Network (NCN) on human trafficking during which some indications that a person may be a victim of human trafficking were highlighted.

“Trafficking in Persons is modern-day slavery. It is an offence in Guyana punishable by imprisonment and is heavily hinged on the exploitation of persons through the use of force, fraud, and coercion. Victims can be any age, race, or gender… [they] are reached out, recruited, and harboured by traffickers who skilfully manipulate them by using fraudulent means. They can use things such as false and deceptive employment opportunities…,” said Magistrate Lambert.
She went on to explain that traffickers also use coercive actions such as threatening their victims, who are undocumented immigrants, that if they do not work for them or do what they are asking, they will be arrested or deported. In Guyana, sexual and labour exploitation are very prevalent.
And according to Magistrate Lambert, men and boys are the main targets for labour trafficking.
The Magistrate informed that someone may be experiencing labour trafficking if they are “working extremely long hours, not being paid or they are being paid whenever the employer decides to pay them.” Most victims of labour exploitation, she noted, are “isolated and confined to harsh working conditions, and sometimes traffickers confiscate their victims’ identification and other documents to restrict their movements so there is an environment of fair and trauma.”

Victims of exploitation
According to her, victims of sexual exploitation may have bruises, and scars, be very shaky, and always have someone around them, since traffickers try to “brand” their victims.
In light of the foregoing, the Magistrate emphasised that human trafficking is a crime against humanity because it causes serious suffering to the victims.
But identifying the signs of this crime remains an issue because people do not know what to look for, she pointed out, while adding that it is very important for them to become aware so that they can identify victims and fulfil their moral obligation to report these crimes.
For the seventh consecutive year, Guyana has maintained its Tier 1 ranking in the US Department of State 2023 Trafficking in Persons Report, which lauded the Government for its efforts to combat this scourge. This simply means that Guyana is fully compliant with the minimum standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking in persons.
Commenting on the significance of this, the GAWL member said, “It is very significant because it means that efforts are being made in the country, in all of the agencies to combat and to counteract this horrendous crime. It shows that as a democratic society, we are fulfilling those principles by not having people subjected to any form of slavery in 2023 and moving forward.”
For her part, Anna Moore from the Guyana Police Force’s Counter TIP Unit spoke on the systems in place for victims. “Let’s say we take victims into care; we send them back to get an education. We work with them and ask them what they will like to do to help themselves. They do skills programmes because, at the end of the day, they have to be reintegrated into their families.”
These skills programmes are for them to sustain themselves, Moore noted.
This year’s United Nations World Day Against Trafficking in Persons was observed under the theme: “Reach Every Victim of Trafficking, Leave No One Behind.” The general populace can report any suspicious activities in their communities to the Trafficking in Persons 24-hour hotline (623-5030- English) or (624-0079- Spanish) or the nearest Police station. (G1)