Migrants account for 90% of TIP victims in Guyana in last 5 years

…survivor support efforts to be ramped up

The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Unit of the Human Services and Social Security Ministry on Monday disclosed that migrants in Guyana accounts for 90 per cent of victims who were human trafficked over the last five years here.
Coordinator of the Countering Trafficking in Persons Unit, Tanisha Williams-Corbin, revealed that migrants are among approximately 1,446 victims who were identified and supported by the Human Services and Social Security Ministry for several years.

Corbin, who made this announcement during a human trafficking capacity building training session held at the Guyana Police Force (GPF) Officers’ Training Centre, Camp and Young Street, on Monday, did not list the countries from which the victims originate.
However, during his address, Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn commented on the issue, noting that the majority of migrants and victims are usually housed in mining areas, where they are exploited in exchange for food and basic daily needs.
He explained that while Guyana has made significant strides in countering Trafficking in Persons, there is still a “far way” to go.
“We are required to make sure that we do not create opportunity for the crimes of human trafficking, trafficking in persons, smuggling, pimping of persons and all the crimes that are related to the question of trafficking in persons…We have to work hard to afford, to allow, to reach out, to give the protection to those persons in rural and indigenous communities, particularly,” Benn said.
Regarding the finding, Human Services and Social Security Minister Dr Vindhya Persaud highlighted that there is need for increased awareness and sensitivity of the issue.
She explained that while Guyana has managed to obtain its Tier 1 status in the US State Department 2024 TIP Report to tackle Trafficking in Persons, work is still ongoing to ensure more perpetrators are brought before the courts.
“This is a scourge, a heinous crime, it is illegal and I liken it to modern day slavery… As a country, as a government we have zero tolerance for trafficking in persons. So, I want to give our commitment as Government of Guyana, as Minister who spearhead this taskforce that we will not rest until traffickers are routed and understand the seriousness in which we look at the issue of trafficking in persons,” Dr Persaud said.

2023 stats on human trafficking
In late June, the United States TIP Department revealed that over 400 trafficked persons were identified as victims of Human Trafficking within Guyana last year.
According a report released by the Department, the Guyana Government identified 407 victims while Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) identified one. This is in comparison to 2022, whereby the Government had identified 327 trafficked victims.
The victims included 21 Guyanese nationals and 386 foreign nationals from Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Cuba, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Russia, and Venezuela. Some victims stayed in shelters while others were granted work or residency permits; others were repatriated.
Specifically, the report revealed that shelter was offered to all of the victims but only 312 were accepted. In the previous year, the report noted, all the victims had accepted the opportunity to stay at shelters.
The Ministry of Human Services and Social Security’s Countering Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Unit is the lead government agency coordinating victim care services.
Meanwhile, the government gave 333 victims residency permits and 18 victims work permits while eight were repatriated. In the prior reporting period, the government did not grant any foreign victims temporary residency status or work permits as it received no requests for such.

Prosecution
Moreover, via release the US State Department revealed that during 2023, 77 TIP cases were filed under the Combating Trafficking of Persons Act of 2023, resulting in ten suspects being arrested of which seven were charged. This reflected an increase from 2022 when there were 28 cases.
The prescribed penalties under the revised 2023 Act include five years to life imprisonment and extended criminal liability to corporations, and explicitly included the use of children for the production and distribution of narcotics within the definition of trafficking. The law also defined trafficking broadly to include illegal adoption without the purpose of exploitation.
In addition, the report prepared by US State Department noted that the prosecutions were initiated against three alleged traffickers under other laws, including the Protection of Children Act for employing a child where liquor was sold, the Summary Jurisdiction (Offenses) Act for keeping a commercial sex establishment, and the Sexual Offense Act and the Summary Jurisdiction (Offenses Act) for sexual and bodily harm against a child younger than 16 years old. This is compared with two prosecutions under other laws in 2022.
One of the challenges faced by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security (MHSSS), and NGOs is that “some victims may have declined to participate in prosecutions after receiving a pay-off from the trafficker, because of familiarity and trust built with the trafficker, or because of income received through commercial sex,” according to the report.
On this note, it was pointed out that the police lacked sufficient resources for non-English speaking victim-witnesses, while there is a limited government presence in the interior of the country to consistently and sufficiently conduct law enforcement actions, monitor establishments, screen for victims, and observe trafficking trends. (G1)