[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Ministerial Task Force on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) has designed a menu of measures in order to continue its efforts to combat human trafficking with a new action plan 2014-2015, which will be implemented in a two-year.
This action plan, while completely new to a large extent, also builds on initiatives that were already put in place in the previous 2012-2013 plan. There have been significant efforts to change and improve the latter on the basis of sound monitoring and evaluation.
In Guyana, the groups that appear to be more vulnerable to being trafficked than others include: young female illegal migrants from Columbia, Brazil and Venezuela, women in conflict with the law, young men and women from the hinterland, domestic workers, and under educated youths.
According to the new report, dissemination of information plays an integral role in educating a nation and this is a responsibility which the task force takes very seriously to ensure that such information reaches citizens across the country ultilising a variety of media. The task force plans to embark on a series of awareness and sensitization sessions in communities in all ten administrative regions. Significant support in this regard will be provided to support the 38 individuals who were trained at a special workshop late last year. These persons were drawn from the various regions and will serve as conduits between the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security and communities.
Other activities will include: distribution of over 5000 TIP awareness booklets, sensitisation sessions targeting 30 secondary schools and various youth groups in the 10 regions, a national rally to be held in January next year, more training programmes for focal points and civil society representatives, updating of the protocols to guide formal inter-agency cooperation, joint planning and implementation of prevention activities, establishment of area action task forces, and training of lawyers and magistrates and police, immigration and mines officers.
Apart from activities to prevent TIP, more measures will also be put in place to protect victims of human trafficking. This would entail providing shelter, food, clothing, and medical, psychological and psychosocial care. TIP is an estimated US $32B per year global industry; after drug-trafficking and it is world’s second most profitable criminal enterprise, a status it shares with trafficking in illegal arms. [Extracted and modified from GINA]
