Georgetown : Members of the Ministerial Task Force on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) comprising Ministers Clement Rohee, Priya Manickchand, and Pauline Sukhai last evening responded to the recently publish 2011 United States (US) State Department report on TIP at a press conference at the Home Affairs Ministry’s boardroom, Brickdam.
“We have argued for a number of years now that the reports about us do not reflect the reality on the ground in Guyana…last year we called for a withdrawal of Guyana from the tier 2 watch list and an apology from the US Government, neither of which was forthcoming,” the Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand said.
She pointed out that last year, a lot of work was done to eliminate trafficking by dealing with those found to be traffickers and by protecting and caring for victims and potential victims, yet the country was placed on a tier 2 watch list.
With regards to the US ranking itself as a tier 1 country, Minister Manickchand said that, “we would see America being ranked as a tier 2 country if the ranking was consistent to the way in which a small, developing country like Guyana was ranked.”
She questioned, how credible and consistent is the ranking system. “How much does this system carry out the intentions of the congress that passed the Trafficking and Victims Protection Act? How wisely is the dollar of the US citizen being spent, when this report seems to be a self-righteous routine and political gimmick rather than a genuine effort to combat TIP?”
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