THE TRAFFICKING of Guyanese women and girls to Barbados remains a fact of life.

And while the depth of Barbados' involvement in the sordid business of human trafficking for sex remains unknown, what's clear is that Guyana "is principally a source country for men, women, and children" trafficked both within and outside of the Caribbean country.

That picture was painted by the United States State Department in its annual report on human trafficking around the world. Washington placed Guyana on its Tier 2 Watch List, meaning that the problem is serious but the country is trying to solve it.

But Barbados isn't alone in receiving Guyanese women and teenage girls for the sex trade, according to the State Department.

"Guyanese women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation to neighbouring countries such as Suriname, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Brazil and the United States," concluded the report to the United States Congress.

However, Barbados wasn't singled out in the document for any special mention as a place that was central to human trafficking in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Tackle issue

Earlier this year, the island had to answer questions about trafficking when a United Nations human rights panel examined the island's latest human rights report. Barbados' representative told the experts that authorities back home were trying to do something about it.

But in the State Department document Guyana was portrayed as a country that wasn't doing enough to combat human trafficking.

"The government of Guyana does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. However, it is making significant efforts to do so. Guyana is placed on Tier 2 of the Watch List for failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons over the past year, particularly in terms of convicting and sentencing human traffickers for their crimes."

That was why it has called on Jagdeo Panday Administration in Georgetown to "aggressively investigate and arrest suspected traffickers, and make every effort to move their cases through the criminal justice system" in the next year.

It also wants the government to expand its training of judges and magistrates who "handle trafficking cases, especially in remote areas where the bulk of the trafficking occurs."

Exploitation

The report complained that most trafficking took place in the country's interior, the mining camps. Amerindian girls are peddled to coastal areas for sexual exploitation while young Amerindian men "are exploited under forced labour conditions in timber camps." In some cases, victims are even abducted.

Jamaica is another CARICOM nation with a record as a "source" for women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour, charged the State Department. However, unlike Guyana the trafficking was restricted to places within its borders, not outside of the country.

"The majority of victims are Jamaican women and girls, and increasingly boys, who are trafficked from rural to urban and tourist areas for sexual exploitation," the report went on. "Some children are subjected to conditions of forced labor as domestic servants."

Although the government in Kingston "does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking," it was credited with making significant efforts to do so.

For instance, it has enacted comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation and intensified law enforcement and prevention efforts.

In addition, the police raided hotels and 37 suspected sites of trafficking and rescued nine victims.

As in the case of Guyana, Washington is calling on Jamaica to crack down on trafficking in the next year by hauling perpetrators before the court.

Suriname was also listed as a center of human trafficking in the Caribbean.