IOM projects geared to alleviate human smuggling
– to improve migrants’ experience
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Guyana is partnering with the Government to improve migrants’ experience and reduce the incidence of migrant smuggling.
This disclosure was made by Branch Manager of IOM Guyana’s Counter-Trafficking in Persons Project, Mr. Oliver Profitt, during an interview with DPI. The IOM’s Direct Assistance Fund and Emergency Response to Venezuelans projects aim to regularise and improve migrants’ experiences in Guyana, he said.
“We are trying to utilise migrants to help create those materials to improve migrants’ experience in Guyana. This also serves as a preventative measure for human smuggling because if they are comfortable here, they won’t try to leave,” Mr. Profitt explained.
On Monday, during a side-line interview at the launch of National road Safety Week activities, Minister of Home Affairs, Hon. Robeson Benn, said that over the past three years 33,000 Haitians have passed through Guyana to other destinations. While these persons were recorded as having arrived in Guyana, they are no longer here.
“We know that they are not in Guyana with reports of them going over to the Corentyne River, perhaps to French Guiana…We understand and believe that there is a strong element of […] people smuggling in this matter,” Minister Benn relayed.
Meanwhile, Regional Coordination Officer for the Caribbean and Chief of Mission of IOM Guyana, Mr. Robert Natiello told DPI that there are key differences between human trafficking and human smuggling.
Human trafficking entails the victim being trafficked from their community by coercion or trickery, with exploitation and restrictions on free movement.
“Trafficking in persons, you do not need to cross an international border. You can be a victim of human trafficking within your own country,” Mr. Natiello said.
In contrast, human smuggling is the illegal importation of persons into another country. Migrant smuggling often leads to human trafficking. Earlier this month, 26 Haitian nationals, including seven children, were taken into protective custody as they were believed to have been smuggled here. Investigations are underway.