Guyana’s Tier 1 Status Belies Troubling Decline in Anti-Trafficking Effort

By Mark DaCosta- Guyana has just been ranked among the world’s best performers in the fight against human trafficking, yet the detail behind that ranking should trouble us. Trafficking is the recruitment, transport, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception in order to exploit them. Where children are concerned, no coercion need be proved.

It differs from smuggling, in which a migrant usually consents to being moved. It is a local crime because it thrives in our mining camps and hinterland communities. It is an international one because the profits, estimated by the International Labour Organization at US$236 billion a year for forced labour generally, sustain networks that span borders.

Full coverageUS State Department Report Flags Gaps in Guyana’s Trafficking Response8 reports

Each year the United States State Department grades governments on their response in its Trafficking in Persons Report. Guyana has kept its Tier 1 ranking in the 2026 edition, and the Home Affairs Ministry notes that it has held that ranking every year since 2017. The grading rests on the minimum standards of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act.