WASHINGTON (CMC):

The United States De-partment of State has placed four Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries in Tier 2 of its latest report on Trafficking in Persons, with Guyana being placed on the Special Watch List.

The report placed Belize, Jamaica and Suriname in Tier 2, which means that they are "making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards."

But, with Guyana on the Tier 2 Special Watch List, it means that the country will receive "specialscrutiny," the State Department said.

The department places each country, included in its annual report, on one of three lists.

"This placement is based more on the extent of government action to combat trafficking, rather than the size of the problem, important though that is," it added.

Governments that fully comply are placed in Tier 1. Those making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards are placed in Tier 2. Governments that do not fully comply with the minimum standards, and are not making significant efforts to do so, are placed in Tier 3.

The State Department said the Special Watch List criteria are considered and, when applicable, Tier 2 countries are placed on the Tier 2 Watch List.

In its report, the State Department said Guyana is "principally a source country for men, women, and children trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour."

It said most trafficking takes place in remote mining camps in the country's interior, stating that Amerindian girls from the interior also are trafficked to coastal areas for sexual exploitation, and young Amerindian men are exploited under forced labour conditions in timber camps.

The report said, in some instances, victims are abducted, and that 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.