-Labour Ministry to probe case

On February 21 at around 4 am a mother said goodbye to her 17-year-old son when he left his Kilcoy Squatting Area home to work at sea not realizing that it would be the last she was seeing him alive.

Now, nearly two months after, Kamlawattie Bharrat is still deeply despondent at the loss of her son, Lakeram `Baby Boy’ Mohanlall and keeps regretting that she had not stopped him from going out that morning.

Mohanlall was alone in a boat with the 19-year-old captain, Dharmendra ‘Dinesh’ Shiwpersaud and the two had been pulling in the seine when the boat capsized at around 6:30 am.

Shiwpersaud clung to the rope for more than a day until help came but Mohanlall apparently fell asleep and “float out de boat…” a few hours after the incident, bringing an end to his desperate battle to survive. The two were about six miles off the Corentyne shore when, according to the captain “a big wave come and lash the boat and it start to take in water.”

Risk

Reports are that the boat was not equipped with lifejackets which put the teen’s life more at risk. It was also learnt that the boat had not been even registered at the time.

With regards to Mohanlall being engaged in a hazardous job at his age, Minister of Labour, Manzoor Nadir, in an invited comment, told this newspaper: “We discourage such activities and we will seek the remedies and penalties that are applicable.”

Minister Nadir was referring to the “Employment of Young Persons Act.” He has since instructed Yoganand Persaud, the Chief Labour Occupational Safety and Health Officer to investigate the matter. Persaud subsequently told Stabroek News when contacted that an officer from Berbice was supposed to meet with the boy’s mother. However the woman said that no one had gone to her as yet.

A senior member of the Number 66 Fish Port Complex told this newspaper that he is aware that “people are poor and their children have to start hustling.”

However, he stated that it is not the best thing for persons to start working as fishers so young because “too many people are being left back in their education. I find that once they start going out to sea so young it is hard for them to do other jobs.”

Further, the member recalled that he, too, came from a “poor background and had to start going out to sea from age 10.” He realizes now that although he was always in the care of responsible adults such a job was not exactly fitting for him at that age.

According to him, Mohanlall and the captain were both too young and inexperienced to be alone in the boat and opined that the incident could have been avoided.

Compensation

Mohanlall’s elder siblings are all married and living in their own homes and his mother said he was “minding me and doing everything fuh me.” According to Bharrat although the owner of the boat, Vijay `Terry’ Brijlall, said to be in his late 20s had assisted with funeral expenses he is still to offer compensation to her for her son’s death. “Up to now he na come and tell me anything about compensation. I am a poor woman and me don’t want a story but he coulda come and settle the matter,” she said. She related that she never really wanted her son to work at sea but decided to allow him after he insisted and told her it was “fun” for him to catch fish. She also did not realize that the job was so risky.

His older brothers who knew the dangers of the sea tried to stop him while his stepfather attempted to get him involved in a job as an apprentice but he refused and told them he liked what he was doing.

According to the woman her son dropped out of school at age 13 because he was not performing well. Since then he started going out to sea “once in a while” until he get employed by the owner shortly before the tragedy.

Her present husband, she said, had taken care of her and Mohanlall but he had gotten injured on his job as a cane-harvester and has not been earning much. Bharrat said the heartache she is feeling for her son is just as bad as when she got the news that he was missing and his badly decomposed body was found. “Me can’t get over what happen to me son, no matter how hard me try; he was me pet… he was very close to me and me grieving fuh him night and day,” she lamented.

She said she is finding it difficult to eat and sleep. She had also gotten sick and had to seek treatment at the hospital on more than one occasion. At nights she has to take sleeping tablets twice before she can get some rest.

Her older sons would tell her to stop worrying herself sick but the woman said “it is not so easy; me can’t forget him.” What is tearing her apart more is that she was not able to see her son after his death.

She said that for five days she was tormented because his body was not being found. When it was finally discovered at the Bush Lot, West Berbice foreshore her “mind was at ease.” However she was devastated when she could not “see his face and he couldn’t even wear he clothes we get fuh bury he” because of the badly decomposed state of the body. Bharrat expressed gratitude to “everyone who went out and search for him especially the boatmen and crew from Albion and the fishermen from Bush Lot who found his body.”

She described her son as a “very kind and loving boy; he never give me problems. He used to give me some money he wuk for and he would use the rest to buy clothes and so for heself.”

Battle to survive

Shiwpersaud had related that as they stood and sometimes sat on the boat and held onto the rope that was tied to the bow they would sometimes “wash and come in and wash and go out with the tide.” During this time their “muscles lock off with cramps” and they were in severe pain. The water also splashed into their eyes blurring their vision and they swallowed a lot. The survivor said all along he and Mohanlall cried loudly as they prayed for help to come. They were even flung off the boat several times with the rough waves and as they scrambled back onboard their bodies were badly bruised.

Eventually the engine fell into the water early on Sunday morning. That caused the boat to turn over again and although it was filled with water, the two still managed to sit in it. Shiwpersaud said they had forced themselves to stay awake all along but by then they could no longer fight the sleep. He fell asleep first but shortly after was rudely awakened by a “big wave.” He said Mohanlall who appeared to be sleeping “float out de boat and me swim and pull he in back and try fuh tie he with the rope.” However, the fierce wave was pushing the boat away and he had to let go to “catch back the boat or else all two awe woulda drown.” He also looked on helplessly as Mohanlall – his childhood friend – went down in the water, still with his eyes closed.

Totallydevastated, he wrapped the rope around his hand as he focused on getting to shore alive. By the time the rescue team found him around midday on Sunday he was unable to open his badly blistered eyes. The team took him to a trawler and he was given tea before being taken to shore and then to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was admitted for two days.