The four girls rescued from the Tiger Creek Backdam, at Puruni, in Region Seven on Sunday, accompanied police back to the location yesterday as the investigation into human trafficking activities there widened.
Although Police Lance Corporal Huford David was charged with human trafficking yesterday as a result of the evidence given by one of the girls, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said investigators are in search of two other persons in relation to the case. Persons are also being sought for another case of suspected human trafficking, based on the evidence given by the four rescued girls, it was noted.
Persaud said that the girls, who are ages 14, 15, 17 and 18, returned as part of the investigation as the police sought to establish the location of the crimes.
However, Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO) President Simona Broomes, who with other members removed the girls from the area on Sunday, said she was surprised that the girls were taken back to the location and questioned the rationale behind the move.
She pointed out that the girls would be physically harassed and being taken back to the same location would be a form of embarrassment to them. She noted that many persons would be able to identify the girls as they travel into the location as they would have read of their stories in the newspapers.
“What is the reason for taking the girls back to the location? Those girls are victims and they should be treated as victims. I am very surprised and I am not sure what will be accomplished by this move,” Broomes said, though she acknowledged that she is not a police officer and did not want to interfere with the investigation.
Persaud explained that it is always good for the victims to point out the scene so that lawmen could reconstruct what happened.
Head of the Child Care Protection Agency Ann Greene yesterday said that the girls were accompanied by social workers and persons from the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security’s counter trafficking department.
Greene said her agency has not had any real interactions with the girls as yet as the police are conducting their investigation. She said once this is done, the girls would be interviewed and a risk assessment would be done to develop a care plan for them.
The girls had related to GWMO members that they were forced to work as sex workers and the shop owners kept them at the location against their will.
Broomes, who pledged to continue her work in the area, said that she is treated as “the world’s greatest enemy” for speaking out but pledged that she will continue to do so until all join in eradicating the scourge of human trafficking and other form of abuse in the interior.
