The Ministry of Human Services & Social Security, the Guyana Police Service, the Guyana Geology & Mines Commission (GGMC) and the Guyana Women Miners’ Organisation (GWMO) collaborated early last week to remove a deaf and mute teenager from the No 58 Mabura, Region 10 area who is suspected of having been trafficked.
Minister of Human Services & Social Security Jennifer Webster confirmed to this newspaper that the young girl was removed but said she did not want to speak more on the issue since the police are investigating a suspected case of trafficking in persons (TIP). She said the girl is said to be in her “mid-teens.”
According to Dannah Jones of the GWMO, who along with Marion Shepherd accompanied the team on the trip, the teenager was found in a state of undress sleeping in a hammock with a male in a camp in a backdam early on Wednesday morning. She told the Sunday Stabroek that hours before they arrived in the backdam the girl had been put out of a shop where she allegedly worked as a prostitute, and the young man claimed her as his “wife” and took her into the camp where he worked.
She said when the girl was removed from the hammock, she indicated through sign language, which is understood by Shepherd, that she was 18 years old, but persons stated that she arrived in the backdam months before she celebrated her birthday in March of this year. The GWMO member said that the man with whom she was found told the police that while he paid for sexual favours with the teenager when she was at the shop, after she was put out he decided to take her as his partner.
Meanwhile, Jones was very critical of the operation, stating that both at Linden and Mabura when they stopped at the stations the police officers indicated they had no instruction to accompany them into the backdam.
She said they had to wait for a long time for the police at Linden, while at Mabura they almost turned back as some on the team were hesitant to travel into the area with just one lawman. But she said she insisted that they continue on the journey since she was determined to rescue the young girl, and it was after her insistence that another policeman opted to join them.
Of grave concern to her is the report from an adult female who opted to leave the area with them that a man working at the office of the GGMC had warned some shop-owners that they were in the area and that they should remove any underage girls they had on their premises.
Jones explained that the woman worked with the rescued young woman and it was she who directed them to the camp where the girl was housed. According to her after they returned from the camp they received information the underage girls were working at two shops, but checks revealed only adult sex workers.
On their way out of the area the woman reported that while they had gone to find where the deaf teenager was located the named employee of GGMC went to the shops and told them that the “these people were here to look for underage girls working and they should remove them,” Jones said. According to the woman, by the time they returned the girls had allegedly been removed and this concerned her greatly. As a consequence she is calling for any future operation to be properly executed.
She said the Ministry of Human Services employee who was on the trip immediately contacted the senior mines officer at an area called Frenchman with name of the person who reportedly alerted the shop-owners, and was told via phone that the person is not a mines officer but works in the Frenchman office compound.
A call
President of the GWMO Simona Broomes, who is calling on the relevant authorities to investigate the issue, said that it was some time on Tuesday she received a call from Minister Webster who indicated that they had received information that a deaf girl was being held against her will in the backdam.
The minister asked her to speak to one of her staff and it was during that conversation she requested that two persons from her organisation be facilitated on the trip. Broomes said she alerted the employee to the fact that the less information given about the trip the better, since it would be very dangerous to go into the area and people would already know they were on their way.
The GWMO president said she selected Shepherd and Jones because Shepherd understands sign language and Jones is familiar with the area as she worked there for many years up until recently.
Broomes said she is happy about the collaboration with the various organisations and that the authorities are recognising that members of her organisation are on the ground and could be of great assistance; she hopes there will be more collaboration of this kind.
But of particular concern to her was the alerting of persons to the team’s presence and she recalled that in the past they collaborated with Human Services and the Ministry of Natural Resources & the Environment on outreach programmes, and that members of the police service were overheard telling shop-owners and others that “what they doing is wrong and we ain’t get no time with them.” She hopes that Minister Webster will meet with her to discuss the seriousness of the issue and that operations involving officials who are familiar with the area and those living there, puts the lives of those on the team at risk.
She said her members observed several troubling things while on the trip, all of which she plans to bring to the attention of the minister.
Disappointed
Meanwhile, Broomes, who in April was physically and verbally threatened by some Puruni shop-owners where four girls were rescued, expressed disappointment that the couple involved in the case had not yet been arrested.
She also pointed out that the police were provided with the photographs of the man and woman but have so far not issued wanted bulletins for them, and she questioned the delay in doing this. For her, should their photographs be published then many people would know that they are wanted for questioning, but as it is there are just a few persons who are aware that they are implicated in the case.
“The police have their pictures and lots of information about them…” Broomes noted, adding that the couple ditched their vehicle in the area shortly after the girls were removed and they have not been seen since. She said reports also indicated that the shop had been broken down but it was not clear who broke it down.
Police Lance Corporal Huford David has been charged with trafficking and sexual exploitation of one of the girls ‒ who is 14 ‒ and was remanded to prison. The child had alleged that David was the one who transported her from Georgetown to the interior but after months of working at his shop she left after he refused to pay her.
Broomes said they met the four girls last Saturday and Sunday and took them to church and then to a member’s home for lunch.
They were happy to spend time with the girls and they hope to spend more time with them in the future. She hopes that the girls would be given another opportunity to become productive citizens.
