At least one of the females rescued from 14 Miles, Region 7 last weekend was already known to the system as she had been removed from her mother’s home and placed in a state shelter before being returned by the authorities. She eventually “slipped through the cracks” and has now turned up as a sex worker in the interior.
At sixteen the North West resident has a child and told members of the Guyana Women
Miners Association (GWMO), who removed her and four others girls who were being held against their will in the backdam, that she has worked in other backdams.
“This case shows surely that the system that we have is not helping the persons it has set up to help; here we have this young lady being brought to the attention of the authorities but in the end was not saved,” President of the GWMO told the Sunday Stabroek recently.
“I condemn the whole system,” she said emphatically.
The females were rescued over the last weekend and they have since implicated at least two policemen in raping them at the Sherima Police Station.
The females, aged 26, 20, 18, 16, and 14 all have hard-knock stories which Broomes said will rip anyone’s heart, and the organisation’s only desire is to give them a second chance in life. The four older ones revealed that they were taken under the pretext of working in shops, but were forced to work as sex workers and whatever money they made was taken away by the shop-owners who said they were in debt to them. They were also prevented from leaving and even if an opportunity arose for them to leave the fact that they had no money made it impossible. They did not even have the keys for the rooms they occupied, and at times they begged for food and had to go to other locations to have a bath because the shop-owners did not want them to use their water.
This newspaper has been informed that because of the conduct of the 16-year-old’s mother her father, who is separated from her mother, brought her to the city and handed over her to state care, but she was eventually returned.
Even more heartbreaking is the story of the 14-year-old who was being trafficked by her mother but who is now more concerned about ensuring that her mother “does not get into trouble.” Broomes said that they had been informed that a mother was trafficking three of her daughters in the interior and they found the young girl, but when questioned her mother said she had only travelled to the location the day before. Further investigation revealed that the child had been in the backdam for some time and an older sister and cousin were also at the location. She said while the mother was not keen on the child being removed, her older sister and a brother said she should be removed and brought to her grandmother who cares for some younger siblings on the East Bank.
“The mother has a dredge and a shop but said she was not making money and that things bad and that we should carry some food for her other children and help them out,” Broomes said. She went on to say that while she sympathizes with the woman’s plight, nothing can excuse her decision to have her underage daughter work as a sex worker.
She pointed out that while this is being denied by the child, she is sexually active and it was observed that her clothes had been removed to one of the several small rooms the mother has at the back of her shop, which further confirms their suspicion. However, she pointed out that it is now up to the police as to what actions would be taken against the mother. The other females also confirmed that the child worked as a sex worker. The child also revealed that at one time she had ran away from home and had to be picked up by the police.
“All she wants to know is if she mother will get into trouble; she said ‘Miss, I want talk but I ain’t want me mother get into problems,’ and she is very fearful about her mother getting into any trouble.”
‘Harrowing’
The 20-year-old is also a mother and Broomes said she related the harrowing story of having parents who are on drugs and being raped and later physically abused by the father of her young child.
Describing the young woman as “brilliant,” Broomes revealed that she had attended one of the top private schools in Georgetown and has six subjects at CXC.
She is also a certified cosmetologist and wants a better life. She lived with her grandmother but after school she became involved with a young man who was very abusive, and one time even hit her in the head with a hammer. Her child is with her grandparents and she was happy to get away from the man, so when a friend told her about a job working in the interior she was happy to leave. But what she thought was a way out of an abusive situation was just a pathway to another cruel situation. She was the female who was badly beaten and stabbed because she showed some interest in a man the shop-owner “liked.”
“For most of the girls, what is troubling me is that they are not only victims of trafficking but they are also victims of something else ‒ they were raped, they were abused, they went to girl school, they were in this home or a shelter and the system failed them…” she said.
Another of the five ‒ the 18year-old ‒ lost her mother to a brutal murder in 2005 following which she lived with relatives. However, she was abused and later went into a state shelter, but her grandmother who was overseas placed her with another relative where she was further abused and eventually she moved in with a friend who invited her to work in the interior.
The eldest of the five said she had been abused all her life and she also has a child who lives with her grandparents. She wants to join the organization and to become an advocate for women who continue to be exploited.
Broomes suggested that the government and all stakeholders should conduct a study on what happens to the girls that pass through the system, adding that an entire generation of young people is suffering because the system is failing them badly.
Although the GWMO is not funded, Broomes said that they are willing to network with the official agencies to fight the scourge of trafficking as they are unique, because they are miners and they have members in almost all of the areas.
“Often time I go to workshops and I hear money is a problem, access is a problem… we are not funded and we are able to access these areas,” she pointed out.
She once again reiterated that her organization is here to stay and that even though many persons are suggesting that she stay away from the issue of trafficking she cannot do so as then she would be failing women in need.
‘Burdened’
Broomes said she is also burdened with the knowledge that young boys are being raped and abused in the interior, which is going unnoticed.
“In some cases even when they speak out it is more or less a joke; sometimes when they go to their parents for help their parents are compromised because they are ashamed and it is very difficult for them to open to a woman to tell her everything…” Broomes said.
She said she has encountered two such boys but the organisation has received other reports about some, “nasty situations that are well known to the system and I really have a concern for them.”
Meantime, Broomes again spoke about the lawless state of the interior where persons just take the law into their own hands and everyone does as they like in the open. She said many persons would accuse the mines officers of not doing enough but she pointed out that they are not police.
“The mines officers have to be in the backdam and they are the only officials you see, so they have to deal with mining issues; [if] two people fight they go to the mines officer; a trafficking matter they run to the mines officer…” Broomes observed.
She called for the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to deal with the illegal shops in the interior and the Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment should also take some firm action. She said it is not the mines officer’s responsibility to police shops, even those with licences. Further, as she has done in the past, Broomes called for a greater police presence in certain areas in the interior.
“I want it to be clear… that it is not the responsibility of mines officers, it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Guyana Police Force to police these areas and GRA to know where these shops are…”
Broomes said she has long stated that that shops should not be found in the very desolate areas that are difficult to access, and she is also appealing for women going into the interior to cook to be trained and issued with a food handler’s certificate and for a database to be set up to keep track of them.
Also of concern to the GWMO president is the fact that women continue to be locked out of decision-making in the interior, and even though hundreds of women work in the sector it is still male dominated.
Puruni
Meanwhile, giving an update on the five females who were rescued in Puruni in April, Broomes said that the 14-year-old has never attended school and the organization wants to fund her attendance at the summer school of a private school where she can learn the letters of the alphabet and learn to write.
“She cannot write or hold a pencil to write, so we want to do some work with her,” Broomes said.
The 15-year-old also wants to return to school and Broomes said she hopes this could be made possible soon. Two of the others are now pregnant and would have come out of the backdam in that state. They remain in state care and it is not clear what the plans are for them.
