By Suraj Narine
The five Guyanese trafficking victims, who were duped into being taken to Suriname, where they were held against their will and forced to do hard labour, said they were promised huge bonuses, if they signed contracts, written in Dutch, to work with the Dutch businessman for a year or two.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, one of the men who spent 2 years and 2 months said he was informed about a job offering $200,000 a month and was picked up in the vicinity of Providence.
“I thought that I was going to work in George-town so I walk with only lil bit clothes,” he said. “He carry me to Nickerie and then to the farm and he made me sign a one year contract. After the year finish, I went and tell he I want go home. He tell me how like I don’t know what I sign for, but how I sign for three years and how I can’t get money.
“When we want rest we can’t rest, we can only rest for a day and after that if we gotta drag we gotta drag and wuk.”
Nannie Polder
Two other men told Stabroek News yesterday that they were kept against their will for some 8 months and 2 weeks in a camp at a village called “Nannie Polder”, while they were forced to cultivate a large expanse of land.
“A shop man come and tell we that there was work in Suriname and a man wanted workers to work on his farm,” the men said. “We ask our family because there wasn’t no permanent jobs in the village and we decided to go to Suriname, we left on 6th of February, 2014.”
They were told to meet with the wife of the businessman at Charity and there they met four other persons. She took them to a house at Charity and told them that they would spend the rest of the night there. The next morning they travelled from Charity to Supenaam then to Parika and finally to Georgetown. From the city they were taken to Berbice where they stopped at a market and began their walk towards the river. They were taken by boat to Nickerie where they met the businessman.
“The lady went in front of the enclosed Canter,” the man said. “The Canter was closed up, only like a six-inch space to see outside by the door. The man drop off the woman and he took us to the farm and give us papers to sign. We didn’t want sign because the paper had Dutch writings and we didn’t understand it. But it had Guyana police stamp and Suriname police stamp and how he gun give we $200,000 a month.”
The men were hesitant to sign since they only wanted to work three months and the businessman told them if they did not sign they would be returned to Guyana and jailed for six months.
One of them recalled that they would start working at 7 am and go until 6.30 pm. They were provided with limited grocery supplies.
Two other men in their 50s, also said that they were informed of the job in the same fashion except, they were taken to Suriname by the businessman himself who promised that he would provide a passport for one of the men after he had arrived in Suriname. They were also taken to the camp in the enclosed Canter, where they were told to sign the Dutch document. One of them recalled that the businessman had fired his gun at him after he told him that he was sick, but the bullet did not hit him. The duo spent one year and 2 months.
Sign for a year
“ I told him that I want sign for a year but he say that if I sign for a year I will get lil bit money and I must sign for 2 year because it will be bonus and I will get $200,000, so I sign the paper,” one of the men said.
One of the men said the businessman had even loaned them to another businessman who was building a house and had instructed him to work them very hard because he was paying them a lot of money.
One of the men said this contractor appeared sympathetic and asked whether they were getting enough to eat, while stating that he hoped they were being paid. However, even though they told him of their plight, it appeared that he did nothing to bring it to the attention of the authorities.
It was not until late October, as the men were working along a road that they were approached by Surinamese police. The police stopped and enquir-ed about their appearance since they were ragged. They quickly informed the police about their status and were taken to Nickerie Police Station and then to the Trafficking in Persons Department in Paramaribo. While there, the police held questioned them separately and also held a confrontation with the businessman, who denied their reports. The man said that although the businessman had communicated with them in English while they worked on his farm, while at the station, he communicated through an interpreter and spoke only Dutch. He claimed he had paid them and that they had spent their money on alcohol and prostitutes, which could not be further from the truth since they were not allowed to leave the farm.
The men said they were kept in Suriname lockups for a month and were deported last Saturday.
Following the appearance of a story on the plight of the men in yesterday’s Stabroek News, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that on the afternoon of Friday 21st November, 2014, the Embassy of Guyana, in Paramaribo, Suriname, was informed by the Surinamese authorities that five persons, who said that they were Guyanese nationals, were at a Surinamese Police Station and were being sent to Guyana the following day.
The Ministry statement added “In view of the fact that the Embassy was also advised that the persons were victims of trafficking in persons, two officials, including the Ambassador, immediately visited the station outside the city of Paramaribo to interview the five males. Details regarding the allegations of trafficking were obtained during that interview and a report was submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the very afternoon, given the seriousness of the allegations. The report included details provided by the individuals about their passage to Suriname, the known name of the alleged perpetrator and indeed where they were located since they arrived in Suriname. The Embassy was able to confirm that four of the men are from Region 1 and one from Region 4.
“While all five men were asked to provide telephone numbers for their relatives in Guyana, only four were able to do so. The Embassy was therefore able to make contact with the relatives of three out of four of the individuals who provided contact numbers. There was no response from the number provided by one of the individuals.
“From the interview, it was also ascertained that the five persons were indeed Guyanese nationals. This confirmation was required since they were all without identification documents”.
The ministry said that given the circumstances and the absence of the necessary travel documents, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs facilitated their release upon entry into Guyana.
The ministry said that the report received from the five men has been provided to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOFA) and the relevant law enforcement authorities of both countries are in contact under the mechanism which exists between the two countries.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wishes to advise the public to be wary of too lucrative to be true job offers outside of Guyana and where promises of securing the necessary travel documents and work permits are made. Given a previous experience of similar nature which was reported to the MOFA, even greater vigilance is advised for the interior communities”, the statement said.
