MV Barima tragedy-Region 1 families flown to Essequibo Coast to ID recovered bodies

The Guyana Government has flown over 30 persons from across Region One (Barima-Waini), who had relatives on board MV Barima when it sank on Saturday night, down to the Essequibo Coast, where bodies recovered are being sent for processing and identification. Based on revised figures, the ferry vessel, which departed Port Georgetown on Saturday afternoon en route of Port Kaituma in the North-West District, had some 179 persons on board including 18 crew members. So far, 69 persons have been rescued and 27 bodies were recovered while approximately 83 persons including children are listed as missing. On Monday morning, President Dr Irfaan Ali travelled to the Region One townships of Port Kaituma and Mabaruma, where he met with persons who were rescued as well as relatives of those still missing. He also visited survivors who are receiving medical care at the Mabaruma Hospital. During these engagements with the Head of State, the grieving family members and relatives requested assistance from the Government to travel to Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) where a site has been set up at the Charity Waterfront to store the bodies recovered from offshore.
President Ali has committed to helping the bereaved relatives and arrangements were made to fly them down to the Essequibo Coast, where their accommodation and on-the-ground transportation were facility by the State. “We have since provided aircraft to move the 13 [family members] from Port Kaituma to Region Two…and then they will be housed in Essequibo, and they will be transported and they will be utilised in the effort to identify bodies recovered. Likewise…22 persons from Mabaruma are being moved…for the similar reasons,” Prime Minister (PM) Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips disclosed during a press briefing on Monday evening.

The PM, who is leading the Government’s emergency response to this horrific maritime tragedy, reported that while 27 bodies were recovered between Sunday and Monday, the search and rescue operation remains active and they believe there could still be more survivors out there. “We still have hope people out there are alive… I’m advised…that with a ship like that, there are pockets of air, right. And wherever people are located, you may very well have people alive there,” Phillips stated. He added, “Our focus…is on finding people, finding them alive. Unfortunately, we did find some people who have passed on…and in that case, efforts to recover their bodies and have them positively identified and working with their families and their communities to bring closure.” Of the 27 bodies recovered since Saturday night’s tragedy, four are children. At the time of the press briefing, the PM indicated that six male adults and four female adults had been identified while the remaining bodies were still being processed. While President Ali has assisted these families from Region One to travel to Essequibo, the Government is looking to ease the burden of grieving families and has put systems in place for them to identify missing relatives without having to travel to region two.

Emergency family assistance centres
Following the ferry incident, the Government on Sunday established Emergency Family Assistance Centres at the Umana Yana in Kingstown, Georgetown; at the Port Kaituma Community Centre, and at the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) Extension Centre in Kumaka sub-district, Mabaruma.
At the centres, officials are there to assist family members seeking information about their unaccounted relatives and offer varying type of support necessary. But PM Phillips told reports that as part of the processing of the bodies recovered, photographs would be taken and posted up outside of these three help-centres as well as the Suddie Hospital on the Essequibo Coast for persons to possibility identify missing relatives who were on board the vessel. “Families will be allowed to go to those locations and see the photographs. So, what that means is that whenever a family comes, we don’t have to open a body bag or go into the fridge or wherever it is stored because they have the photographs there for easy identification. So far, that has worked,” the PM noted. He added too that the hotline number that was set up has been a good source for receiving information about the missing persons. “I want to commend all the family members and all the people out there for working with us during this difficult time because all of us will want to bring closure and assist the families in having closure and bodies are recovered,” Phillips noted. Meanwhile, after leaving Region One on Monday, President Ali travelled to the Essequibo Coast, where he engaged survivors there as well as the source of family members that are eagerly awaiting news of their loved ones who still unaccounted for. In fact, on Monday evening, the Guyanese Leader joined persons at the Charity Waterfront, as they await the difficult process of identifying their loved ones.

Retrieve additional bodies
Throughout the night, additionally bodies that were recovered in the rough Atlantic waters were brought onshore. Up to press time, Guyana Times was unable to confirm the exact number of bodies found, a part from the 27 reported earlier at the press briefing. Divers, both local as well as those from the French Guiana army, had been mobilised to the location where MV Barima sank some nine miles off the shore of Devonshire Castle, Essequibo Coast. This newspaper was told that the divers went down to the seabed where the sunken vessel is and were able to retrieve additional bodies. Meanwhile, of those 27 bodies found earlier on Monday, this publication was able to confirm the identified of several. These include: two-year-old Kelly Williams; Dwayne Forbes; Marcia Beharry; Oxwell John; Shivana LaCruz Romascino; Trevon Sam, and Shamera Smith.
Meanwhile, in Georgetown, Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo and a team of Cabinet Ministers engaged Amerindian leaders from communities affected by the MV Barima tragedy. These officials had travelled to Georgetown for the annual National Toshaos Conference (NTC), which was scheduled to start on Monday but the opening was postponed to today. During the engagement, VP Jagdeo heard from community representatives and discussed the impact of the tragedy, while offering all possible resources to assisting them. Moreover, the Guyana Government through the Human Services and Social Security Ministry is also lending critical psychosocial support to the survivors and also family members of those missing persons, with professionals deployed to all three help centres as well as the Essequibo Coast to engage survivors and bereaved family members.