– Aunt who engaged in forced labour’ before the courts

By Sventlana Marshall

They say you have to forgive others in order to feel inner peace but can you really forgive someone who made you into a slave? This is the battle of Jessica [not her real name], who suffered two horrific years as a house-slave.She had been promised the “good life.” In fact, her aunt had promised to fund her tertiary education in the capital city – Georgetown, so she could fulfil her dream of becoming a Registered Nurse.

Her reality, however, was everything short of the “good life.”

Jessica had just completed her Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations at the age of 16 when she was asked to overlook her aunt’s restaurant and bar in an Amerindian village south of Guyana.

“She used to tell me I am a good for nothing…it hurt me to hear those words…but I know my worth. So if somebody lets you down, walk over it. Don’t let that situation stop you, believe in yourself and know that there is hope.”

Though she hesitated at first, but after discussing the matter with her grandmother (with whom she was living), she agreed.

Three days soon turned into one month, and before Jessica knew it, she had been working with her aunt for two months without a single day off and for little or nothing.

After many sleepless nights and days of condescending remarks, and plenty “wuk,” Jessica decided enough was enough. But just when she decided to walk away, her aunt claimed that monies were missing and threatened to call in the police in August.

“She said I took her money, I never did. Every day I would hand the money over to my grandma, sign that I did, and she would give it to the manager; I never took her money.”

With the allegation hanging over her head, Jessica was forced to work a few more months – 24 hours a day – seven days a week.

By December 2014, the situation worsened. Her grandmother had taken her home but it was not long before the police appeared at her house. “Two policemen came on a bike and say I was needed at the police station, so I went with them,” Jessica recalled.

At the police station, Jessica met her aunt and other ranks who were assigned to the Upper Takutu-Upper Esequibo region at the time. “The Corporal asked me where is the money; I said I don’t know,” Jessica insisted, noting that the police from all indication had appeared to be on the side of her aunt without giving her a listening ear.

With things in her favour, the woman told Jessica, “If you don’t want to go to jail, you have to work for me.”

The teenager pleaded with her aunt to give her an opportunity to see her parents but she refused. However, she was allowed to collect a few pieces of clothes from her granny’s residence.
In tears, she told her little brother to inform her parents that she was leaving.

Upon her return to the station, her aunt was patiently waiting. “Jump in the truck now! Now!” she screamed at Jessica.

“I was looking to see if I could get away but there was no one there to help me,” she 18 year-old recalled. They travelled for hours before the bus came to a halt. But it wasn’t their final destination, simply a police check-point.

“My aunt took me to the police, and told them, she taking me to work with her for one year, and he was like ‘behave yourself, don’t go and behave bad.’ He didn’t even asked me anything.”

The said day, they travelled to Golden Grove on the East Bank of Demerara, Region Four where the situation quickly deteriorated. “Soon as I reach, I had to work but she didn’t care. I had to cook, wash and press. I had to press my cousin’s uniform, clean the house – top and bottom, and look after her peanut and farine business, plus rake the yard,” she recalled.

In a small room in the lower flat of the two storey house, Jessica had little choice but to sleep on a small, tin mattress. The bed frame was broken and the room was shared between Jessica and a little Amerindian boy who would be put to the “mill” when he is not attending school.

“I can’t eat in peace…even if the house was cleaned, she would want me to clean it all over again…she would curse me, call me all kinds of names. One time, she lashed me with a pot spoon and pelt me with a bunch of keys. Sometimes, it was worse than that.”

The fun-loving aunt she had grown to know had transformed into a “beast.” Many days, Jessica thought about running away but the porters and truck drivers always kept a close eye. “She used to tell me, if I run away, the Police will catch me because she has my ID.”

It was the period in her life when she felt there was no hope, and even the thought of suicide lingered in her mind.

But Jessica thought about her siblings, and her family back home. “I use to think about committing suicide but mom said never to kill myself.” She used to borrow the porters’ and truck driver’s phones from time to time to call her parents.

In March, 2015 she became pregnant. She had found love “in a hopeless place.”

Jessica had seen the coming of her firstborn as a sign of hope and reason to live. So she chose life over death and vowed to be good mother to her child despite the hardship. When she learnt of Jessica’s pregnancy, her businesswoman aunt became extremely upset – so upset that she bit the teenager on her ear and dealt her a slap to the face. “Every day she would tell me how I get a dead frog in me and a stink snake in my belly.”

For a moment she thought that her work load would have reduced given her pregnancy, but instead it doubled. “When I was sick, with saline in my hand, I had to wash, cook and clean. I had to parch nuts in the hot, hot sun. I had to fetch big bags on my back and when I complain, she said Amerindian people strong.”

One year after, on December 22, 2015 Jessica’s father went to her rescue. The visit wasn’t a welcome one, but the man insisted that he was not leaving without his daughter. But the business woman kept insisting that Jessica, who had turned 17 at the time, had not paid her debt in full.

Before leaving the Amerindian Village, the woman had told Jessica in the presence of the police that she would be paid $30,000 a month but $15,000 would have been deducted monthly for the missing money. However, she never gave $15,000 at a single time, instead, she was given $5,000 sometimes and other times $3,000.

The man was least concerned about the debt her daughter had allegedly owed. For him, his daughter was being held against her will by his sister and it was not only illegal but unacceptable.

A report was made to the Grove Police Station and the Trafficking in Person (TIP) Unit was called in. A rescue operation was conducted and Jessica was removed from the Golden Grove residence. The woman was taken into custody. The matter is currently engaging the attention of the court.

“I never thought my own blood would do me something like that. She used to treat me good since primary school. I use to watch how she use to ill-treat the other girls in the village but never thought she would do me that,” Jessica said as she looked back.

“She used to tell me I am a good for nothing…it hurt me to hear those words…but I know my worth. So if somebody lets you down, walk over it. Don’t let that situation stop you, believe in yourself and know that there is hope.”

Jessica is now registered in the nursing programme.