–residents claim police ‘bought out’, call for intervention from Social Protection Ministry

SEVERAL concerned business persons at “Poppy Chow Landing” are calling on the relevant authorities to investigate a recent upsurge in illicit activities, such as human trafficking at Middle Mazaruni area near Olive Creek.

Reports are that the owners of several bars in the area have been duping underage girls, as young as 14 years old, to work in the area which is located less than 10 minutes by boat from the Olive Creek airstrip.

A miner in the area told Guyana Chronicle on Sunday that a recent incident at Poppy Chow Landing has led to concerns from persons about the treatment meted out to the young ladies who are taken into the area by bar owners under the impression that they would be employed gainfully.

The miner noted that recently the owner of a shop hired several young girls from parts of the Rupununi to work at her shop.

The woman operates a bar and according to reports, the girls were told to “sell their bodies” to miners at a bar next door to shop or they would not be paid by the shop owner.

Reports are that two weeks ago, a young lady ran away from another shop at the landing where she was working. The 15-year-old girl was working at a shop in the area and she reported that one night as she ventured outside to use the outdoor washroom, she was attacked by two men who proceeded to rape her.

Reports are that the following morning , the woman reported the matter to two police officers who were in the area but the matter was swept under the carpet after the men who committed the act boasted to others that they had paid a $200,000 sum to the police ranks.

Following the incident, a miner in the area noted that persons were skeptical to report any such matters to the Enachu Police Station since they felt that the police ranks there were being “bought”.
In another incident, a teenage girl employed by a Brazilian shop owner left the job after she was being forced by the businessman to sleep with male customers.

Reports are that a miner visited the shop and offered the owner of the business a sum of money to sleep with the girl.

However, the young woman refused. The following day the young lady was asked to leave the businessman’s premises and she later ventured into the gold fields where she was rescued by the owner of a mining operator.

Persons in the area are calling on the Ministry of Social Protection to visit the landing since they noted that there are many illicit activities, particularly those committed on young girls.