[www.inewsguyana.com] – Eleven women from Columbia, Venezuela and Dominica were on June 08, brought before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry to answer charges of illegal entry and overstaying in Guyana.
Six of them, Franchelys Delas Nieves Torrealba Tores, Yeenia Paola Vasenia Ariza, Maria Eugenie Monsalve Rivera, Yourlenny Valderrana Hernandez, Mary Del Carmen Monsalve Rivera and Melanie Grace Cox Rodriguez, pleaded guilty to the charges of illegal entry.
The charge stated that between February and May, 2015 at Charity, Essequibo, they entered Guyana by sea and disembarked without the consent of an Immigration Officer.
They were fined $30,000 with an alternative of two weeks imprisonment.
Meanwhile, five others: Nagalu Infantie Perez, Genchi Valentina Perez, Natalie Tavaraz Acosta, Ana Christina Nejia, were charged with overstaying their permitted time in Guyana.
They pleaded guilty and were also fined $30,000 with an alternative of two weeks imprisonment.
An investigation was launched into human trafficking, which was led by the newly appointed Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Simona Broomes.
The women are among 29 persons who were apprehended after a raid was conducted in Bartica, by the Counter Trafficking in Person Unit of the Ministry of Social Protection and the Guyana Women Miners’ Organisation (GWMO).
well said, i do support you in this. and on the journalist that did this should also know better than to publish the pics.
Minister Broomes failed me this time around. Why did she allowed the press to take and publish the photographs of these young women, many of whom are forced because of abject poverty to use their looks for a living.
Many of these girls would have mortaged their homes for an airfare to at lest earn some cash to support their families back home.
They are not by choice what we perceived them to be. All the good work you have done before minister was tarnished by this act.
Why did you not do better investigation if they were here illegally or overstayed their permits it is because that is how TIP works. You have simply shame them rather than shelter them. These girls need our support and government help. You cannot on one hand say they are TIP victims and then have the courts fine them. The Broomes didnt sweep clean this time the pointers are getting worn out already.
Then again not all new broom sweeps clean!!