{"id":2323,"date":"2026-08-02T17:01:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T16:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2026-08-02T17:01:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T16:01:25","slug":"cls-lobbies-the-guyana-high-commission-following-the-sinking-of-the-mv-barima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/?p=2323","title":{"rendered":"CLS Lobbies the Guyana High Commission Following the Sinking of the MV Barima"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLS lobbied the London high commission of Guyana on the 30th of July 2026 following the sinking of the Barima<\/em> of the coast of Guyana.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The background is that the MV Barima, a state-operated passenger and cargo ferry, capsized on the night of 18 July 2026 while travelling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma in Guyana\u2019s Region One. The disaster has caused profound grief and anger in Guyana and among Guyanese communities overseas. By 28 July, 73 deaths had been reported, 76 people had been rescued and about 30 remained missing. The vessel was approximately 87 years old and provided an essential link between Georgetown and remote north-western communities.<\/p>\n

The route served one of Guyana\u2019s poorer regions, including First Peoples, pork-knockers and low-income Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese families. The tragedy has therefore raised wider concerns about whether the safety and transport needs of poorer and geographically isolated communities received sufficient priority.<\/p>\n

Concerns include the advanced age of the MV Barima and the fact that the vessel was reportedly uninsured. Questions have also been raised about whether its operation was adequately supervised and whether maritime and loading requirements were properly enforced.<\/p>\n

There are serious concerns about how passengers, vehicles and cargo were loaded and whether they were positioned to maintain stability, weight distribution and balance. Officials initially stated that the recorded cargo was within the vessel\u2019s licensed capacity but acknowledged that the distribution of weight required investigation. There were also major discrepancies in the passenger manifest. Only 35 of the first 67 rescued people were reportedly listed, making it difficult to establish the true number aboard. Allegations that the vessel carried unrecorded passengers and may have been overloaded require independent investigation. These points should presently be described as concerns rather than established findings while the Commission of Inquiry is under way.<\/p>\n

\"\"Despite the extremely short notice, more than 14 people attended. They included CLS members, Guyanese residents and CLS supporters who happened to be visiting London. The turnout demonstrated the depth of concern and people\u2019s willingness to respond rapidly to a major Caribbean tragedy. The lobby called on the Government of Guyana to ensure, amongst other things, that a proper enquiry into the tragedy was established; the families of those killed are properly compensated; and transport regulations are properly enforced.<\/p>\n

Although the High Commissioner, HE Dr Singh was outside the United Kingdom, he spoke by telephone with CLS officers and responded to difficult questions circulating within the Guyanese and wider Caribbean community in Britain. This exchange was useful and established a basis for further dialogue.<\/p>\n

CLS will take steps, in consultation with other UK-based Caribbean organisations, to ensure that public transport in the region is made as safe as possible. We will also cal on the Government to ensure adequate compensation is paid to the families of the deceased, irrespective of class or background.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLS lobbied the London high commission of Guyana on the 30th of July 2026 following the sinking of the Barima of the coast of Guyana. The background is that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaigns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2327,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions\/2327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}