{"id":2335,"date":"2026-08-29T10:26:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/?p=2335"},"modified":"2026-08-29T10:26:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T09:26:48","slug":"the-mv-barima-tragedy-an-update-on-the-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/?p=2335","title":{"rendered":"The MV Barima Tragedy – An Update on the Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLS is pleased to welcome Danuta Radzik<\/strong><\/em>, who will provide an update on the Barima tragedy and discuss the wider questions of accountability and justice that it has raised.<\/p>\n

Sunday 6 September at 2pm London Time\u00a0<\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n

The meeting will be on-line via Zoom.
\nAll welcome, but you will need to register in advance:-
\nhttps:\/\/ucl.zoom.us\/meeting\/register\/K1z0WL_zQYm9jf-KKJoVwQ<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Danuta is a long-standing human rights, women\u2019s rights and environmental activist who has worked on issues of gender and social justice for more than four decades. She has advocated through a range of civil society organisations in Guyana and, more recently, as an independent civil society campaigner for environmental justice.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the night of 18 July 2026, while travelling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma in Guyana\u2019s Region One, the MV Barima, a government-operated passenger and cargo ferry, capsized in one of the worst maritime disasters in Guyana\u2019s recent history. Seventy-three people have been confirmed dead and a further 30 remain unaccounted for.<\/p>\n

The disaster has caused profound grief and anger in Guyana and within Guyanese communities overseas. The 87-year-old vessel provided a vital transport link between Georgetown and the remote communities of Guyana\u2019s north-west.<\/p>\n

The route served one of Guyana\u2019s poorer regions, including First Peoples\u2019 communities, pork-knockers and low-income Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese families. The tragedy has therefore raised serious questions about whether the safety and transport needs of poorer and geographically isolated communities have been given sufficient priority by the Government.<\/p>\n

The presentation and discussion will examine some of the disturbing questions raised by the disaster: why was such an old vessel still providing this essential service? Was it adequately insured? Was its operation properly supervised? Were passenger numbers accurately recorded? And were maritime safety, loading and other regulatory requirements properly enforced?<\/p>\n

These issues are not limited to Guyana but are important considerations for the island nations of the Caribbean and the countries surrounding the Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\n

Following the Barima tragedy, eight civil society organisations, together with individual activists, organised a petition calling for accountability and justice. The petition attracted the support of more than 156 individuals and civil society organisations in Guyana, across the Caribbean, throughout the diaspora and internationally.<\/p>\n

Those involved are now considering further action to ensure accountability and justice for the survivors, the families who lost loved ones and all those directly or indirectly affected by what has become a national tragedy for Guyana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CLS is pleased to welcome Danuta Radzik, who will provide an update on the Barima tragedy and discuss the wider questions of accountability and justice that it has raised. Sunday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meetings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335","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=2335"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2338,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2335\/revisions\/2338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cls-uk.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}