The ferry MV Barima sank in the northwest of Guyana on the night of Saturday July 18 to Sunday July 19. “At this stage of operations, the number of people rescued now stands at 69, said Prime Minister Mark Phillips. A total of 27 bodies have been recovered. The latest report shows 83 additional people still to be found. They are considered missing,” continued the head of government of this small English-speaking country during a press conference.
“We remain hopeful that there are still people alive and, therefore, we are continuing our search and rescue operations,” he added.
“Our priority, once again, is to find people. Find them alive. Unfortunately, we have discovered some people who died in this tragic incident. And, in those cases, we are focusing our efforts on recovering their bodies, on positively identifying them, and working with their families and their communities to help them grieve,” he said.
Uncertainty over the number of passengers
The Prime Minister also returned to the number of people on board at the time of the sinking, 179 according to him, which did not correspond to the 133 registered on the passenger list.
“We have reduced the margin of uncertainty regarding this number, thanks to the work carried out by the team that was set up. They collected a lot of information (…) at the time of loading the boat” and “this is what allowed us to reduce this figure to 179” on board.
Mark Phillips stressed that a team of around fifteen French military divers from French Guiana were on site and that oil company devices were used in the search operations.
After confusing comments the day before about crew members testing positive for cannabis, Mark Phillips clarified that the captain of the boat had been “tested”: “He was subjected to tests, and during this procedure, the coast guard placed the captain in their custody”.
“As I said yesterday, an investigation will be carried out, and the report and the recommendations resulting from this investigation will determine the measures that will be taken,” concluded the Prime Minister about the whole affair (passenger list, overweight or not, drug tests).
With AFP
