By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) is claiming no evidence of sexual exploitation occurring at the Heliport Immigration Station in Chaguaramas.
This is according to Head of the Special Victim’s Unit Superintendent Claire Guy-Alleyne who spoke at a press conference on Sunday hosted by the Ministry of National Security.
The press conference was held to address concerns over media reports of allegations of rape to a Venezuelan migrant by coast guard officers during her detention back in April. The matter is before the courts.
The woman is being represented by attorneys Criston J Williams, Bernadette Arneaud and Shivanand Mohan of Quantum Legal law firm.
Guy-Alleyne said a team was formed from the Special Victims Department and visited the location to conduct investigations interviewing three men and 35 women who were at the facility at the time.
“Several persons were interviewed and certain information was disclosed… All of the migrants were interviewed and no sexual exploitation was disclosed to the police at the time,” she said.
The particular woman with the matter was found by the Chaguanas police and handed over to Immigration and the Counter Trafficking Unit “where she is safe.”
Guy-Alleyne added, “And where we are conducting an active investigation to get the facts and evidence so if the allegations were true and persons the allegations are made against would be brought to justice and the law can take its process.”
She urged anyone who has been sexually exploited in anyway whether local or migrant, to provide the relevant information to police.
“Once these allegations have been made let us be able to gather the evidence and be able to put these perpetrators behind bars,” Guy-Alleyne said.
She also asked the media to be more sensitive in their report of such matters
Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-
Snr Supt Alleyne utterences at the Sunday press conference was either hogwash or a poppycock statement. Having said there were approximately 35 females at the detention heliport centre…tells me the investigation is already flawed and botch. A simple SEA metric she could not give a definite answer. This tells me her posture were similar to the Minister of National security…sleeping on the job. TTPS has collapsed like so many state organizations