Man jailed for trafficking Jamaican nationals

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A 44-year-old farmer in Guyana has been jailed for four years after he was found guilty of trafficking two Jamaican women.

A Guyana Police Force (GPF) statement said that Tito Browne was also sentenced to one year imprisonment on the count of withholding the passports of the two Jamaican nationals.

Browne, who was arrested by police April 28, 2021— one day after a wanted bulletin was issued for him— was also fined GUY$200,000 (J$145,000) and ordered to pay $6.3 million in restitution to the victims.

Browne, also known as ‘Tommy’ and ‘Yankee’ appeared before Magistrate Wanda Fortune at the Linden Magistrate’s Court on Thursday. He was charged with two counts of trafficking in persons and on each count, he was sentenced to four years imprisonment. The sentences will run concurrently.

The magistrate handed down the sentences after an eight-month-long trial that began in December 2021 and concluded last August.

The court was told that in November 2020, one of the victims met an individual in Jamaica, who indicated that Browne needed someone to work on his farm at Kara Kara Creek, Linden, in Guyana, and was willing to pay US$5,000 for the work to be done.

The first victim reportedly informed the second victim about the opportunity, and together they arranged with Browne, who promised to facilitate all their travel expenses.

The women left Jamaica on December 12, 2020, and upon their arrival in Guyana, Browne instructed them to inform immigration that they would only be spending two weeks.

“Upon arriving at the campsite at Kara Kara Creek, Browne informed them that they would be spending six months at the campsite and confiscated their passports. The victims recounted that from the date of entry to 24th April 2021, they worked at the Kara Kara camp but never received any compensation from Browne,” the police statement said.

The victims added that Browne would visit periodically and demand that they work more diligently. Though he continuously promised to pay them, he never did. They were only allowed to contact their families from Browne’s phone whenever he visited the campsite.

They told the police that for three weeks, no one visited them, and their supplies ran low, forcing them to leave the site.

“The victims were forced to venture from the camp in search of other campsites, walking through bushes and swamp lands until they managed to locate a logger who eventually took them to a village where they related their story and made a police report,” the police said.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Browne was arrested for trafficking Jamaicans to work on his farm. Why are the browne like to take advantage of people. We have some African is taken advantage of under the browne also

    • I am no fan of GB, however, I do believe that the Africans knew what they were letting themselves into: firstly, they planned to spend two days in Antigua, Secondly, they ultimate plan was to smuggled themselves into the US.

      Antigua ‘s immigration services, is broken, the chief immigration officer should resign. He was part of the team of people who met the Africans that arrived in Antigua without an address, no advance visa to enter Antigua and no visa for the US.

      Nonetheless, immigration still landed them and fail to ascertained from them how they were going to get into the USA without a visa. The writings were on the wall, but our immigration services did not read the writings.

      The Africans miscalculated their venture and when they realised that their plan is unrealistic they opt for plan b, claiming asylum. I don’t believe that they are victims, if they are victims that came about from their own makings.

      GB, however should have taken steps to repatriated them rather than having them been integrated in local community.

      The ones that were picked up in Trinidad should have been sent back to Africa, as they are not citizens of Antigua.

  2. When are we going to see someone,anyone,being arrested in Antigua for trafficking of the Africans into Antigua. The Rules of Law only extends to the little Man/Woman in Antigua and Barbuda.

  3. “farm”? More like prostitution. Guyana is begging for workers in all sectors, so there’s no need to “traffic” anybody. All the non-nationals here need to go to Guyana and get some of the oil money.

    • The Guyanese are not that foolish to allow other nationals to come and get a share of the riches. If you want to get some oil money in Guyana you would have to partner with a Guyanese on their terms. The oil money in Guyana is for Guyanese.

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