Teenage girls escape from shelter, languish in police custody pending Probation report

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:00 by GxMedia

Three teenage girls- including two sisters- who have repeatedly escaped from a Corentyne shelter to enter the world of prostitution have been ordered to go to the New Opportunity Corps after they threatened to commit suicide.   

The girls have been removed from Kamal International Home for Homeless Children and Battered Women and are in the custody of the police for the past two weeks at the Albion Police Station just a stone’s throw away from the home.

“These girls are teaching me such a lesson. I never realised I would go through this…and then these children turn back on you,” said the President of the Home, Carmen Kissoon.

A Magistrate ordered that they be transferred to the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) after the home complained that the girls have escaped twice and were now threatening to kill themselves if they were not allowed to leave.

Fed up with the constant stress of having to arrange for the girls to be rescued and now threatening to commit suicide if they cannot leave, Kissoon has arranged for them to be handed over to a government-run institution for young offenders and deviant youths. “They say they are going to commit suicide so we called the police and we called Probation.

Kissoon said the Probation and Welfare has not provided the file to the police to complete the transfer process. “They shouldn’t have been so long at the station. They already pass through the court and they are supposed to go to Girl School because these kids are not behaving nice,” she said.

The two sisters- 15 and 13 years old- became orphans and had been staying at the home after their parents and brother died of AIDS. The third girl was abused by her father.

She said the girls had previously jumped the fence to go to a place at Skeldon which is a haven for prostitutes offering their services. Kissoon said that entity used to be frequented by their mother.

One of the sisters had allegedly failed to encourage nine other girls to escape from the home.