6 scrap iron men arrested overnight

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Six scrap iron work­ers have been ar­rest­ed overnight, as van­loads of pro­test­ers used the cov­er of dark­ness to block parts of Clax­ton Bay and en­vi­rons.

A heavy con­tin­gent of army and po­lice re­mains sta­tioned in the area fol­low­ing four days of protests, which spilt on­to the busy Solomon Ho­choy High­way, in­con­ve­nienc­ing hun­dreds of peo­ple.

The protests are oc­cur­ring dur­ing the vis­it of Guyanese Pres­i­dent Dr Ir­faan Ali, who is in Trinidad on an of­fi­cial State vis­it. There are 107 scrap iron deal­ers in Clax­ton Bay who own ve­hi­cles that col­lect old met­al in­clud­ing cop­per from across the coun­try.

Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee says this ac­counts for 50 per cent of all scrap met­al ex­ports in Trinidad.

The scrap iron­work­ers have set up a per­ma­nent base at Cedar Hill Road, Clax­ton Bay, erect­ing a small tent un­der a co­conut tree and a sign read­ing “Free Iron­men.”

A police officer tries to persuade the scrap ironworkers not to block the roads, on Thursday 18 August 2022. (Image by IVAN TOOLSIE)

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Aaron Sylvester said the po­lice and army had pre­vent­ed any fur­ther block­ades af­ter mid­night on Thurs­day.

“The po­lice and army bru­tal­iz­ing peo­ple. About six peo­ple get beat up and ar­rest­ed overnight and I am sure they will be spend­ing the week­end in prison,” Sylvester said.

On Thurs­day, se­nior po­lice of­fi­cials spoke with the pro­test­ers, warn­ing them that they will be ar­rest­ed if they il­le­gal­ly ob­struct­ed the roads with burn­ing de­bris.

The of­fi­cer said while their con­cerns were le­git­i­mate, they should get their voic­es heard with­out caus­ing dis­tress to oth­er mo­torists and with­out dam­ag­ing the roads.

The iron men say they will con­tin­ue a vig­il in Clax­ton Bay un­til the gov­ern­ment lifts the six-month ban on the ex­por­ta­tion of cop­per. The ban was im­posed be­cause of the ne­far­i­ous theft of pub­lic in­fra­struc­ture in­clud­ing telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion ca­bles, pow­er ca­bles, man­hole cov­ers, WASA pump­house fit­tings, oil pipelines and even gates out­side res­i­dents’ hous­es.

Soldiers clear debris from Claxton Bay on Thursday, August 18. (Image by IVAN TOOLSIE)

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands pen­sion­ers who do not have cell-phones but de­pend on their land­lines to call rel­a­tives and even am­bu­lances have been suf­fer­ing be­cause of the theft.

The gov­ern­ment has ap­point­ed a Cab­i­net sub-Com­mit­tee to over­see a leg­isla­tive frame­work for the scrap iron in­dus­try.

On Tues­day, Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try Paula Gopee-Scoon, who is on the Cab­i­net sub-com­mit­tee, said there was a need for im­proved leg­is­la­tion to reg­u­late the ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties of the in­dus­try.

Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal al­so said on Mon­day that the gov­ern­ment’s ar­bi­trary shut­down of the scrap iron sec­tor is sense­less and un­ac­cept­able and would on­ly lead to an in­crease in un­em­ploy­ment and pos­si­bly a hike in the crime rate.

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Guardian Me­dia will up­date this sto­ry as more in­for­ma­tion comes to hand.