BVHS concerned about violence against homeless persons in B’dos
THE Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS) has once again voiced its concern about the increasing levels of violence meted out to some homeless persons on the island.
The issue came to the fore again recently, as several persons called into the Down To Brass Tacks radio programme, to complain about a group of youth who have been constantly attacking homeless persons in the City of Bridgetown.
Founder and President of the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS), Kemar Saffrey, was made aware of the situation and after paying a visit to the area of an alleged incident which reportedly took place on Tuesday night and which saw the group of youth beating a homeless man with a piece of wood, Saffrey noted that his team, along with a nurse attached to the organisation would be visiting the homeless man to treat to his injuries and render any additional assistance needed.
“We are having this (issue) of abuse of the homeless back on the rise again and we really need to do something about it seriously. It is not something that we condone at all,” Saffrey pointed out.
“This is why we are moving as an organisation to have a shelter to be able to secure these guys, especially at night. So we need to be able to address this and get these people off the streets. And we would have talked to government seriously about this and predicted that there would have been an increase in violence, just like how there would have been an increase in homelessness, because we actually have twenty-seven new cases of homelessness already for the year and we don’t have anywhere to put these persons to be able to protect them from the elements and also now to protect them from these crazy people out there, doing these acts on persons affected by homelessness and vagrancy,” he stressed.
“So this is something that needs to be addressed seriously. We have been advocating this for ten years and it sad to see that we are in the position and not being taken seriously by our Government, where we should be taken seriously, to get these people off the streets. They want to come off the streets,” Saffrey maintained.
Earlier this year, Saffrey had indicated that his office had been getting a number of complaints from battered and bruised persons in the homeless community, indicating that they had been victims of violent acts meted out to them mainly by youth in groups in the City. Saffrey was just as adamant then as he is now, that the matter needs to be addressed and he indicated that the Royal Barbados Police Force had been contacted about the matter.
A number of callers yesterday also indicated that they had contacted the Force and the Force’s PR personnel noted that they will be looking into the matter. (RSM)