Coordinator of Justice and Peace Commission of Kumbo spearheads campaign against human trafficking
One Demia Burinyuy Mbon and Rene Fonyuy, both tailors, are under police custody for involvement in trafficking of Cameroonians to Kuwait.
The duo were recently arrested in Kumbo by public security elements.
Burinyuy and Fonyuy’s arrest came following a complaint forwarded to the police by the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Kumbo. The complaint originated from one of their victims by the name Claudette Kemoka.
The Cameroon Journal gathered that the whole trafficking issue started when a lady whose name only got as Kadija; a paternal aunt to Burinyuy and married to someone in Kuwait, had taken up the responsibility to care for Burinyuy after his father died.
To help Burinyuy and his family, Kadija, opted to ferry Burinyuy’s wife, Bongnke Sidonne, plus an in-law, Marie Claire, to Kuwait for ‘greener pastures'.
Learning of the adventure from Burinyuy, Fonyuy (second suspect), assisted by Burinyuy, sent his own wife, Ngong Hostencia to Kuwait.
It was after this, the petition states, that both Burinyuy and Fonyuy began acting as agents or facilitators in Kumbo for those intending to travel to Kuwait in search of jobs.
Young Cameroonian women wanting to travel to Kuwait were charged 1.2 million FCFA while men paid 1.3 million FCFA, the report stated.
Prosper Christopher and another one whose name The Journal got as Emma, purporting to be police officers, were said to be agents in Yaounde who would procure all necessary documentation for the travelers while Kadija played the coordinator or agent in Kuwait.
However, the hullabaloo began to untangle when one of the client, one Claudette Kemoka who had been told she was going to Kuwait for a teaching position, was instead employed as a house help.
Due to the very poor treatment from her employers, one Emer Addulai and wife, she said she turned down the house maid job and decided to return to Cameroon. She quoted her employer’s wife as saying that she (Kemoka) was bought for 1.2 million FCFA from Burinyuy.
Kemoka said her host insisted that if she insists on going back to Cameroon, she would have to refund the amount. Failing to do so meant her passport would not be returned to her.
Because she insisted on returning to Cameron, and since she only had a one-way ticket to Kuwait, she said she was taken to ‘Kadama’; an ‘office’ in Kuwait where slaves are sold and bought.
After spending some time at ‘Kadama,’ Kemoka said she sent a message to one Wirngo Issa, a former boyfriend in Kumbo with whom she has a daughter. Wirngo sent some money to her through a certain Elsie who also works in Kuwait.
The amount sent, she stated, was 400,000 FCFA. She said it enabled her to pay for a return flight to Cameroon. Kemoka returned to the country on August 25, 2015.
Upon arrival in Cameroon, Kemoka lodged a complaint against Burinyuy for having sold her to a couple in Kuwait. In her complaint, she is also asking for financial damages amounting to 400,000 FCFA, which is the cost she incurred to return to Cameroon.
As concerns Fonyuy, we gathered that one Wirba Hassan had approached him to facilitate the departure of his younger brother, Halisu, to Kuwait. Fonyuy asked and received 1.3 million FCFA from Halisu which he said he forwarded to Christopher, the purported police officer based in Yaounde. It was reported that he used the money to process Halisu’s travel documents.
However, Halisu said when he finally arrived in Kuwait, the person who was supposed to receive him on arrival never showed up.
Halishu, like Kemoka was repatriated. When he returned to Kumbo, his elder brother, Wirba Hassan who had handed over money to Fonyuy, lodged a complaint demanding that Fonyuy refund the 1.3 million FCFA paid to him.
So far, Burinyuy has admitted that he has facilitated the transit of seven girls from Cameroon to Kuwait. He added that while he facilitated the transit of the seven, there were some who came to him only to find out how they could make it to Kuwait on their own without incurring an enormous cost.
He asserted that most of those he assisted to Kuwait were merely his family members, relatives or friends with whom he does business at Mbveh.
Cameroon Journal's investigations ascertained that the other suspect, Fonyuy, has so far and successfully sent five persons to Kuwait and Dubai, with two paying 1.3 million FCFA each.
However, both perpetrators are complaining that 1.3 million FCFA is too big an amount for them to repay to their victims. Police investigators are still digging into the issue.
