At least 32 Crabwood Creek loggers, who are stuck at various points up the Corentyne River are running out of supplies since neither they nor their employers are able to traverse the river, after the Suriname authorities closed access due to that country’s COVID-19 curfew.
Vishal Singh, who operates a sawmill in Crabwood Creek, yesterday told Stabroek News, that he presently has 15 workers stuck far up the Corentyne River. He said, the men last received supplies in February, since the supply boat which was heading up in March was confiscated by Surinamese soldiers.
According to Singh, on March, 22, four of his workers were heading up with food, fuel and spare parts, when they were arrested by the Surinamese soldiers, who are policing the river. He said the men were held overnight and told to contact their employer, “They had said that if I took documents for the boat and engine they would release the men to me but then they changed that and used my boat and dropped my men off at Orealla without any supplies and they took back my boat.”
