GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The Guyana government Tuesday said it is working closely with the families of the victims of the MV Barima tragedy and that efforts are continuing to refloat the vessel that sank on July 18, killing 73 people and leaving at least 30 others missing and feared dead.

“The priority for the government is to ensure that we work closely with the families in relation to the MV Barima. And when I say families here, I’m not only speaking of families who would have lost loved ones, families here where persons are still missing,” President Irfaan Ali told a news conference.

“So the priority is to ensure, especially where children, women, parents are involved, to ensure that we have a close connection from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Human Services with those families, and we have established the Heart Initiative to be a long-term, multi-stakeholder, I don’t want to use the word agency, but long-term, multi-stakeholder forum that would look at immediate, short, immediate, medium and long-term needs of families.”

Ali said in that initiative, the authorities have also set up a legal mechanism to support families in terms of some of the legal challenges that they will face and they are facing in terms of documentation, classification, the mental health support, the medical support, the counselling support, the spiritual support, support for children.

He said that the authorities are also working, for example, to see if there is a need to establish a special home for children who might have been affected.

“So when I say long-term support, it is long-term support, looking at not the challenges for today and tomorrow, but the long-term challenges, and also, of course, other issues of material and other financial considerations and needs.”

He said under the Heart Initiative, they are building out the regional network to create a regional support system and regional hub to support these families also.

On July 18, 2026, the state-owned passenger ferry MV Barima capsised and sank off the Atlantic coast of Guyana near the Pomeroon River during a voyage from Georgetown to Port Kaituma. It is the worst maritime incident in Guyana’s history.

The Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the incident is being finalised ahead of public hearings, with details expected to be announced once the necessary legal and administrative arrangements are completed.

The MV Barima was carrying an estimated 179 passengers and crew when it sank. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the vessel’s captain, chief mate and the Transport and Harbours Department’s Goods Superintendent were charged with murder.

READ: Guyana gov’t ends MV Barima search and recovery exercise

The authorities are also pursuing the recovery of the sunken vessel and Ali told reporters “in terms of the salvaging of the vessel, I think on Friday, the expression of interest would have closed.

“They have received a number of expressions of interest. Those interests are being shortlisted now by the agency, and then those shortlisted entities will be invited to supply prices to have the vessel salvaged. So that is where we are with that,”  Ali said, adding that he is unaware of the number of proposals received..

“I don’t have the exact number. I think it’s 10 or more. Don’t hold me to that and I don’t know that there is a distinction between local. I know there was a criteria and companies would have proposed, made proposals in relation to that criteria.<’ he said, adding “that is why there is a shortlisting process”.

Ali said in relation to the COI “the team is in place, they have started looking at their procedures, settling their procedures and working out their work plan and from what I’m told, in early September, the actual work would commence here on the ground”.

“The work of the COI is the work that I will base my action on when their recommendation comes to me. I think having established the COI independently, we have to have respect for the work of the COI,”  Ali said, as he dismissed calls for the removal of several of his cabinet ministers as a result of the tragedy.