00:00We built that last night where we can sleep for everybody.
00:03It's a full mattress.
00:04There are about four mattresses there for everybody.
00:06Bunkers and sleeping.
00:07How many people were sleeping in there last night?
00:09About ten are we sleeping inside there last night.
00:11Everybody here is struggling.
00:13And we are cheering.
00:15I have six children.
00:17And also six grandchildren too.
00:19You know?
00:20And plus there are others who are cheering, more than one.
00:24And some of them aren't able to go to school.
00:27Some of them are home.
00:29This 10x6 plywood structure is the first to be rebuilt by Ramjadantri's residents.
00:34Roughly 60 persons are now homeless following the demolition of their homes on Thursday.
00:40When TV6 News visited the area today, about a dozen of them were huddled under a shed,
00:45sheltering from the elements.
00:47And they say no one has come to their aid.
00:50The squatters are taking particular issue with their MP, Foster Cummings,
00:54who they say had promised to assist them back in 2023.
00:59We are not dogs.
01:01People are not dogs.
01:02We are human beings.
01:04And when you come here and you see human beings living here
01:08and you never come back and have a meeting with the people,
01:11we feel like we are nobody.
01:15You understand?
01:16And that is not a nice feeling because we are expecting you to come back and say something to us.
01:21Did you all ever go down to the MP office?
01:24Yes, we was there.
01:25We was there yesterday.
01:27When we went yesterday, the secretary see us and run and lock the gate and run inside
01:33and nobody never come back out to talk to us.
01:36Residents also claim that HCC officials who carried out the first phase of demolition in 2024
01:42had assured them that their properties were safe.
01:45But the activity is expected to continue next week.
01:49They said it wasn't coming across.
01:51It have a big drain that parting off the land from the back to the front.
01:57And they said it wasn't coming across the big drain.
02:00And recently they come back and put notice on people who over the big drain.
02:08Even still, residents say, those days demolition by the HCC and Commission of State Lands was shocking
02:14as they say the notices which they received did not appear to be official
02:19and no authority had ever communicated directly with them.
02:22It didn't have like a letter or who it came from.
02:25Nothing, not a stamp, not a letter, no name, nothing.
02:29They are calling on state authorities to render some form of assistance.
02:33This morning we got called from AGC representatives
02:38and all they are asking us is for our names and ID card at this moment.
02:43That's all.
02:44For what purpose?
02:45They didn't say.
02:46We are hoping for some kind of help in terms of relocating us
02:51or giving us back the land, helping us build our homes back on it,
02:56compensating us for the damages with our funerals, anything.
03:00A release from the HCC on Thursday indicated
03:03that the action was taken on directive from the Commission of State Lands
03:07as the residents had been occupying the land illegally for a number of years.
03:11Residents confirmed that two young men were arrested
03:14during the standoff with police and HCC officials on Thursday.
03:18Them get charged, so they went to court this morning.
03:21There was two?
03:22Two of them.
03:23I can't, I'm not seeing language, I'm resisting arrest to see.
03:27A lawyer has since visited the residents and offered his assistance.
03:31Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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