Children's Advocate working to have all children removed from Qahal Yahweh compound next year

 

The Office of the Children's Advocate says it will be working to remove all the children from the Qahal Yahweh compound in Norwood, St. James next year. 

 

In November last year, reports of child marriages at the compound led to two joint military/police operations to remove some of the children.

 

Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison had said that her agency in collaboration with the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) would be seeking to have the other children on the property removed, however that has not been successful. 

 

In an update given to Radio Jamaica News on Wednesday, Mrs Gordon Harrison said there are challenges with the approach the agencies were hoping to take because of lack of cooperation. 

 

"We have dealt with individual cases, as in when we have persons who have come forward to speak about specific instances involving children who are there, those matters have been responded to. However, in terms of the overarching kind of big dig up that we wanted to do, there are some challenges that have been encountered, certainly in terms of law enforcement issues on the ground, and so it's still a matter under live consideration," she said, adding: "There are aspects of it that still remain in court and so, depending on how those aspects are decided, it will determine how we move forward."