Frequent travellers of a Guyanese ferry that sunk in July allege routine overloading, unsecured cargo and engine failures.

The MV Barima — an 87-year-old ferry owned and operated by the state of Guyana — recently sank off the country’s coast on its way from the country’s capital of Georgetown to Port Kaituma, a journey of about 18 to 24 hours.

Port Kaituma is a gateway to what’s known as the North West District that borders Venezuela, where outsider gold and manganese interests dominate Indigenous territory.

The ferry’s passengers — the majority are Indigenous people unable to afford the cost of speed boat or air travel — sleep on the floor among the cargo loaded for government and private-sector interests, or in hammocks slung wherever there is space.

In total, 76 passengers and crew survived, while 73 bodies were recovered before the government called off the search by French Navy divers for the estimated 30 to 50 people still missing.

Many of the passengers were Indigenous children returning home for school holidays.