(Kaieteur News) – The Government appears to be preparing the nation for the possibility that the sunken MV Barima will never be recovered. Prime Minister (Ret’d) Brigadier Mark Phillips yesterday signaled that bringing in additional foreign divers “will not change the situation” and that the state-owned vessel is “likely to remain there as is” on the seabed off the Essequibo coast near Iron Punt. His remarks, made after a sitting of the National Assembly, come even as grieving relatives continue to demand a full salvage operation, insisting their loved ones deserve every possible effort to recover the vessel and any remains still trapped inside.

“In terms of the actual raising of the vessel, I don’t think we’ve contacted anybody to raise the vessel,” Phillips stated. “If you listen to the interview with the French, the whole issue of raising the vessel is not being forwarded at this stage because it’s difficult to do that exercise now. The vessel is likely to remain there as is.”

Defending the performance of specialist personnel deployed to the scene, which included French military teams alongside domestic divers, Phillips insisted that additional foreign assistance, including from entities like ExxonMobil, would not alter the outcome.