The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

A TURKISH family living in Canada insisted that despite the “unwillingness” of Bahamian authorities to assist in finding two relatives, they will remain relentless in piecing together what happened to the men who were last seen in Grand Bahama and have been missing now for more than three years.

“We need justice,” Nayif Gumus told The Tribune during an interview at the Towne Hotel in downtown Nassau. “I will never stop coming to The Bahamas and my family will continue to offer a $100,000 reward for any information that will lead us to knowing what happened to them.

“My family has been caused much hurt and pain because we do not know where they are, if they are still alive, or what happened.”

Mr Gumus, who is the uncle of Veysi Oral, 25, and cousin Huseyin Oskan, 33, said his family has been more than patient with the Bahamian government and local authorities during this ordeal.

He said his relatives were now considering reaching out to human rights groups and the international press to shed light on what he believes is a far reaching human smuggling ring involving this country.

This ring, he insisted, promises those in search of new opportunities with lucrative jobs in the United States, but with underlying ulterior motives.

Last year, he told The Tribune that in his view, local authorities had not prioritised the case because the men were non-Bahamians.

He said: “We believe they were kidnapped while trying to get to the United States for their organs. You know (selling) organs on the black market is big business. So we believe they were taken for their organs.

“My family was taken from The Bahamas and taken to Jamaica for body parts.

“We believe that someone has to know something. We just need to know. We need to find them.”

Authorities have said the case is still open. However, it is unclear whether investigations are active.

Mr Oral and Mr Oskan were working illegally in Grand Bahama before they attempted to be smuggled into the United States, Tribune sources maintained when the story first broke.

Reportedly, they had been encouraged by a local businessman on the island who told the pair that they would be making “more money” if they were in the US. It is alleged that they were promised safe passage into Miami for $6,000. The men reportedly each paid the fee and were bundled into a go-fast boat with ten Dominicans, and seven Jamaicans on March 9, 2012.

In a bizarre twist, last May, Mr Gumus said a woman who is not known to his family had several times answered the cell phone of his nephew, Veysi.

Last year, a US Coast Guard official in an email to Mr Gumus confirmed the discovery of a wallet with Huseyin’s identification 26 miles off the coast of Fort Pierce, Florida.