Domestic Violence Expected to Spike During State of Emergency

Judith Alpuche

Beginning Thursday morning, all persons who are considered to be part of the essential services are required to carry a pass, including social workers.  The provision of social services, according to C.E.O. Judith Alpuche, is essential during this period since it is expected that there may be a spike in the number of cases of domestic violence.  Those passes require the name, Social Security Number, position or job title, as well as the name of the employer.

Judith Alpuche, C.E.O., Ministry of Human Development

“In terms of some of the operations of passes, so how do the security forces ensure that the people on the street, particularly during curfew, are the ones that are authorized to be there?  Just because you are employed by some service doesn’t mean that you should be on the street.  I will use my own ministry as an example, so social workers have been deemed to be essential because unfortunately, during times like these you will have heightened, we are expecting things like heightened gender-based violence cases, etc.  That’s an unfortunate factor of the kind of stressors that people will be facing.  But it’s not any social worker that will be allowed to be out after curfew.  So in terms of the passes, etc, that will authorize people and help to identify them to the security forces who will be enforcing the curfew, that’s something that is being worked on very diligently by the Ministry of Labor leading the charge there.”

Passes will only be issued where the Minister of National Security deems it absolutely necessary.