The criminal gang holding Irish woman Gena Heraty and others hostage in Haiti has made a ransom demand, The Irish Times understands.
The payment of money has been raised during conversations between the gang members and two people speaking on behalf of Nos Petits Frères et Soeurs (NPFS, Our Little Brothers and Sisters), the organisation for which Ms Heraty works.
While it was unclear precisely how much had been demanded, it was a significant sum far beyond the resources of NPFS. It is understood the gang members have been told the demand was completely unrealistic.
As the ransom being sought is so large, Ms Heraty’s colleagues have been told by NPFS that any significant progress in releasing the hostages was unlikely over the next few days.
Ms Heraty’s family, based in Westport, Co Mayo, was being kept informed of developments by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Ms Heraty, a missionary who is director of the Sainte-Hélène orphanage run by NPFS in Kenscoff, has lived in Haiti since 1993. She was taken with seven others, including a three-year-old child, on Sunday from an orphanage.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris raised Ms Heraty’s case with the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Kaja Kallas.
Arising from the conversation on Tuesday evening, an EU diplomat based in Haiti will be the point of contact in the case.
“This is an important development, ensuring that this case is firmly on the agenda of the European Union and our EU colleagues,” Mr Harris said. Furthermore, “different avenues at both political and diplomat level continue to be exhausted” in a bid to free the hostages.
Irish diplomats in Dublin, Washington DC and London had already been engaged in efforts to establish local contacts who could help resolve the situation.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said “every effort is being undertaken to secure” Ms Heraty’s release. He said she “has made an extraordinary humanitarian contribution to life in Haiti, a manifestation of the very best of missionary endeavour, particularly working for children with special needs.
“We would appeal to those who kidnapped her and those in the orphanage not to harm them and to release them – Gina has done a lot of good for people – every effort is being made diplomatically and through various networks to secure her release and those efforts are continuing.”
Since the kidnapping in the early hours of Sunday, at least two people have spoken directly to the gang, including to its leader, on behalf of NPFS.
Those two intermediaries have forensic knowledge of Haitian society and the crime gangs who control most of the country, where law and order has broken down.
The two negotiators are also very familiar with the area of Kenscoff, where the kidnapping occurred and which is about 10km outside the capital, Port-au-Prince.
[ Gena Heraty ‘dedicated her life to supporting the most vulnerable’Opens in new window ]
Jessica Mullins, chairwoman of the board of trustees for NPH Ireland, the charity’s Irish branch, said while Ms Heraty had great resilience, there’s “no doubt there’s also an element of fear there”.
She said Ms Heraty would be “putting on a brave face”, not just for herself but for everybody else, and would probably be “trying to negotiate her way out”.
There is a long record of kidnappings on Haiti, including of humanitarian aid workers and clerics. Many cases have been resolved with the release of hostages, sometimes after they had spent months being held captive.
However, the crime gang behind the kidnapping of Ms Heraty and her group is believed to be linked to Viv Ansanm, a coalition of crime gangs working together to secure control of territory in Haiti from the state.
Viv Ansanm has been declared a terrorist organisation by the United States, which regards it as a threat to US national security. The Haitian crime group has also been sanctioned by the United Nations, EU and US.
The UN has linked Viv Ansanm to hundreds of deaths during attacks late last year and earlier this year as it sought to take control of communities including Kenscoff.
Ms Heraty is from Westport, Co Mayo, and is one of 11 siblings. In a statement, the family described themselves as “absolutely devastated”.
If Ms Heraty and the others in her group were not freed soon, the Government could create of an “emergency consular assistance team” (ECAT) to boost efforts to secure their freedom. These are teams comprised of experienced Irish diplomats, protected by Defence Forces personnel.
They could be deployed to Haiti to co-ordinate local release efforts as has previously been done to assist Irish citizens in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan.