Speaking at a press conference in Barbados on Saturday, the PM said he is bewildered and disgusted at the “reckless and grossly unfair” generalisations and slurs levelled against his island’s public officers on the issue of unchecked migration into the island. He stated that there is clearly is a need for public education on the issue and he plans to do just that when he visits Guyana later this week by way of a press conference that he would pay to have beamed and broadcast live to all capital cities of Caricom.
According to two reports in yesterday’s Barbados Nation, Prime Minister Thompson made the comments during a press conference on Saturday at the Grantley Adams Airport following reports from Guyanese who said they were ill-treated and deported from that island.
Since his announcement of the new immigration policy on May 5, which applies to all undocumented Caricom nationals who entered the island prior to December 31, 2005 and remained undocumented for a period of eight years or more, the Thompson administration has come under severe criticism over the way the issue was handled by immigration officers.
However, the Prime Minister said since the introduction of the policy only four Guyanese have been deported.
President Bharrat Jagdeo last Friday said that the treatment of Guyanese immigrants in other countries continued to be of great concern to him and he urged that they be treated with “respect” and “dignity” wherever they go.
And like Thompson, President Jagdeo said that this is one of the main issues that he would be plugging at the upcoming Caricom Heads of Government Meeting which will be held in Guyana from July 2.
‘Bizarre stories’
“I wish to state here and now that the Government of Barbados has never, does not and will never sanction, condone or even turn a blind eye to the issue of degradation or denial of human rights to anyone visiting or resident on these shores… just as we will not permit illegal unchecked migration to continue, so too will we not permit abuse or violation of rights and privileges of persons resident on our shores, under whatever circumstances,” Thompson was quoted as saying in the Barbados Nation.
He also extended an invitation to all aggrieved persons to supply evidence of any negative treatment, but said that most of the bizarre stories were “untrue and without foundation.”
“Tell us who, what and where!” he challenged.
“Some of the so-called personal accounts I have heard are sickening” and he charged that “unprofessional conduct will not be tolerated under my watch.”
According to the report the Prime Minister said that only eight persons have been deported from Barbados since June 1 and out of that number four were Guyanese. He said since the introduction of the new policy, immigration officers, with support of the police, had continued their efforts in trying to locate and remove people, of whatever nationality, found to be residing in the island illegally.
According to data presented to Thompson from June 1 to 26, visits were made to 15 residences on June 9, 11 and 13 between 3 am and 6 am.
“These visits led to the detention and removal of 47 non-nationals 34 of whom were Guyanese nationals, who were in the country illegally,” Thompson said in the report. Out of that number eight were deported including four Guyanese.
They were deported for reasons such as “theft, overstaying and possession of a false work permit stamp, destitute and deception.” The report said nothing else about how the other 30 Guyanese illegals were treated.
Thompson said 177 people had their stay extended and some 71 Guyanese were in that number. Also there are 380 applications for renewal of short-term permits and 294 of that number are on behalf of Guyanese. Several Guyanese had complained that their permits were not being renewed even though they kept checking with the immigration department.
“I have no reason to believe that the majority of these applications will not be approved,” he said while adding that in his opinion, the level of activity by immigration and police during this period “does not in any way represent any hardening of attitude or abrasive action towards Guyanese nationals.”
‘Will not duck and hide’
Meanwhile, Thompson said he has no intention of shouting across the Caribbean Sea at, or with colleague Prime Ministers, or other high ranking officials regarding the issue of immigration.
“I have said before and I repeat today that I have no intention of shouting across the Caribbean Sea at or with colleague Prime Ministers or other ranking government officials… I will not be hiding from, or ducking the issues,” he said in the Barbados Nation’s report.
“There is clearly a need for public education of all interest groups, at all levels, and I intend to lead from the front on the issue,” he said.
He will be holding a press conference when he visits Guyana later this week and pay for it to be “beamed and broadcast live from Georgetown to every capital city of CARICOM and indeed across the worldwide web”, and added that “there must be no ambiguity about where Barbados stands on this issue.”
He said that damage is being done to his country by the grossly unfair generalisations and slurs levelled against the island’s public officials, adding that “even by some of our own who cannot see beyond their naked partisan and political ambition.”
“I am saying to whomever it may concern; bring the evidence; come with facts; come with actual incidents and experiences, or leave the good name of Barbadians and of Barbados alone!”
He said many of the stories being peddled on blog sites, talk show programmes, in newspaper columns and asserted by so-called professional thinkers, were untrue and without foundation.
“There is no evidence to corroborate, or even create a circumstantial setting for such incidents to have taken place,” he said and stated he would not be deterred by those who have sought to “drain every ounce or emotional blood from this issue.” He urged that Barbadians who are contributing to the “raging debate” to temper their remarks with reason, research and a quest for truth.
“I would like to appeal to Barbadians at home and abroad to put Barbados first in their submissions on this sensitive, but absolutely necessary debate,” he said.
“The bottom line here is that Barbados has a serious problem of illegal; unchecked and undocumented migration and this government is doing something about it,” he added.
Since the announcement of the new policy there at least three Caribbean leaders, including President Jagdeo, have criticised it. Earlier this month, Jagdeo explained that he raised concerns about the allegations that the homes of Guyanese were being raided as well as some of them being taken off buses and deported. “(Thompson) said he didn’t know of any such cases and that that is not the intention of his government,” Jagdeo told reporters. Further, he added that Thompson has committed to meeting with Guyana’s Honorary Consul Norman Faria to discuss and investigate any such cases. The government has since placed an advertisement in the local press urging Guyanese who have been ill-treated in Barbados to contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here or Guyana’s Honorary Consul in Barbados.
St. Lucian Prime Minister Stephenson King has been quoted as saying that “he wants his fellow Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders to take urgent action to facilitate the free movement of people throughout the region.”
St. Vincent Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves had blasted Barbadian authorities for the treatment that some of his nationals had received in Bridgetown, adding that seemingly across CARICOM, some nationalities — including those from his country, Guyana and Jamaica — have been targeted unfairly.
According to his St Lucian counterpart, Gonsalves had a basis for observing that such actions go against the spirit of CARICOM’s regional integration process.
Last week, Guyanese economist and President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr Compton Bourne decried the early morning raids against the undocumented in Barbados and said that the situation should be handled with greater sensitivity than it seems to have been handled with so far. He added that due process should be applied when illegals are found.
Eminent regionalist Sir Shridath Ramphal in an apparent reference to the Barbados deportations told a meeting in Trinidad on Thursday that it was sad that the Caribbean was experiencing a period when both policies and practices are deepening divisions and he cautioned that “we forget our oneness at our peril”.
He added that “`The knock on the door at night’ is not within our regional culture; still less are intimations of `ethnic cleansing’”.
