After visiting the ports for the Corentyne` backtrack’ (illegal migration) crossing to Suriname in vain for almost two weeks, passengers were finally able to get back to their destinations as the service resumed at around 2 pm yesterday.
Suriname authorities had imposed a ban on the semi-legal border crossing with Guyana which facilitates mostly small-scale traders following a dispute between boat operators from the Dutch-speaking country.
Stabroek News learnt that since the closure many persons kept turning up at the landings with the hope of crossing. Local boat owners said they received a call from persons in Suriname that it was ok for them to resume operations.
A dispute among the boat owners forced the authorities in Suriname to close the service on October 4. Five days later it was reopened after the dispute was apparently settled. But the next day a fight erupted among the operators and forced another closure of the service.
This caused the small-scale traders to be seriously affected. Some traders who were “desperate to make a hustle” took the chance to traverse the water at nights. But not all of them got away with it as local police who were patrolling the waterways pulled in a few boats and seized their “goods.”
One groceries vendor told this newspaper that even though most of her items were finished, she would not take the chance to travel at nights since it was “dangerous because they don’t see where they going and end up in the sandbanks.”
She said the shortage of a lot of items that are usually bought in Suriname has resulted in persons “hiking” the prices for the little that they have. She feels that if the border is opened the prices would drop.
But she admits that she is still not too confident that the service would remain open for long and said she “would just wait and see…”
But as much as her business is affected, she would not consider using the ferry service. “To use the launch is dead business because you cannot bring what you want to bring and you have to spend three days to shop and get back home. With the speedboat you can go in half day and come back in time to sell,” the woman said.
According to her, persons who change money at the landings are also suffering and continue to visit the landings everyday to see if the port was opened.
Boat owner of Aunty Landing, Fezal Mursaline, who runs the service with his parents, was also relieved when he received the news that he could start transporting passengers again.
Mursaline said he also learnt that he and the two other local operators would have to attend a meeting with officials in Suriname to “sign up documents.”
He had told this newspaper that the disruption of the service would seriously affect the trade between the two countries. Apart from people importing items from Suriname, he said a lot of local products were being exported to that country through this route.
Closing it, he said, would result in a loss of revenue for both countries. According to Mursaline, a customs officer is present at the three landings to inspect goods that are being imported and the necessary duties are charged.
The illegal crossing has been in existence for many years and regular travellers prefer to use the faster backtrack route instead of the official border crossing at the ferry terminal at South-Drain/Moleson Creek, since it is much cheaper.
A passenger pays $1500 to travel either way. In order to regulate the backtrack route the authorities in Suriname recently began registering boat operators and laid down minimum safety standards for the vessels. This followed a river mishap in the Corentyne River last year, when two Guyanese women drowned after the propeller of the boat they were travelling in got entangled in a fishing seine and sank. Guyanese operators are only allowed to transport passengers to Nickerie, but they cannot solicit passengers coming to Guyana. The same system applies for the Surinamese operators who will only transport passengers to Guyana and then leave.
