(Trinidad Express) Guyana’s Honorary Consul to Trinidad Ernie Ross said yesterday that he has a list of employers accused of physically and sexually abusing illegal immigrants at the workplace.
He will not hand over the list of “unsavoury employers” to the police, Ross said, but he has warned Guyanese nationals to check the Consulate before taking up jobs in Trinidad and Tobago.
He said several businessmen have numerous criminal cases pending against them.
“I am advising them [Guyanese nationals] to check with us so we would be able to let them know the track record of the employer and advise accordingly. I am not telling them not to take the job, but we would advise them,” he said.
Ross’s disclosure came in response to a report that a local businessman and two others were in police custody being questioned about the murders in Chaguanas last weekend of two Guyanese construction workers.
Ross said the evil employers listed-ranging from construction to private home owners-have been accused of rape, assault and seizing the immigrants’ passports. “We have told our nationals before, that a person who asks for your passport should be seen as a threat,” he said.
He said many of the Guyanese prefer not to report the incidents to police in fear of being deported to Guyana. “Many of them have come into Trinidad illegally to find a better life, but we have told them several times that they should go through the right channels because they are making it bad for those who come in legally,” he said.
Ross said, however, the businessman suspected in the murders of Narad Sookoo, 28, and Tomeshwar Doobay, 31, was not on the list.
The bodies were discovered in a river at an abandoned landfill in Felicity, Chaguanas last weekend. Police suspect the men were killed over $800 that was stolen from the businessman.
Ross said their deaths teach a sad lesson that employers were taking advantage of Guyanese especially those who are living in the country illegally.
Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community will meet in Special Session in Port of Spain today to discuss the evolving global economic and financial crisis.
Among the topics to be discussed would be the decision by Barbados government to begin a six-month amnesty for Caribbean Community (Caricom) nationals now living in the island illegally. The amnesty begins on June 1.
Under the six-month amnesty, all undocumented Caricom nationals who entered Barbados prior to December 31, 2005 and remained undocumented for a period of eight years or more, are required to come forward and have their status regularised or risk being put out of the country.
