Dear Editor,
Just today (August 13) at Springlands Magistrate’s Court, almost a dozen persons were fined $20,000 for having left Guyana to go to Suriname ‘backtrack.’ While it is true that these individuals did leave Guyana by the backtrack it is also true that the backtrack landings (there are two), do have personnel from the Guyana Revenue Authority present at them, which would conveys the impression that the two points are legal. Yet when two people died in the boat accident on the Corentyne River, the Minister of Home Affairs commented that they were involved in an illegal act. Backtracking across the Corentyne has long been the means whereby people from every country on this planet can enter or leave Guyana as they please, and this fact is known to everyone, even the President. The big question is why is it allowed to flourish when the benefits go to such a small number of persons?
I would like to suggest that the ferry at Moleson Creek could make two trips per day, but it must have the passengers to make it viable. Now, if you take all the people who travel from the two landings daily and put them into the ferry at Moleson Creek now, they won’t fit in, so the ferry would have to make two trips. Magic! Then the revenue that would be collected by government would more than double and most importantly, the illegal trade would cease.
I say, end this illegal trade now. Stop the embarrassment to our country and do not put the lives of so many in the hands of so few.
Yours faithfully,
Charrandass Persaud
