The delinking of the immigration department from the Guyana Police Force was one of the recommendations made by the Disciplined Forces Com-mission (DFC), according to Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix, who says that this process needs to be carefully done and would take some time.
President David Granger, in an address to the National Assembly earlier this month, had said that the administration would seek to improve the efficacy and efficiency of the immigration services by tabling the Immigration (Amendment) Bill to delink the immigration department from the Guyana Police Force.
Speaking to Stabroek News recently, Felix said that the rationale for this move was a recommendation made by the DFC “that police should stick to police wuk and things like immigration and licensing and certifying and all of these areas, which are not core police functions, should be separated from the police.”He noted that in Trinidad, Barbados, Antigua and Jamaica, immigration is separate from the police. “Guyana is the only English speaking Caribbean country still sticking with a police force tied up with immigration,” he added.
He assured that this change will happen but could not say how long it will take.
“You just don’t change because you want to change overnight. You consider first all the implications of the change, so that when you make the change you side step spike nails, which would undermine the change eventually. You don’t want to change and run into a worse situation but you want to change and foresee as far as you can what issues you must contend with, having implemented that change and to take steps to make sure you can mitigate any negative influences that might affect the change,” Felix noted.
In 2003 and 2004, the DFC, of which Granger was a member, had conducted a review of the disciplined forces and made recommendations for their reform but they were largely ignored by former PPP/C administrations.
