Dear Editor,
Is it really in the Guyanese public interest to name and shame the women ‒ mostly women ‒ and men who are caught in raids and brought before the courts for overstaying their time in Guyana? So many Guyanese have supported their families back in Guyana from places where their stay was illegal.
Is it necessary for the media to publish all those immigration details, and pictures and speculations on the professions of the women especially who are caught?
Does it make us better Guyanese to know that poor people from other countries come here to hustle as so many of us have done in other places? Does it makes us more proud of our Guyanese identity to know that we can stone and pelt people out of the country, because that is what the media gaze does.
The people have committed no other crimes. Who is the victim when a woman or man comes to Guyana and tries to hustle without having some ink in their passport giving them permission?
While some of the raids seem to start as raids to ‘rescue’ trafficked persons, it is so easy to turn from trafficked person into immigration criminal in Guyana.
There is no need to keep publicly listing and shaming people who are doing what humans have done for years, try to move to get better lives.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
