British High Commissioner to Guyana Greg Quinn said that as the United Kingdom continues to support Guyana’s security sector reform, the issue of recommendations and reports being left on a shelf should now be resolved with the implementation of the work done by his country’s security expert.
Quinn was speaking at the opening of a Risk and Liaison Overseas Network training for Guyana’s immigration officers being conducted by the UK’s Immigration Enforcement International.
He said that UK security expert Lt Col (Rtd) Russell Combe is in Guyana and has been working on a report for security sector reform with the main objective of gathering information. Combe is tasked with looking at the security sector, making recommendations and implementing those agreed upon.
Quinn said, “We are funding the advisor here. We are not funding the advisor here to then produce a piece of paper which looks nice on a shelf…
“I think he is gathering his first information for his initial sort of impressions report and then we will look at that and see what the next steps are….” He related this task is not being done by Combe alone while noting “…He is definitely going to need the assistance of the border sector here, it’s not up to one man to implement this….”
The British High Commissioner said he was confident that the Guyana government would implement the recommendations since security reform was one of the first requests made to him by President David Granger. “I think there is the clear political commitment at the highest level,” Quinn said.
“Implementation is important. We have had lots of these things in the past which have been done, lots of reviews have been done by the UK which…, for a variety of reasons, some having to do with resources, are not implemented. But I think it’s important that whatever the advisor comes up with this year we can actually start putting in place for implementation,” he further explained.
The training which started yesterday is expected to cover several issues but three of the fundamental ones are; an overview of human trafficking, and how important the immigration service and the police force are in combatting this; to help to enhance existing forgery and interview skills of the immigration officers to allow them to deal with arriving passengers in line with immigration policy and to give them an increased awareness of the latest trends and concerns in the wider Caribbean region.
“An effective immigration system is central to the security of the state. So it’s therefore vital to address any issues around immigration that may occur. This will help to ensure the integrity of the system and also [see] genuine visitors having the easiest possible access,” Quinn said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Winston Felix said that the training programme is very necessary for the efficiency of the immigration department. He reminded the immigration officers that the role of the department is to provide service which is courteous and also effective in terms of the identification of those who should not enter the country.
He told them not to consider the training in isolation since it is just to reinforce government’s policy to provide the highest quality of service to the public and visitors whether they come to tour or they come with skills for Guyana’s development.
“We must use this training also in terms of what we are doing to harden our passports against fraudulent activities,” Felix said.
He also told the immigration officers that their training should be seen as a package which intended to protect Guyana and improve on its national security.
