Dear Editor,
The recent exposure by the Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Mr. B. Jagdeo, at his weekly press conference on April 3, 2019 of what he believes to be a “people smuggling racket” in the Ministry of Citizenship aimed at inserting the names of foreigners into the voting list should come as no surprise.
An overwhelming pattern has been emerging over the last year of ‘human trafficking with a political agenda’ and this requires a full scale investigation by the media, the IOM and other regional and international agencies that monitor human trafficking.
Mr. Jagdeo’s recent statement was backed up by a sample from a number of advertisements published in the state newspaper, the Guyana Chronicle, of persons applying for Naturalization in Guyana with the Ministry of Citizenship.
He observed that there were two ads with the photograph of the same person at different addresses, one in Lethem and one in Kitty, on March 27 and 29th 2019. The actual applicant, who lives in Lethem and who is known, is correctly portrayed in an ad on February 22, 2019.
In another two ads the photograph of another person appears with different names and addresses on February 5th and February 7th, 2019. Four mistakes such as these may seem insignificant but they do send up red flags for attention.
On investigating the ads for 2019 further, another two applicants have only lived in Guyana for a year and therefore are not eligible for citizenship, which requires five years consecutive residency. In addition, one of these same person’s name is different than in the ad.
This is not the first case we have encountered with persons obtaining Guyanese citizenship who have not been resident here for the required time. In September last year, a non-national entered Guyana and was granted a Guyanese passport with a Guyanese name in the same month they landed even though their maiden and married names are completely different.
However, these concerns with regards to a political agenda behind a large human trafficking ring are not new. In fact, this issue has been on the radar of the Parliamentary Opposition since January 2018.
Over a year ago, the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Affairs, which I chaired, discussed the issue of Foreign Nationals and concerns regarding Human trafficking, particularly, of Haitians. On February 26, 2018, the Committee wrote Minister Winston Felix, requesting information on the number of Haitians entering and departing Guyana over the last 5 years. After many reminders, Minister Felix on May 8 and May 23, 2018 provided information on the arrivals and departures for the years 2013- 2018 (April) of Foreign Nationals of China, Brazil, India, Cuba, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Bangladesh. The Minister on July 20, 2018 provided information on arrivals and departures of CARICOM Nationals and other nationalities which did not show the same disparities between arrivals and departures as the May 2018 data.
On May 31, 2018, the Parliamen-tary Opposition Leader at his press conference of May 31, 2018, stated that “false documents, including birth certificates and passports, are being sold for US$6,000 per person”. He further added that: “We have said that we are aware that Haitians are trafficked through Guyana, that is supported by the government…the evidence is that often groups are met airside at the CJIA by government officials.”
I also wrote a letter to Stabroek News on June 15, 2018 headlined `From figures provided by Minister Felix it seems Guyana is being used as a transshipment point for a large and well-organised human trafficking ring’. My letter used the data provided by the Minister of Citizenship for the years 2013-2018 (April) to the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Relations. This information revealed that the years 2016 and 2017 showed the highest upsurge in the numbers of arrivals of several nationalities. Most alarming these figures revealed that the presence of 5,485 Haitians and 17,615 Cubans in 2018 could not be accounted for. This is a significant number of unaccounted people, speaking different languages, who represented 3% of the population.
These are rather serious indications of human trafficking on a large scale and its connection to the provision of Guyana identity documents (and in some cases creation of new identities) to the victims as part of their “safe passage” through Guyana, should have set off alarm bells. In fact, there were concerns that these new Guyanese identities could be used for registration of voters with the intent of padding the electoral list which seemed to have been dismissed.
This information emerged at the same time a new cycle of continuous registration was in progress and which ended on July 8, 2018. Yet none of this information triggered the media and the relevant agencies, such as the Ministry of Citizenship, Guyana Registry, and, the Guyana Police Force to investigate.
Based on this information, it does not appear to be a mere coincidence that in April 2018, Minister Amna Ally, General Secretary of the People’s National Congress (PNC), called for a new House to House registration
Minister Felix finally appeared before the Committee in the presence of the media on August 9, 2018. The Minister in response to a series of prepared questions from the Committee emphatically said: “What you can see is not great disparities between the arrivals and departures…one thing I will assure is that you will not find Cubans neither would you find Haitians, they are not there…all that they do is come to Guyana and we are assuming that they leaving back track for Cayenne. I can assure you of that…we know where the Brazilians are, we know where the Cubans are but no one can tell me they know where the Haitians are.” He assured the Committee that “…we have not suspected any
trafficking of Haitians in Guyana, through Guyana, or whatever. Not Haitians. At least up to this point of reporting, so far, zero.”
On the issue of special treatment at airside of the CJIA for Haitian arrivals, the Minister said he needed evidence from the Opposition.
Despite the Minister’s denial one company employed by the Georgetown Hospital buses its employees, the majority are Haitians, every day to work. Between the months of October 2018 to March 2019, some 3,800 Haitians landed in Guyana on COPA Airlines.
One may wish to remember that Minister Felix was summoned to appear before the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Relations in 2016 to answer a number of queries:
1. With regard to the reasons for the refusal of entry of 168 CARICOM nationals
(2015-2016); and
2. The role his new Ministry of Citizenship which is now responsible for Immigration
plays with regards to the statutory Immigration responsibilities of the Guyana
Police Force and its investigative role.
Minister Felix is in direct control of Immigration, GRO, Passport Office and the granting of citizenship—an interesting and convenient combination. However, for the Guyana Police Force it has two masters it must report to and take instructions from- the Minister of Citizenship and the Minister of Public Security. It is therefore no surprise that the concerns regarding a human trafficking ring with the involvement of government officials have yielded no results.
When asked about the difference between the treatment of CARICOM nationals in 2016 and CARICOM nationals and other nationalities in 2018, the Minister merely said “the policy had changed.”
During the Budget debate, the Minister informed the House that the digitization of the GRO records had commenced and they had three million transactions thus far and that the GRO had ordered 300,000 birth certificates. In the case of the former, the issue of the integrity of the system and who is in charge of the system are critical to ensure that it is tamper proof since false data or “mistakes such as the Guyana Chronicle ads” can be inputted into the system, which can then be used to give false identification to individuals both Guyanese and foreigners. If one were to input data for the last 100 years-births, deaths and marriages- one could estimate approximately 2.8 – 3 million records. But this is not the time period that is being inputted. In the case of the latter, since one does not know how many birth certificates are issued each year, but, assuming that each person applying for their birth certificate requests 3 copies, then 100,000 birth certificates would be issued. If all the births in 2019 are issued their birth certificates coupled with those who request copies as these maybe lost or they never had one, it is hard to conceive of 100,000 persons being issued birth certificates.
Therefore it should come as no surprise that concerns with regards to ads in the newspapers for applicants for Guyanese naturalization also came under scrutiny. Compounding this is the fact that birth certificates are also being given out at PNC “green” events in the presence of GRO staff.
In the light of the GECOM Chairman and government-appointed members refusal to comply with the article 106 (6) and (7) of the Constitution of preparing to hold elections within three months, and, instead bull-dozing their way for a House to House registration in order to “sanitise” the voters list- a list used in November 12th 2018 which the government nor any political party had any complaints-one cannot but be suspicious of the Government’s agenda to delay elections as long as possible.
We may not have conclusive evidence, but all these events, information and data point to an overwhelming pattern which requires a full scale investigation.
We welcome and want all people, regardless of their nationality, to love our country and be happy to make their home here. However, we cannot stand by silently when information keeps emerging that point to human trafficking of a significant level in which the victims are being exploited to serve a political agenda.
Yours faithfully,
Gail Teixeira
