Vehemently denying a claim made by the opposition that government officials, including those at the Ministry of the Presidency are facilitating a “people smuggling ring,” Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix yesterday maintained that significant improvements have been made to the immigration sector since the APNU+AFC coalition took office.
By way of a press release issued by the Ministry of the Presidency (MoTP) last evening, Felix sought to debunk allegations made by Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo during a press conference last Thursday.
Minister Felix, according to the release, described the Opposition Leader as being disingenuous in an effort to mislead the Guyanese public.
“This coalition government has not been involved in any people smuggling ring. As a matter of fact, we have regularised and put proper systems in place to ensure that immigration matters are dealt with in an efficient manner from passports to birth certificates to persons entering and leaving Guyana legally. The Leader of the Opposition and his former Chief Whip have been trying to create issues around immigration matters and pointing at the Ministry of the Presidency. We have not found any evidence of smuggling so Mr. Jagdeo’s reference to smuggling is quite disingenuous. The Police is the agency that must investigate smuggling not the Department of Citizenship so if Mr. Jagdeo has evidence of smuggling, he must take it to the Commissioner of Police,” Felix is quoted as saying.
The release said Felix also noted that Jagdeo has a tendency of identifying Haitians when he makes his “spurious” allegations and while questions must be raised as to why this particular group is always targeted, he wanted to assure Guyanese that most of the persons travelling to Guyana “enter and leave legally.” He, however, noted that like any other country, there are a “selected few” who choose to take advantage of the country’s porous borders.
“I have been looking at this situation and what I have seen is that within Guyana there is a Haitian diaspora just as in Suriname, Cayenne, Brazil and Colombia and with the issues occurring in Haiti, they continue to leave their homeland and to seek refuge in countries where they have relatives and friends. In many cases, they use Guyana as a transit point. I have had cause to investigate Haitians in Guyana and I have found that they arrive here legally. Many of them are here legally but there is a number who take advantage of our porous borders and they exit via Guyana to Suriname to Cayenne and in more recent times, through Brazil on their way to Venezuela and Colombia,” he was reported as saying.
In responding to allegations made by Jagdeo that the government has been affording preferential treatment to Haitians and other nationalities, Felix said that this is not the case.
“The system at the airport is open to public scrutiny. The public can witness the arrival of the Haitians and Cubans legally. There are lines at the airport to deal with CARICOM nationals, diplomats and Guyanese citizens. I don’t know that there is a special line for Haitians and Cubans. I note that he has also been saying that persons offering preferential treatment have been accessing the airside, which is a restricted area. The management of the Airport has never complained to any department that an illegal activity is occurring in their space allegedly by Haitians or Guyanese associated. So that allegation is unfounded, untrue and unsupported by any evidence. He is just being disingenuous in attempting to make a case of corruption against this Government. We have not departed from any practices or laws that govern migration and immigration in general,” he added.
This newspaper has received credible information that Haitians on an almost daily basis leave Guyana illegally. Recently, a minibus driver recounted his experience transporting 16 Haitians to Lethem, including alleged payments of bribes at three police checkpoints and their inability to purchase proper meals. It is claimed that they later crossed over to Brazil illegally.
The minister in response to this insisted that there is no evidence to support reports that Haitians are being smuggled. “How are we confirming that? We are getting anecdotal stories that persons are being smuggled [but] somebody has got to convince me that there is smuggling because smuggling has to be done covertly,” he told this newspaper last week.
