The COVID-19 Task Force of Region Nine is very concerned with residents’ lax attitude to the coronavirus disease pandemic.
Toshaos are reporting that foreigners are being smuggled into the Marudi mining area and families in multiple indigenous communities are encouraging their relatives to return from Brazil illegally, thus increasing the risk of widespread COVID-19 infection within the Rupununi region.
In light of these reports, the Regional Executive Officer Carl Parker says a number of drastic measures will be drafted and sent to the National COVID-19 Task Force (NTCF) for approval considering that many persons are refusing to adhere to the guidelines that were established by the Toshaos and the Ministry of Public Health to contain the spread of the virus.
This was disclosed via a telephone interview with Stabroek News yesterday.
According to Parker, at a meeting with Toshaos and other members of the Regional COVID-19 Task Force in Lethem, Aishalton Toshao Michael Thomas reported that foreign nationals, mainly Venezuelan women, are being smuggled into Marudi mountain area. He said, this was discovered after numerous foreign women left Marudi to seek medical attention at the Aishalton District Hospital.
Thomas confirmed this to Stabroek News saying that although the Aishalton Village Council and by extension, the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) have imposed a number of measures on travellers, persons traversing to and from the mines continue to pose a problem for the gate keepers. He pointed out that during the past two weeks, numerous person have been passing Aishalton while on their way to Marudi claiming that they are going to deliver food and fuel supplies to the miners there.
Tarpaulin
Considering that mining is an essential service, he said, they had no choice but to allow them to pass and while they do submit themselves to the various protocols at the checkpoint, the foreigners are being wrapped in tarpaulin inside the truck and are being smuggled past the gate keepers. In other instances, he alleged that persons are disembarking a short distance away from the gate and they then cross the river without being seen by the gate keepers. Once the vehicle passes, the passengers rejoin the truck at a further location.
Thomas says gold mining remains a very challenging issue in South Rupununi communities and although they have written to the MoPH regarding the removal of mining as an essential services during this critical time, to date they have not received a response. He added that miners are continuing to disregard the rules implemented by the village council and are stopping to drink at shops in the villages.
He added that smuggling of persons to Marudi has only been brought to their attention due to the fact that foreigners who have not been recorded upon entry began showing up at the hospital. “We are trying to control this at the moment, we are trying our best and we are working on it. That is our greatest challenge that we have at the checkpoints at Sawrab, Aishalton and Karaudarnau,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Parker said that this issue is of major concern to the task force especially since it is not known whether those persons are being trafficked, adding that if that is the case, the region does not have the expertise to deal with such a situation. He also disclosed that there is an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) office in Lethem and to his knowledge, Venezuelans who enter Lethem are restricted from travelling to anywhere else in the country.
Further, the Deputy Commander of the Region disclosed that the police had arrested eight Venezuelans who were in the Marudi mountains because their records showed that they had never left Lethem.
Apart from that, village leaders have also reported that families in the Rupununi are encouraging relatives to return from Brazil illegally and are hiding them when authorities are informed of their presence in the community.
According to Parker, this came to light after members of the Task Force criticised some of the leaders for choosing to implement a total lockdown in their communities, most particularly, the SRDC. He said he told the SRDC representatives that while they are preventing persons from other parts of the country from entering their communities, they are not paying attention to the ones that cross the Guyana/Brazil border illegally and enter their communities.
Vast
He said the SRDC representative stated the reason mentioned above and added that Toshaos are at a disadvantage given the lack of resources to monitor the vast border. He added that even some Toshaos are aiding the persons who are crossing the border illegally with no consideration for other members of the community.
It was recently highlighted that the new COVID-19 cases that Region Nine has recorded are all imported from Brazil. Thomas said that such was the case in all the South Rupununi communities that have recorded COVID-19 cases thus far.
As a result of these issues, Parker stated, it was decided that he will write to the NTCF recommending a number of measures to be implemented in the Rupununi, to ensure that persons adhere to precautionary measures. “We were not satisfied with responses to the measures by residents while some communities are adhering we have some recalcitrant communities and that can pose a very big problem in the Rupununi. The draft of measures will be sent for approval so we can implement it and we can deal with the recalcitrant persons,” he said.
He added, “The biggest worry for everybody is finances, we do not have a budget and everybody needs assistance and we are limited in what we can do to assist communities that’s why we are calling on them [the communities] to deal with the situation locally. Some of the communities are being aided by the APA [Amerindian Peoples Association] in providence of hampers. They are getting assistance with masks and infrared thermometers. We applaud the APA and are calling on other organisations to assist us until we get back to some level of normalcy where the RDC [Regional Democratic Council] can take over and be the chief leader in these efforts.”
He also applauded the efforts of the various organisations and village councils that have taken the initiative to implement precautionary measures in their areas. . He disclosed that the North Rupununi District Development Board in collaboration with the RDC and other partners have erected a checkpoint at the Bina Hill junction to monitor persons who are entering and leaving the area.
In addition, Parker stated that two health teams have been sent to conduct contact tracing and screening in the South and North Rupununi.
Meanwhile, due to the fact that COVID-19 cases in the South Rupununi communities are imported from Brazil, the lockdown measures that were imposed by the SRDC on 21 South Rupununi communities were not approved.
“The regional authorities are not in favour of a lockdown. The REO is supporting the measures that we have in place. He is saying that how come we are encouraging those people who are positive to cross over from Brazil while we are locking down our own people from Lethem from passing through the villages. He said if we are putting measures in place it must go across the board and it must go for everybody,” Thomas, who is also an executive member of the SRDC, said.
He said that only four villages will be on lockdown and those are the communities that have recorded cases of COVID-19. Those villages are Shulinab, which accounts for Quiko, Miriwao and Potaranau.
The other communities will follow the measures that were in place prior to the outbreak in the South Rupununi.
