Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon yesterday urged that the state find a mutually acceptable solution to resolve the plight of squatters at Success, East Coast Demerara, while vowing that the opposition would seek to ensure that they are treated fairly.
Harmon made the commitment while visiting the squatters against the backdrop of recent efforts to force them to vacate the land, which GuySuCo says is necessary for the resumption of cultivating cane.
“The fact of the matter is that it is the state and therefore whatever takes place here, the state has to [have] a responsibility for it. Whether it’s GuySuCo, whether it’s NICIL, whether it’s Central Housing and Planning, all of it is the state. So, whatever takes place here it is the state that is responsible for everything that happens here. I want you to get that clear. You don’t have to make any distinction that it’s this one, that one or that one. Is the state. So, it is really our concern that the state must negotiate with you to find a settlement which allows for regularisation. Too many people here have spoken about the problems you have with COVID-19, that they have been thrown out of jobs, thrown out of their homes and are therefore left homeless and penniless,” Harmon told the squatters as he observed the devastating state that some of them have been living in.
It is unclear what efforts were made by Harmon’s administration, which conceded on August 2nd, to regularise the squatters and to offer them house lots.
While seeing the flooded shacks built on the land, Harmon stated that the opposition APNU+AFC would be raising concerns on behalf of the squatters to ensure they are given fair treatment. He noted that the current situation is much like the colonials treated our forefathers. “So we are going to see as much as we can help with those things to provide some level of comfort for you,” he assured them. “As far as the law is concern, we believe that we will have to keep engaging the state to ensure that they have an outcome which is reasonable in a circumstance you cannot shoot people. You can’t flood them out… Is not like if y’all come from Venezuela or some other part of the world occupying here. You are Guyanese and so we are going to insist on this. We are going to insist that you be treated humane and insist that they find a resolution for this problem that does not involve shooting people flooding them out and treating them like animals,” he said, while denouncing the actions being taken to remove the squatters.
Harmon also suggested that because of the availability of lands which are yet to be occupied, squatting should by Guyanese should not exist. He said, “As a matter of policy, we do not believe that squatting is necessary. There is enough land in this country for everybody to get a piece but what we believe, also, is that we must function within regulated communities so we put you on a piece of land you got to get light, you got to get water and basic things.”
A squatter then said that the Housing Ministry officials have said that there would be a relocation. Previously the squatters said that some who are now in the government had continuously assured them that squatting on the land would earn them a house lot eventually and some have mentioned the suggestion of relocating to house lots for which they would pay deposits. Commenting on this, Harmon said that there is a procedure and that the current approach is not the way. “If they are going to relocate you, they have to say where you’re going. That is how you deal with these situations. If in fact they want you to remove from here immediately, you say you gon’ provide helping them with transportation to get to do so. That is what they did at Plastic City and some places. They give you $100,000, they give you the house lot and then they help move and help you set it up,” he explained.
He also addressed concerns that the situation was being politicised, saying that regardless of whether the government is being supported by the squatters they were all Guyanese and must be given first priority.
