Federal police in neighbouring Brazil have arrested 26 Haitians and a Cuban who entered illegally crossed the border from Guyana.
The Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) in a press statement yesterday morning confirmed the interception of the foreign nationals, which occurred between Friday night and yesterday morning.
A number of taxi drivers, who were allegedly caught waiting to transport the illegal immigrants were also detained.
According to CANU, a number of the Haitians arrived in Lethem over the past week. It is suspected that they would have used alternative route/s to cross the border since they were initially denied entry into Brazil.
CANU said the information was passed onto their counterpart in Brazil, who then informed their law enforcement units, resulting in the interception.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was recently signed between federal police in Brazil and CANU, through the Minis-try of Foreign Affairs.
The interception of the immigrants is being hailed as one of the successes coming from that agreement.
“The movement of persons through unofficial crossings not only poses a security risk but also a health risk due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic,” CANU stressed.
