By Shabna Rahman
Dozens of Venezuelans fleeing hardship in their country were taken into custody by the police at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo yesterday. The police are meant to follow certain protocols in dealing with Venezuelan migrants.
The Venezuelans were held at the Tuschen Sea Dam after arriving on a boat that Coast Guard ranks were seen guarding.
The police also seized about 242 fighting fowls that were packed in bags, after they were taken off the boat. Stabroek News (SN) learnt that 80 people, including children, were huddled in the open-air boat.
Some of the people managed to leave the area with families who were there to receive them, before the police got there.
The boat reportedly set sail for Guyana five days ago, stopping in Grenada for one and half days before continuing the journey. When SN got there, the new arrivals were with other Venezuelans who have been squatting on the sea dam, with their belongings.
They looked wet and tired and some of the women were trying to feed snacks to the children.
Police officers were also in the yard with guns, while a few of the officers were asking those who had just arrived to produce their identification cards and other documents.
After the police were finished, they said they were taking them to the immigration department at the Parika Police Station to “process them.”
However, a Guyanese-Venezuelan who had been living on the sea dam with her husband and young children over two years ago, informed the police that some of the documents got wet while the migrants were traveling.
When they arrived at Tuschen, they got wet again because the boat could not come all the way to the shore and they had to wade through the water to get out.
She later told this newspaper that the police called and informed her that they would not be releasing the migrants. They told her that they did not take them to the immigration, but to the Leonora Police Station and that she should take food as well as clothing so they can change out of the wet ones.
The police also informed Reshma, who would normally translate for the others, and would provide support to them, that they would keep them for 72 hours and would either send them back to Venezuela or to Kumaka, Region One.
This newspaper could not get a comment from the police regarding the arrest, but it learnt that they were being held because of the illegal fighting fowls that they had in their possession.
A Venezuelan woman was heard complaining that her family invested money in the birds and brought them in the country so they can make a living off them.
This newspaper was able to speak to a few of the people before the police started documenting them. A Guyanese-Venezuelan woman, Marbelis Toll, this newspaper, that she left Venezuela to escape the hardships. She was planning to go to Kuru-Kuru, up the Linden Highway with her father who returned four years ago.
Her sisters also live here but her daughter has been left behind in Venezuela, until she can work and raise enough money to bring her.
Jaime Valenzuela Wells, another Guyanese-Venezuelan, said he left the North West District at a young age with his parents to live in Venezuela. There were doing well financially until the economy in the country collapsed.
“In Venezuela thing hard bad… The work we doing not even giving us food. …If we work, we can’t even eat, we can’t buy clothes, nothing. We come here only to work…” He is skilled in carpentry and masonry.
Wells told this newspaper too, that during the five days they were traveling, they did not eat for two days because they did not have enough money to buy food. “We come here to find work, we have little children and we have to find food…”
A Venezuelan, Jhosber Zamora, said that he came to look for work because his country is in crisis. He stressed that they were not getting any help from the government.
A translator said the people who just came are “begging the government to give them permit to start working” so they can take care of their families.
She said most of them have relatives living here already and were waiting on them to receive them and give them food. While we were there, some of them had borrowed Reshma’s phone to contact their relatives.
Stabroek News also caught up with Omar Shaw, another Guyanese-Venezuela, who lives on the Linden Highway and works in his family business. He recalled that as a child he migrated to Venezuela with his parents “when the situation was bad in Guyana.”
Now the tables have turned “and Venezuelans were migrating to Guyana because of the economic and political situation.
Shaw, who worked in the oil company in Venezuela, said his family left their house, cars and other possessions to escape the crisis. He said there is hardly any work there and that the salary is US$5 per month.
“What can you do with US$5 per month? He questioned. “They have no gasoline…. It’s the richest country in oil, but they don’t have gasoline in the gas stations, they don’t have access to buy their food, nothing.”
He lamented too that “it is very sad to see this what is happening,” in terms of the police locking them up. “They are coming illegal but they [government] should try to help them because they are not at fault for the situation that is happening”, he said.
In March this year, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd participated virtually in the International Conference in Solidarity with Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants and their Host Countries and Communities and committed to Guyana’s continued support to Venezuela refugees.
According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs release the conference was organised by the Government of Canada and the European Union, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the Inter-Agency Coordination Platform for Refugees & Migrants from Venezuela (R4V). It also featured the participation of a broad range of actors, including host governments, international organizations, UN agencies, donors, the private sector, and civil society.
The release also informed that the principal objectives of the conference were to maintain the visibility of the crisis and to continue to generate resources to support host countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are undertaking the task of integrating Venezuelan refugees and migrants into their society.
In his remarks, Minister Todd highlighted the coordinated response of the Government of Guyana to address the situation of migrants from Venezuela through the Multiagency Coordination Committee. He indicated that as a matter of priority, the government continues to offer registration and regularisation services, socio-economic and cultural integration into the Guyanese society, the provision of healthcare, education for migrant children, referrals to protective and social services, and necessary support for the vulnerable. He also underscored the commitment of the Government of Guyana to render humanitarian assistance to all migrants from Venezuela, the release added.
Earlier this month, the Ministerial Taskforce on Trafficking in Persons, supporting agencies, and the Organisation for American States (OAS) held a roundtable discussion on issues related to Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling.
This initiative is being supported through a project titled “Supporting OAS Member States efforts to prevent, investigate, and counter criminal activity linked to the exploitation of Venezuelan refugees and migrants”. It was held at the Ministry’s Head Office, a release from the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
The project, which unites five OAS areas, aims to bolster the abilities of seven OAS Member States (Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Peru and Trinidad and Tobago) to prevent and investigate human trafficking and migrant smuggling linked to the exploitation of Venezuelan refugees and migrants and to increase understanding of the security risks they face, especially for women and girls.
Additionally, the project aims to improve border control in the recipient nations to better detect unauthorised trade in both commodities and persons and to encourage social integration of both victims and survivors.
