By Shabna Rahman
The Venezuelans who were detained on Thursday after arriving in Guyana following a five-day journey, were given “special care” while in custody and joined their relatives after being released a few hours later.
Stabroek News (SN) was reliably informed that on Thursday, after their arrival, they were first taken to the Leonora Police Station and then to the Parika station.
When they got to Parika, members of the Civil Defence Commission, provided them with “excellent food…, and beds and everything was prepared for them,” before the police received the call from top administration to release them into the care of their relatives, a police source said.
The police have not commented officially on the Venezuelans who arrived on Thursday. Taking them into custody did not accord with how these migrants are to be treated.
This newspaper was told that 80 people came in the boat, but not all of them were detained, as some managed to leave before the police could process them. It was also found that many of the Venezuelans are highly qualified, but when they get here, they engage in jobs as labourers and carpenters, just to survive.
According to information, relatives of those who were detained and who had been in Guyana sometime before, were eagerly waiting outside the station for hours. They were relieved when they heard that their loved ones would be released.
Sources said too, that the people “did not leave the station empty-handed, but were given blankets and so to go with. The kids and the women were given extra care. When they got to the station, they were placed in an AC room and they were given fruits by the police….”
This newspaper learnt too that “they were given the opportunity to bathe at the station, the officers there gave them soap and everything to bathe… because they did not get a chance to bathe like in five days.”
The Coast Guard ranks have since taken possession of the boat that brought the Venezuelans. They first took the boat to Parika and handed over the items belonging to the people, that were left in it. The ranks also searched the boat to ensure that there was nothing illegal on it.
Fighting fowls
The police had also seized 282 fighting fowls that came on the boat. A police source disclosed that the fowls were “put down peacefully,” after a veterinarian from the Ministry of Agriculture sprayed them. Ranks from the Leonora Fire Service then proceeded to burn the carcasses.
The fowl fights are illegal. This newspaper had learnt that the people were being held because of the illegal fighting fowls that they had in their possession.
This newspaper visited the Tuschen Sea Dam yesterday, where the boat arrived with the Venezuelans on Thursday, and where the police subsequently detained them, but we were not able to contact any of them.
They had already left for areas such as Diamond and Grove, East Bank Demerara and Kuru Kuru, Linden Highway with their relatives.
The Venezuelans who were fleeing hardship in their country were taken into custody shortly after they arrived in the open-air boat. The Coast Guard ranks were seen guarding the boat.
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.
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.”
