Some residents of Linden have expressed growing unease over the number of Venezuelan migrants in the town living in squalid conditions and they say no help from Georgetown appears to be forthcoming for them.
Since June and July this year, residents have reported feeling uncomfortable and unsafe as newcomers establish makeshift camps and compete for limited resources.
One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, shared her experience when a group of 20 Venezuelans approached her home. “I am a resident of Guyana, and I am disappointed in the Venezuelan demographic because they are making me uncomfortable,” she stated. “About two months ago, I came home one afternoon, and there were over twenty of them—children, teenagers, and adults—wanting to camp out in my yard. They said they had nothing to eat, and I gave them two packs of chowmein and two cans of tuna.”
Despite her initial kindness, the situation quickly escalated. “My neighbours came over and told me not to allow them to stay, and I was going to tell them they couldn’t,” she recounted. “They eventually left after starting to row and went down to Bounceland, where they camped out for four days until they were driven away. They set up tents and built a toilet on someone’s property. I’m scared of them.”
The government has said that it is working to ensure acceptable conditions for the Venezuelans who have fled difficult circumstances in their country and there are also NGOs in the city helping the migrants.
On March 8th this year, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd chaired a meeting of the Multi-Agency Coordinating Committee to address the influx of migrants from Venezuela and said that the long-term objective was to integrate them into Guyanese society.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in a statement noted that Todd during his opening remarks reminded the Committee that the policy of the Government remains intact as it relates to support for the migrants from Venezuela.
According to the statement, the Minister noted that the long-term objective is to integrate them into Guyanese society but in the meantime, the respective agencies are tasked with combining resources to provide services in key areas such as Healthcare, Education, Labour, Sanitation, Shelter, Food and Clothing for the most vulnerable.
Todd urged the Committee to organize another outreach activity at the earliest possible opportunity which will be undertaken in Region 1 on this occasion, as a result of the high concentration of migrants from Venezuela, the release stated.
Echoed
Concerns about safety have been echoed by other residents of Linden. “It’s not safe; remember these people are hungry, they are desperate,” one local reported. “We’ve had a few break-ins in the past two months, which is unusual for this area. Since they came, it started happening, and its only foodstuff that’s missing.”
The fears are compounded by a language barrier and a growing suspicion regarding some of the newcomers. “People are uncomfortable because anyone with face tattoos is thought to represent or have ties to criminal elements,” another local resident shared. “Whether this is true or not, the silence from the government only fuels our fears. We see Venezuelans everywhere, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.”
At the same time, the plight of the Venezuelans is stark. Many arrive in Linden after fleeing a dire situation in their homeland, bringing with them stories of loss and hope. A mother, shared how her children ask when they can return home. Each makeshift camp becomes a fragile sanctuary, filled with dreams of a better future, even as they face scarcity and suspicion. Their struggles highlight the urgent need for compassion and understanding in a community grappling with fear and uncertainty as well as an immediate intervention by the government to provide social services to the town.
None of the residents interviewed observed Venezuelan children enrolling in local schools, nor have they seen any government social workers assisting the newcomers. “We already don’t have things in place to deal with our current number of residents,” another resident pointed out. “Worse yet with new people coming in, we don’t have the means to take care of basic services like waste management.”
The Sunday Stabroek ventured into Linden with its own interpreter and was able to conduct some interviews with a few of the Venezuelans residing at some of the sawmills and squatting in Amelia’s Ward. Observed were six children below the age of ten living at one of the sawmills. When a Venezuelan man was asked about what’s happening there, he mentioned that he arrived in June, securing both a job and housing for his family, who had come across first.
Palpable
Frustration with the absence of a coordinated response is palpable. Linden’s Mayor Sharma Solomon emphasized the need for urgent action: “The government should see this as a matter of concern and move to quickly engage in institutional strengthening so they can deal with this, so they can build our capacity to deal with this. Especially how we have so many of the Venezuelans in Amelia’s Ward, we can’t even take care of what’s going on here, much less with new people. We have language barriers, but as a wider sense, what is going to make things worse is that we now have people coming into the region vying for the resources that we ourselves are trying to make do with. It’s a problem. There are many things going wrong in this municipality.”
He continued, “We have the international obligations to take in and take care of refugees, but I am not convinced we have the systems in place to take care of that. There is no central organizing agency in Linden that monitors this, and when you have persons coming into the town, you have certain social adjustments we are not accustomed to. In every constituency, there is a certain number that carries the population. This happened in Kwakwani when we had the issue in BaiShanLin with the Chinese; one time they flew in 200 Chinese. By law, once a particular community has reached a certain number of people, it automatically deserves representation. These are some of the things we have not even started to consider.”
With regard to squatting, Solomon added, “The equity and distribution of resources is one where Guyanese feel disturbed. You have cases where locals are being removed from lands because they are squatting, but the same houses and lands the Venezuelans move into and occupy. Housing is a right for everybody, not just the refugees, so you’re not doing right by your own citizens.”
Some Venezuelans have found shelter and employment in local sawmills, where they build makeshift wooden structures to live. One woman living at one of the sawmills said, “Everything is okay with these people; they work hard. They come here because they have a bad situation in their own country, so the boss lets them use the wood to build rooms for them so they get to live here and work. My husband works here, and when I came across earlier this year, they were already here.”
However, the influx of Venezuelans is putting a strain on the local labour market. Residents have expressed concerns that the sawmills, previously a primary source of jobs for locals, are now employing Venezuelans who often work for lower wages. “The only jobs available are going to the Venezuelans, and it’s creating a problem in the labour market,” one resident lamented. “We fought for cheaper electricity, and now we have 19 sawmills, but the jobs are going to the Venezuelans. Local workers are being displaced because they can’t compete with the lower wages.”
