Canada immigration policies contradictory - Jagdeo

Canada immigration policies contradictory – Jagdeo

Jan 27, 2009 News

By Tusika Martin
President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that he finds it strange that Canada would accept refugees from Guyana but at the same time deport people to the same country that generates refugees.

Canadian High Commissioner Charles Court

Speaking at a press conference yesterday afternoon, the Head of State said that while there have been several bilateral engagements on the issue with Canada, he has heard arguments that the Executive does not have control over the bodies that make such decisions.
He, however, added that when the judiciary in Guyana makes its independent decision, he, as the Head of State, is held responsible for the decisions.
“Don’t you find it a little illogical, a bit not right? They can always argue that they don’t control the various bodies in Canada that make these decisions…but you bet, if anything goes wrong in our courts here, they expect the President to answer for that.”
The President said that the various ambassadors often engage him in discussions about such issues, and at the same time expect him to act and fix such issues.
He added that Guyana does have a close relationship with Canada.
“We will be working to see how we can facilitate some people coming back.
Some of these are immigration-type deportees…There has been some movement in that category.” On January 15 last, Canadian Ambassador to Guyana, Charles Court, said that some 700 to 800 Guyanese are awaiting deportation from Canada.
The Canadian High Commissioner said that during his two years thus far as High Commissioner to Guyana, about 160 Guyanese have been deported.
According to him, less than five percent of those deportees have criminal code convictions in Canada.

President Bharrat Jagdeo

According to a report by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, the issue of criminal deportees has been a source of tension between the United States and Guyana. Guyana’s refusal to accept criminal deportees had even led the United States to ban the issuance of visas to Guyanese Government officials and their families in late 2001.
That ban was lifted once Guyana agreed to accept 100 deportees in 2004.
In 2003, the United States deported 379 Guyanese to Guyana, and of these individuals, 38 were refused entry at the border; 135 had been convicted for drug-related and other serious offences.
President Jagdeo has always expressed concern about the return of criminal deportees, “many of whom the police believe have introduced new levels of violence in the commission of crimes, such as kidnapping, in which there has been an alarming increase in recent years.”