Opposition wants Gov’t to be more Proactive about Guyanese in B’dos

May 22, 2009 News

– Luncheon says administration will keep fighting

The main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) is accusing the government of having a “haphazard and ill-thought out policy” in dealing with the challenges of Guyanese in Barbados.
However, the government’s chief spokesperson Dr Roger Luncheon insists the administration will continue “fighting” to defend the interests of Guyanese resident there.
The Guyana Consulate in Barbados has reported that since the announcement of a new Bajan immigration policy, many Guyanese are being picked on, some solely based on appearance.

There are reports now that the rush to legalise their status in the country is being deliberately delayed.
In addition, there are reports that the Barbados Police Force has been raiding the residences of Guyanese at nights under the guise of picking up suspected illegal immigrants.
The allegations followed the announcement by Bajan Prime Minister David Thompson to deport any who are undocumented immigrants on the island at the end of the year.
The main opposition party has charged that this official action of the Thompson administration is most likely to have unpleasant implications for Guyanese who have lived in Barbados for a long time.
It is also expected to have an impact on the implementation of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).

PNCR Member of Parliament, Volda Lawrence, said that the Guyana Government’s approach to the issue would result in many of them having to leave the island.
“Over the years, as Guyanese complained of harassment and discrimination, the Jagdeo Administration merely adopted band aid measures, when what was needed was a firm and well thought out policy,” Lawrence charged at a press conference at the party’s Congress Place headquarters in Sophia, Georgetown.
“The only thing that Guyanese were told was that the matter was being raised at different levels or might have engaged Heads of Government but nothing about a proposed solution,” she said.
CARICOM Heads of Government are meeting in Trinidad on Sunday to address the impact of the global financial crisis on the region’s economies.
The new Bajan policy could come up for discussion.

Vincentian Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has warned of the collapse of the CSME in the face of discriminatory immigration policies in some territories of the regional integration bloc, but he did not specifically mention Barbados.
In a statement issued in the Vincentian House of Parliament, Gonsalves said it was sad that some political leaders are “stoking chauvinistic fires which are latent in our Caribbean societies.” “This has led here and there to an outpouring of a malignant xenophobia particularly against Guyanese, Jamaicans, Vincentians, St Lucians and Grenadians,” he is quoted by news reports as saying.

The PNCR said that it is not too late for the Guyana Government to put together a team of experienced past and serving Guyanese and Caribbean diplomats who could immediately embark on a fact-finding mission to Barbados and report to the Secretary General of CARICOM in the shortest possible time on the current situation affecting all Caribbean nationals, including Guyanese.
The party suggested that such a team could make recommendations to the Jagdeo Administration and these in turn serve as the foundation for a sensible long-term policy, which could protect the interest of the Guyanese in Barbados and also enhance the possibility of the smooth implementation of the CSME.

Yesterday, Dr Luncheon acknowledged that “the trials and tribulations” of CARICOM nationals living in other states are a matter that has been “long in gestation in handling as the revised Treaty (of Chaguramas, which established CARICOM and provides for the CSME, and the free movement of nationals)
Luncheon couched the issue in the context of the matter of contingent rights for workers who are free to work without a work permit, but do not yet have the rights for their immediate relatives to be with them or to have access to education and other facilities.
The issue of contingent rights for workers is a thorny one that remains to be settled by the Heads of Government.