Some countries treat immigrants inhumanely

Jul 05, 2009 News

– Prime Minister Gonsalves

Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, has noted that a lot of time was spent on discussing the issue of free movement in the Caribbean Community. He expressed his opinion that progress was made in dealing with the matter at a regional level.
According to Dr. Gonsalves, it is accepted that individual Governments have to take account of their obligations under the revised Treaty of Chaguaramus.
Yesterday, at the Guyana International Conference Centre, he explained that under Article 45 of the Treaty, establishes the goal for freedom of movement in the community, while Article 46 noted that as a first step there would be certain categories established in which Article 45 must adhere to.
It was accepted by all the heads during their discussion Friday evening that article 45 contains within it, the spirit of the Treaty which caters for migrants outside of the declared categories, as they are entitled to humane treatment even though they maybe technically illegal. “In fact that is required of us by international law, we just signed the declaration.
We just agreed to a declaration by the UN, which speaks of the issue of migration as a human right. So there are certain minimum standards which must be adhered to,” Dr. Gonsalves said.
While not referring to any specific country, the Prime Minister noted that it is known that in every Caribbean country, some more than others, migrants are taken and treated in a manner that is not humane.
“I would not expect somebody in St. Vincent, an immigration official, to go and knock on somebody’s door at 3:00 am in respect of an immigration offence and tell them that they would have to buy a ticket to get out of the country, or they would be deported.
“If my immigration officials act so, then they act in contrary to the spirit of the Treaty and international obligations, so any immigration official who acts in such a manner, is acting unlawfully.”
He explained that governance can only proceed on certain principles, and once they fall short on it, then it will need to be dealt with.
Inside the Treaty of Chaguaramus, there is a policy of managed migration, and provisions are also made for a system of managed migration outside of it, but according to Dr. Gonsalves, it must be in accordance with the basic principles of human treatment of migrants.

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Some countries treat immigrants inhumanely

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