BARBADOS AGAIN!

Apr 19, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The Guyana Government should immediately raise with the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) the decision by the Barbadian government to deny public health care services to non- nationals, except in the case of emergencies or threat to public health.
This decision, taken by the ruling administration, flies in the face of the spirit of regional integration. If the Caribbean is to be seen as one region, then how can we advance this project when one country has taken the decision that non- nationals would no longer be allowed access to these services, except for the emergencies provided for.
There are a great many non-nationals living and working in Barbados, some lawfully and others not. There are many persons with extended work permits who have not yet gained permanent residency or citizenship but who have grown children born in Barbados.
These persons with extended work permits will now have problems securing public health care.
But the category most affected will be the thousands of Guyanese, estimated to be in excess of 10,000 who are working in that country, many in the construction sector, and many as domestics and labourers and who will now be denied free medical health care, compliments of the society in which they reside.
It is not certain how the Barbadian authorities intend to ensure that only its nationals receive health care from public institutions. But no doubt some system is going to be put in place to ensure that this happens.
In developed countries there are such systems and yet there are ways that are found to circumvent the system, but these in the main involve fraud. It would be unfortunate, unacceptable and definitely something that should not be encouraged to happen within the region where Governments face mounting health care budgets.
Every nation has a first obligation to its citizens. But it also has an equal obligation to those who are residing lawfully within its borders.
How can the Barbadian authorities have persons enter their country lawfully, contribute to the payment of taxes, contribute to the development of the economy of Barbados, and then the same authorities will tell them that they cannot access public health care?
The money for the provision of that health care does not only come from the citizens of Barbados. It comes also from the thousands of persons who work on the island and who pay their taxes just as Barbadians do. So why should a non-national be denied access to public health care when they are permitted to enter the country, work under a permit granted by the government, pay their taxes and dues to Barbadian society?
This cannot be right and is likely to be construed as part of the anti-immigration measures being adopted in that country. But that country cannot do without the immigrants. It needs the labour provided by the immigrants. Yet it wants to treat them like second class refugees by denying them health care.
The leaders of the Caribbean should have something to say. It makes no sense anymore taking the regional project forward if this is the position that the Barbados Government is going to take. It is a backward step and follows closely on the heels of announcements made that immigrants whose documentation are not in order could face possible deportation.
Barbados is no doubt smarting from the global economic crisis, but it cannot when it faces difficulties turn its back on those immigrants who also face difficulties but who nonetheless are helping in a substantial way to develop their economy.
Guyana is far worse off than Barbados. Yet Guyana is spending US$18M to develop a specialist hospital which would be open to persons from the region. At present, Guyana has the best ophthalmology hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean and they are offering services free of cost to all, including non nationals.
It is well known that a number of persons from the Caribbean are interested in utilizing this service and many may have already done so.
At present, if a Brazilian, a Chinese national, or someone from Suriname goes to a local hospital or clinic, they are not going to be turned away. In Berbice many persons from Suriname have been treated within the public health system because Guyana subscribes to the norm that once someone is a guest in the country, when it comes to accessing health services, they should not be treated any less than nationals.
The decision of the Barbadian Government has dire implications for regional integration and therefore needs to be raised at the level of the Heads of Government of the regional integration movement.
Guyana should take the lead in raising this matter not just because it has the moral authority to do so but also because it is in Guyana’s interest to have this retrograde policy reversed.
Thousands of Guyanese working in Barbados are going to be affected and Guyana should therefore see it as matter of national importance.

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