Airport squatters move to defy eviction

Jul 05, 2012 News

Residents of Timehri north said to be squatting on lands belonging to Cheddi Jagan International Airport Corporation, have sent a lawyer’s letter to the company rejecting its eviction notices.
Pressures for their removal come at a time when Government has contracted a Chinese firm, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to rebuild the airport and extend the runway.

Daniel Fraser

However, removal from the area is not an option for the squatters. In fact, they did not dismantle their structures within the one-month time span given to them to relocate. Nonetheless, soil testing works to facilitate the airport expansion are being executed.
According to Daniel Fraser, Chairman of the Timehri (North) Community Development Council (TNCDC), the community comprising over 30 shops and in excess of 300 houses is not within the airport flight zone.
He added that Timehri north should not be the targeted area since it is parallel to the airport. He was unable to confirm some residents’ claims that they had leased their lands from Guyana Lands and Survey Commission.
Fraser said that Philomena Sahoye-Shury, a Ministry of Housing official, had visited the area and had informed residents of the possibility of regularizing the area. Fraser said that the occupants of Timehri North once lived at Base Road. They were forcefully removed from that area and placed at Timehri North.
According to Transport Minister, Robeson Benn, during a press conference on Wednesday, “There is a map of the airport property as inherited at the time the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission was doing an assessment of the property boundaries and occupancies. I believe that there were only five or six so-called squatters on the property.”
He added that no squatter who has been protesting and decrying their removal in the media presented the Ministry with a certificate of title, a lease document or transport with respect to the airport lands, which were demarcated on maps done on the airport.
However, Fraser believes that the occupants have a right to the lands. As such, the Council consulted a lawyer. A letter rejecting the notices has been issued to the airport and nothing has happened since.