Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Spaniard, Nigerian languishing in lock-up awaiting deportation
Two foreign nationals are pleading for help as they continue to be held in the Grove/
Foreign nationals Wilfred from Nigeria and Vincente from Spain await deportation.
Diamond police station lock-ups awaiting deportation.
The two men who hail from Nigeria and Spain have been in the lock-ups for the past 26 days having completed lengthy prison sentences for illegally entering Guyana.
The men whose names were given as Vincente, 31 from Spain and Wilfred from Nigeria, have no legal representatives, nor have they been contacted by their countries’ diplomatic concerns.
Police Commissioner (ag) Seelall Persaud yesterday confirmed that the men are awaiting deportation.
He explained that the Guyana Police Force does not have the budgetary financial resources to fund the men’s passage back to their countries of origin.
As a result, the Force is in the process of contacting the respective diplomatic missions as well as the relatives of the detained men.
“Arrangements are being made to source their passage but if things are not working out, we will inform the government,” the Top Cop explained.
There are reports that the men have expressed their desire to stay in Guyana, since they claimed to have fled from dire circumstances in their homeland.
“They don’t want to go back home,” a source who spent time in the lock-ups with the two foreigners told this newspaper.
This newspaper understands that the Nigerian left his country to escape poverty.
“He appears to be very intelligent and is an excellent mechanic. The Spaniard said he is an excavator operator,” the former inmate said.
The men have been making several appeals to fellow inmates for assistance, since they do not have many clothes and are not being properly fed.
But this claim was dismissed by Commissioner (ag) Persaud, who said that the Guyana Police Force has been keeping its end of the bargain by ensuring that the prisoners are provided with meals.
Persaud explained that the Station Sergeant is responsible for reporting the number of prisoners in his care who are to be provided with meals, and as far as he is aware, this is being done.
In January last year this newspaper had highlighted the plight of two women, one American and a South African, who were languishing in the East La Penitence lock-ups for months awaiting deportation after serving time for drug trafficking.
Again, the Guyana government did not provide their passage back home.
The South African, Cheryll Kwitshanna, was provided with her airline ticket by her mother, while it was not clear who came to the American, Hajar Bourne’s assistance.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had stated that, “the State would be responsible for deportation. The receiving State could also play a role in this regard as well as the family of the person being deported.”
There are several foreign citizens being held in the local prison system on mainly drug trafficking charges.
They too face deportation upon completion of their sentences.
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