Guyana-Suriname minibus operators face woes at border

Jan 13, 2015 News

– urge relevant authorities to make timely intervention

Justino Perez and Trini Boyce

Some local minibus operators working the Guyana to Suriname route are pleading with the local and Dutch authorities, to make a timely intervention into some unresolved matters which seem to be “getting out of hand” at the Suriname border.
The local operators are claiming that there seems to be some amount of conflict over the privileges to be enjoyed by the Guyanese operators and the Surinamese.
Anthony “Trini” Boyce and Justino Perez who work along the route said that in the past, the Guyana to Suriname bus service worked at intervals; meaning that they would go to the ferry and put off passengers and the Suriname transportation would take over from there.
Boyce said that local buses never crossed the border. But the situation has changed.
For the past year and a half, Boyce said that his service has been going from Guyana straight to Paramaribo, Suriname. It is a provision that has catapulted his business to a most lucrative position, he added.
But “Trini” said that now that he has expanded his business, “the jealousy, the problems and the confusion started.”
“It started because the Suriname operators believe because we are going straight into Suriname that we are cutting out their bread. But this is rather unfair because they do the same thing.
“They take their passengers from Paramaribo straight to Georgetown and all about our city and we can’t intervene. There are no restrictions, but when we do the same it is suddenly a problem. The reason it is a problem, is because we are going daily and they just go weekly. They believe that we are making more money and they are doing all sorts of things to stop us,” he explained.
The minibus operator alleged that things have gotten to such a state, that the Suriname drivers went into their customs office and got them to implement a new system.
Guyana to Suriname operators are now required to provide a manifest which declares the names of the passengers and how many they are taking to the Dutch-speaking country.
Boyce said, too, that they are not allowed to leave the country with any passenger that is not on the manifest or else their vehicles would be impounded.
“So we cannot leave without the names on the manifest. Now we don’t know when they are coming back and because of that, we have suffered losses for several months. But guess what?
“Eventually that system they put in place to stop us started out working for us. We started getting a series of people that we took before and business was up and running smooth again.
“And now they are angry because of that. They are now destroying our wheels, breaking our windows, scratching up the buses and all sorts of cruel things. They are trying to do everything to prevent us from making a living. We are calling on the relevant authorities to help us because they have threatened to do worse,” Boyce said.