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Govt. prepared to give favourable consideration to illegal immigrants – President Granger
The Government of Guyana is prepared to give favourable consideration to persons fleeing from their respective countries to Guyana, provided that they abide by the State’s rules and regulations.
President David Granger
This was according to the Head of State, President David Granger during Ministry of Presidency’s weekly production of “The Public Interest”.
The President was at the time responding to a question asked by a reporter on whether the Government is planning to address the issue of persons coming to Guyana illegally, since a number of these cases would have engaged the attention of the courts over the past few months.
He was quizzed specifically on the Government’s plan to deal with the issue, in terms of the humanitarian side of it.
“From a humanitarian’s point of view – yes, once we find migrants who are fleeing economic or political persecution and who are prepared to abide by our laws, we will attempt to give favourable consideration,” the Head of State said.
He added that the administration is not going to ‘simply’ open the borders for a ‘flood’ of migrants; people who just casually drift in and out. He reiterated that if there is evidence of political and economical persecution or economic deprivation, the government is prepared to give favourable consideration to not only to Venezuelan Nationals, but also persons from other countries as well.
The President stated that migration is a very ‘ticklish’ matter and the administration has to be cautious on how it addresses the issues at hand.
“As you know migration is a very ticklish problem; we don’t want to have people who guilty of any wrongdoing or involved in terrorism coming to our country. Right now there are problems on our border,”
He added that there is a group terrorising some of the Indigenous folk in the Cuyuni/Mazaruni Region.
“So we have to be very careful. So yes, we’re prepared to accept Venezuelans or people of any nationality on humanitarian grounds, but at the same time, we have to protect our citizens from abuse.” President Granger said.
Just a few days ago, five Venezuelan women were charged with entering Guyana illegally. They were fined and deported to their country. The women entered into the country by sea and disembarked without the consent of an immigration officer.
They pleaded guilty to the charge and, through the use of an interpreter, the magistrate informed the women that they were fined $20,000 each and would be deported.
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