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“You cannot make Guyanese refugees in their own country” – Harmon
Kaieteur News – The move by the governing People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) to house the displaced Success Squatters at the Graham’s Hall Primary School is being criticized by Opposition leader, Joseph Harmon. Harmon is of the strong view that Guyanese should not be allowed to become “refugees” in their own homeland.
Just days ago, after a visit to the area by Prime Minister, Brigadier Mark Phillips; the Guyana Civil Defence Commission (CDC) announced that the Graham’s Hall Primary School in Cummings Lodge was being prepared as a shelter for the displaced squatters.
But such a move, according to Harmon, is only a temporary solution.
Harmon, during his weekly press briefing, was asked pointedly whether the residents should accept the offer of shelter.
To this he said, “I did say in my statement that this does not address the issue of land and what you are seeing here is the Prime Minister basically offering a temporary solution…because when you are putting people to go and live in a school, when school reopens, what is going to happen?”
According to the Opposition leader, the move is merely setting up a situation where “you make Guyanese refugees in their own country.” He questioned further what other solution would be made available if and when school reopens, forcing the displaced residents to move once again.
In his view, the only solution available rests with consultations that lead to the regularization of the area.
He said, “It is not about being heartless. This is bad. It has a bad taste. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth of these persons and I do not support this question of shifting them from one place to the next. If you are moving them from land, you have to put them on land, not in a school.”
The Success Squatting issue has been brewing for weeks and escalated days ago when the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) decided to flood a large section of the lands – a move seen as calculated in order to flush out the dwellers.
A later standoff with law enforcement officers resulted in a number of squatters being shot and injured with rubber pellets.
Many of the dwellers reside in shoddy shacks with little sheltering capacity and with the lands now being inundated; they are now forced to live under worse conditions, suffering significant loss to their makeshift homes, clothing, household possessions, gardens and livestock.
But the issue is not a new one, as squatters were occupying the land during the APNU+AFC’s tenure in office. But when asked whether he was aware of the situation, Harmon answered in the negative, stating that it only came to his attention when the issue hit the media.
“Maybe the occupation may have started in a quiet way, in a creeping way,” Harmon explained “but to (the) extent to which it became a problem, after the standoff with the residents and police, I cannot say that we were aware that the squatting was this extensive.”
The lands there are expected to be prepared for the Enmore Estate’s reopening, slated for 2022. GuySuCo had issued a prior notice to squatters occupying the East Coast lands which included Success, Vryheid’s Lust and Chateau Margot, warning them that the lands were a part of GuySuCo’s Cane Breeding and Research Station at the Enmore/La Bonne Intention Estate.
With this in mind, a question was put to Harmon on how the Opposition intends to ensure that the governing regime regularize the lands at Success. To this, he contended that the land belongs “to the state” and the state can regularize same.
“It is the state’s intervention that had the Prime Minister going there to make decisions,” Harmon said. “It is the state’s intervention, GuySuCo and NICIL are agents of the state. They do not act just like that on their own and so it is for the state to make a decision with respect to these people. Treat them as Guyanese human beings and find a solution that is practical in the circumstance. It is the responsibility of the regime to do that. To find a solution to this problem that would not find these people being put into a school but they must be placed on land,” he added.
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