Monitoring borders remain a challenge for government - Health Minister

Monitoring borders remain a challenge for government – Health Minister

Nov 05, 2020 News

The Guyana-Brazil border, at Lethem, Region 9

Kaieteur News – The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to expose the country’s capacity to police its borders.
This was acknowledged by Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, who spoke to Kaieteur News on matters relating to the pandemic, in an exclusive interview on Monday.
The Minister said that given Guyana’s landmass and the significant number of border crossings, it has been difficult for the authorities to properly protect each one.
Since the first case being recorded in March, it was found that Region Nine (Upper Takatu- Upper Essequibo) had the highest number of illegal border crossings.
Regional authorities had told Kaieteur News that these illegal travellers had posed an alarming risk in the South Rupununi especially, which was once a COVID-19 hotspot.
This risk was even more prevalent in Wapichan communities, which at the time were not properly educated about COVID-19, due to language barriers.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony

They were also of the strong belief that the majority of the region’s cases were imported from Brazil which is among the countries recording the highest COVID-19 cases in the world.
During the interview, Dr. Anthony stated that personnel would have been deployed by the government to efficiently monitor the area and they have also closed the bridge linking Lethem-Guyana to Brazil.
Along with that, he said special travel restrictions have been imposed on the region, which includes a level of essential traffic being allowed in once a week, in compliance with strict COVID-19 measures.
Other suspected areas where illegal border crossings occurred included frontier communities like Baramita, Morawhanna and Imbotero in Region One, Kaikan and Eteringbang in Region Seven and Orinduik in Region Eight.
Despite closing borders, other measures used by the government to combat illegal crossings included Toshaos and Community Development Officers urging their community members to be vigilant of illegal cross border activity and urging them to report cases of illegal entry that they might be aware. They were also asked to aid in providing proper education about COVID-19 to residents, making them more aware of the virus and its dangerous effects.
The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has also been asked to play an integral role in exercising the law and ensuring that these persons illegally entering Guyana are apprehended and charged in accordance with the law. Further, it was noted that immigration officers were also engaged to play a key role in this effort.
Police sources had told Kaieteur News that despite efforts to close all official crossing, there were many illegal crossings known as “backtracks” being used in many regions, especially mining areas.
The crossings were referred to as the main obstacle in the government gaining full control of the borders, and an even bigger obstacle in preventing more imported cases.

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