Guyana could face sanctions for alleged ‘mistreatment’ of Haitians

Mar 23, 2022 News

---

…complaint filed with Inter-American Commission on Human Rights – Greenidge

“The Venezuelans and Brazilians are visible on the streets of Georgetown and most are trafficked or employed without ever acquiring work permits. Yet, unlike the Haitians, they do not attract anything like a proportional attention of the police. It is this inconsistency, if not absurdity, rather than stupid or biased observations, which is giving rise to questions about Guyana’s policies.
It has fed the effort to have the Government of Guyana arraigned before the regional body on Human Rights, the IACHR and can have adverse implications for Guyana’s international standing.”

By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – Guyana could be sanctioned if it is found guilty of mistreating Haitians, since its actions in this regard has been brought to the attention of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) which is expected to soon host a virtual hearing.

Guyana’s Advisor on Border Issues and former Foreign Secretary, Carl Greenidge revealed this, among other things, in a lengthy statement he shared on Monday.
According to Greenidge, the IACHR is due to shortly hold a virtual hearing on the ‘Situation of Human Rights of Haitian People in Human Mobility in the Region’.
The hearing, he said, is to be a forum for testimonies on the alleged escalation in ‘the cycle of migration-related abuses and torture faced by Haitian migrants in their journeys across the Americas’.
He explained that the reports, which refer to well-documented abuses stemming from racism in North and Central America, are also expected to highlight the growing incidence of similar abuses in the Caribbean, whose member states and signatories to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, are obliged to permit Haitians hassle-free travel and an automatic six-month stay upon entry.
The former Foreign Secretary revealed that “It is reported that one agency will be contending that Guyana has arbitrarily stripped Haitians of this right. It is reported that there are numerous incidents of serious abuse, which “unfold in the context of a rising tide of racist and xenophobic rhetoric in Guyana and other CARICOM states that stigmatize [sic] Haitian migrants as undesirable…”
Apart from the embarrassment of being cited before the Commission for alleged Human Rights breaches against Caribbean citizens, Greenidge noted that the story has other implications for Guyana.
Citing a ruling of the Chief Justice last year, Greenidge went on to note that Haitians have been arrested, fined and deported on grounds that they are victims of people trafficking.
He added “…But the perpetrators escape the attention of the law! The Attorney General (AG) and legal system prefer to penalise the victims. In any case, most Haitians, as the figures show and the authorities admit, use Guyana as a point of transit to French Guiana, Brazil and as far afield as Chile.”
The Foreign Secretary noted too that there are far more Venezuelans, Cubans and Brazilians in Guyana than there ever are Haitians.
“The Venezuelans and Brazilians are visible on the streets of Georgetown and most are trafficked or employed without ever acquiring work permits. Yet, unlike the Haitians, they do not attract anything like a proportional attention of the police. It is this inconsistency, if not absurdity, rather than stupid or biased observations, which is giving rise to questions about Guyana’s policies.
It has fed the effort to have the Government of Guyana arraigned before the regional body on Human Rights, the IACHR, and can have adverse implications for Guyana’s international standing,” Greenidge said.
His statement follows more than a year after Chief Justice (ag), Roxane George-Wiltshire, quashed the deportation order that was granted by a magistrate to have a group of Haitian nationals deported.
The Haitians were being detained by Government. On December 1, 2020, Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus granted an order for the 26 Haitians to be deported although they were not officially charged or placed before the court.
Attorney-at-law, Darren Wade filed an application in the High Court to have the deportation order quashed.
The Acting Chief Justice ruled that there was a breach of natural justice in the issuance of the deportation order while making reference to Section 16 and 28 of the Immigration Act. She stated that the Haitians should have been taken before the court before such order is granted and as such, she quashed the deportation order.
The acting Chief Justice also ruled that there was a breach of the Haitians’ freedom when the order was granted. She referenced Article 139 – the protection of right to personal liberty and Article 148 – protection of freedom of movement.
The acting Chief Justice had said she read the application and listened to the recording with the applicant Allandres Archer, who acted on behalf of the Haitians, saying that he signed a number of documents and that he was tricked into signing those documents.
She added that the applicant joined a previous hearing of the matter so it is not that he is not aware of the court proceeding. As such, the acting Chief Justice ruled that the AG’s application has no merit, since, if the applicant wanted to, he could have withdrawn the matter on the grounds that were highlighted in the notice of application.
Kaieteur News had reported that the Haitians were detained during a police cordon and search exercise, which was carried out in November 2020. The Haitians were discovered between November 7 and November 8, 2020, in a minibus parked at a city hotel. They were reportedly about to head to the Linden-Mabura Road.
The Haitians were arrested and placed in protective custody at the Hugo Chávez Centre for Rehabilitation and Reintegration pending deportation. However, they were later released and reportedly vanished without any trace.

 

---

---