Govt. modernized Immigration Dept., beefs up staff to address influx of Venezuelan migrants

Dec 12, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Home Affairs has modernized the Immigration Department, in addition to increasing its staff to cater to the influx of Venezuelans entering the country.

Opposition MP, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley

Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn

This was revealed on Monday by Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn during his response to Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Tabitha Sarabo-Halley on the measures that have been put in place to deal with the influx of Venezuelan migrants.

“Can the Hon. Minister state whether the government has taken any steps to modernize the institutional and legislative framework associated with migration in Guyana since 2020?” Sarabo –Halley questioned at 69^th Sitting of the National Assembly.

In response, Minister Benn said, “In respect of the institutional framework related to migration both the Immigration Department and the Immigration Services Department have been modernized. Staffing has increased, (and) the work that they are doing now is being put on electronic platform for proper recovery of information from the databases.”

Minister Benn said that no specific Bill has been tabled in the National Assembly relating a migration policy but noted that in the future Bills will be tabled.

The minister said that discussions have since been had with the Ministries of Home, Foreign, and Legal Affairs.

“We have had discussion from time to time between the three parties the honourable member mentioned but as yet as we work on the issues of the total migration policy package, we have not made a subcommittee of itself to deal with it specifically,” Benn told the House.

Minister Benn said too that efforts are being made to ensure that persons entering Guyana and claiming to be migrants are indeed migrants.

“We have had situations in the past, where we inherited a situation where thousands of persons are coming through Guyana ports, claiming to be migrants but not staying in Guyana… [In] the year 2019, some 19,000 or so persons of a particular country came through the country [Guyana] and cannot be accounted for and that goes across the board for a number of countries,” Benn told the National Assembly.

There are approximately 19,000 Venezuelan migrants in seven of the ten regions in Guyana, Benn disclosed.

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immigration, migrants, Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, Venezuelans

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