U.N. Report points to absence of laws, procedure to protect refugees in Guyana

Apr 03, 2024 News

Migrants entering Guyana through nearby border communities

Kaieteur News – The United Nations Human Rights Committee has noted in its report the challenges faced by Guyana owing to the influx of a high number of asylum seekers and people in need of international protection from neighbouring countries.

In its concluding observations on the third periodic report of Guyana, the UN Human Rights Committee said that is concerned about the absence of a national refugee law and asylum procedures.

The report outlined that “the Committee is deeply concerned about the vulnerable situation of asylum seekers, those in need of international protection and refugees in the State including those arriving from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Haiti, particularly about the obstacles to the acquisition of legal status and access to basic social services, as well as the imposition of visa restrictions on Haitians.”

It is also concerned about the absence of legal provisions recognizing the principle of non-refoulement.

The Committee said that it notes that the State has not yet ratified the international instruments relating to the protection of refugees and asylum seekers.

The Committee is further concerned about the information regarding the legislation on the acquisition of nationality, which would prohibit Guyanese citizens born abroad from handing down Guyanese nationality to their children, which has led them to become stateless.

As a result, the committee recommends that the State should adopt, without delay, a national legislation to protect the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers and to adopt relevant procedures in compliance with its Covenant and other international norms and standards; ensure procedural safeguards against refoulement are in place and that effective remedies with respect to refoulement claims in removal proceedings are available, including reviews of rejections by an independent judicial body, in particular on appeal; redouble its efforts to regularize the situation of persons in need of international protection, in particular by securing their legal status, and providing access to formal employment and basic services, while responding to the specific needs of those in a vulnerable situation; consider reviewing its nationality legislation, to guarantee that no children, including those of Guyanese parents born abroad, can become stateless.

The committee also suggests that the State consider ratifying the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

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