Trump's contemptuous treatment of migrants, mirrors those of Caribbean nations

Trump’s contemptuous treatment of migrants, mirrors those of Caribbean nations

Apr 03, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor

In a previous article, I wrote about the ill-treatment that was meted out to Guyanese fleeing hard times in their own country. I highlighted the fact us fleeing our homeland was a direct result of the crass corruption and autocratic rule of Burnham and his cabal. But running away from Guyana did not solve the problem either, because we were met with a hostile immigration at all Caribbean Ports. The recipient Caribbean countries who were not welcoming, nor in the least tolerant of the immigrant Guyanese crowd.

So, in our discourse today, I will highlight a few of these disgraceful occurrences. The Barbadians come in for dishonourable mention, there was this Seventh Day Adventist lady in Christchurch who would readily employ Guyanese, her reason for doing so is that Guyanese worker gives a fair day’s work which in turn ensured that her business flourished. The Bajan police chose the opportune time to make a raid on the Sabbath when the sisters and brothers were in church. The result saw the Guyanese crowd hiding in gutters, smelling the dank earth beneath them, this was the ignominy we suffered as Guyanese fleeing our homeland.

Yours truly, returning to Barbados after my father’s funeral was met by a hostile immigration officer who told me “Your last stop should not be Barbados, your last stop should be Georgetown Guyana.” Note well, I was a legal immigrant teacher, working in Barbados who was made to endure that embarrassment. I was only allowed in when I made that call to the vice principal of my school, who had to come and identify me and pilot me into the country.

Guyanese could not send remittances back home to Guyana, because Barbados had no Western Union, or MoneyGram, and even if they did, persons were prohibited from sending money to Guyana. The asinine reason given, was that to wire money to Guyana meant a depletion of the Barbadian foreign reserves; what an excuse!

You are quite familiar with the Guyanese lady who became pregnant for her Bajan boyfriend and travelled to Barbados to have the baby born there, you know how that pregnant woman was humiliated and sent back to Guyana. This disgraceful event took place soon after Granger treated the Barbadian Prime Minister Freundel Stuart most lavishly here at his inauguration. What a fitting way to reward Guyanese hospitality?

There are so many more such episodes, too numerous to mention, but I shall end the Bajan dishonour, with the way they treated contract workers from Guyana. Barbados recruited from our country to cut canes in Barbados, the Bajan workers not willing to do the job for them. The Guyanese canecutters worked conscientiously, although they were grossly underpaid. When it was time to leave and go back to their homeland, the canecutters were stopped and illegally searched at the airport, the reason, they were illegally taking out Bajan money out of the country. Tears came to my eyes when I saw how my fellow countrymen were treated, to gain their release, those guys had to forcefully purchase, goods that they did not need, at the airport in order to secure a release to go home. This is the way we were; this is the low and degrading way Guyanese were treated here in The Caribbean.

Our next discourse takes us to other CARICOM countries who carried out similar humiliating measures against Guyanese.

Respectfully submitted

Neil Adams

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