Flawed Immigration Policy?

Jun 04, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor:

Too little is known about the recent bombing at the Ruimveldt Police outpost and the GPL installation to form an informed opinion as to the identity of the perpetrators. All we can say with certainty is that law enforcement authorities are looking for two Spanish speaking individuals and a Brazilian, and they are regarded as the main suspects in this incident.

But I am utterly baffled by the ease at which people, especially from Venezuela, can come and stay here and be integrated into our society. As I write this missive, an abandoned Amerindian Hostel in North West Guyana has been taken over by Venezuelan migrants, who presumably did not go through immigration procedures. One report suggests that there are about 100,000 Venezuelans currently here. Bear in mind that we are a country with less than 1 million people.

But this clearly ill-advised decision of keeping the bar for refugees’ admission very low can have very detrimental consequences and must be looked at in the context of the present state of affairs between this country and Venezuela. It should not take a very astute mind to figure out at least one of the possibly negative consequences of this policy. There is no question that Guyana is underpopulated, but we have no cultural or linguistic affinity with these people, besides are they all here just for a better quality of life than exists in their own country, or are there more sinister motives?

There are speculations in some quarters that the decision to relax the immigration restraints may have been influenced by sinister political motives. If these speculations can be sustained by verifiable facts, are we prepared to sacrifice our unique Guyanese culture, nay our national sovereignty, only to find out that our expected recompense becomes an unrealizable pipe dream?

When I am long gone, and when you who are reading this have also departed, let the rafters of every schoolhouse in every county across this fair land continue to reverberate in our native tongue with the lusty, even off keyed voices of our children, grandchildren and those that follow, as they celebrate with patriotic songs the beauty of our country. May God continue to bless you, thou dear land of Guyana, and may the avaricious aspirations of any misguided despot be forever tempered by the restraints of international law.

Regards

Colbert Wilson

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