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Guyana risks reputation by joining U.S. deportation scheme — GHRA
(Kaieteur News) – The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) said rejection is growing over the Government’s decision to collaborate with the United States on its highly controversial policy of removing migrants and asylum-seekers and sending them to third countries around the world.
In a statement on Saturday, the GHRA said the unpublished agreement is troubling, particularly given the serious concerns surrounding the methods employed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including aggressive arrests of migrants and asylum-seekers in public spaces.
“Implementation of an unpublished agreement with the Government of the USA is totally contrary to the letter and spirit of open and lawful governance, a long-standing aspiration of the Guyanese people who have seen breach after breach, illegal conduct after illegal conduct, done in its name. Furthermore, this behaviour is manifestly in breach of the Constitution of Guyana and with national, regional and international human rights laws and policies,” GHRA said.
The association said the agreement comes as no surprise that, in the words of the American Ambassador in Guyana, it took months of hard work to construct this agreement. “Reducing the fanaticism characterising this programme to the ‘temporary, voluntary, limited and humanitarian’ product now being peddled to the Guyanese people is nothing short of shocking.”
Guyana has since received six Cuban and Afghan nationals deported from the United States under a one-year arrangement with the administration of President Donald Trump
The GHRA said an aspect of this issue receiving no attention at all is that Guyana has a very progressive policy with respect to migrants. “A decade ago, when Guyana began to be invaded by refugees fleeing the chaos of the Maduro Government in Venezuela, a policy was inaugurated that all refugees would be accepted at ports of entry and given six months stamped on the Immigration form used for everyone entering Guyana. This policy risked millions of Venezuelans descending on Guyana. Fortunately, that did not happen. Every migrant arriving at Charity or Bartica by boat had their immigration form stamped, received a medical check-up and, if children were involved, they were integrated into the education system. Work permits, a downstream labour issue rather than immigration, required a separate process.”
According to the GHRA avoidance of what could have been a chaotic process depended on a cohort of admirable civil servants in the Immigration and citizenship offices who managed this stressful problem with admirable aplomb. The GHRA can speak of this with some authority having been actively involved in the Venezuelan refugee settlement issues, language classes and other social support in partnership with the Catholic church in Guyana. “The valiant work of the civil servants, despite the threat of being swamped by thousands of Venezuelans, never received the public acknowledgement it merited. How many of these experienced civil servants were involved in devising this new programme for deportees – which apparently took months to design?”
The government finalised a one-year migration cooperation framework with the United States, under which the country will receive, according to a statement issued on Saturday, limited, vetted group of non-criminals, skilled individuals through the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Assisted Voluntary Return Programme. The agreement marks the immediate rollout of a temporary third-country deportation mechanism, with an initial cohort of six deportees, four originating from Cuba and two from Afghanistan, arriving in Guyana on Friday. In brief remarks on Sunday, Nicole Theriot U.S. Ambassador to Guyana told this newspaper that the U.S. has been working on the arrangement with Guyana for many months. The deal outlines a temporary arrangement for individuals who voluntarily opt for relocation to Guyana while awaiting the final determination of their immigration status. Official government statements detailed that depending on the outcome of their cases, individuals will either return to their country of origin or relocate elsewhere of their choosing. The arrangement operates under strict parameters and does not offer open-ended residency or permanent resettlement.
Under the agreed terms, the United States Government will bear the complete financial burden of the relocation exercise, ensuring Guyana incurs no financial liability. The operational execution of the framework falls directly under the IOM, which will fund and manage reception, housing, basic support, and social integration services, including healthcare, employment supervision, and facilitating contact with legal counsel and family. The IOM confirmed that the arrangement does not transfer any of the state’s official legal duties concerning immigration admission, protection, legal stay, or deportation. The administration maintained that Guyana holds total sovereignty and retains complete veto power to review and deny any individual put forward by U.S. authorities. Only individuals who explicitly consent to relocate of their own free will, have been denied asylum in the U.S. without wanting to return home, and meet strict non-criminal and skill criteria will be admitted.
Former President Donald Ramotar last week launched a scathing attack on the controversial arrangement describing the programme as “disgraceful” and rejecting claims that Guyana and other recipient states stand to benefit from the skills of deportees. Ramotar pointed specifically to comments made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, arguing that Rubio had been unequivocal about the type of persons the United States was seeking to transfer to third-world countries. “However, the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio is very clear on who those persons are. In an interview, he said openly that, “We are actively searching for other countries to take people from third-world countries… We are working with other countries to say we want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries, would you do that as a favour to us. And the further away from America, the better so they can’t come back across the border. I’m not apologetic about it. The President (Trump) was elected to keep America safe and to get rid of a bunch of perverts, paedophiles and child rapists out of our country…”
Ramotar said Rubio’s characterisation of those being removed from the United States should put to rest any suggestion that the programme is primarily about transferring valuable skills to Caribbean countries. “So, please spare us the talk that this programme imposed by the U.S. is going to give us skills. One of the immoralities of this project is that the U.S. will turn around and issue advisories for tourist not to visit our countries because of crimes!”
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This is where Irfan Ali can come straight with Guyanese – tell the whole
world how much is Guyana making for each Deportee that are NOT born
Guyanese. The more Non Guyanese Deportee Irfan takes in, the higher
compensation for each. Some will certainly head to his high tech farm, not
for free. These will not be held in Guyana’s prisons. They will be free roaming.
Any other Government minister owns farms ? Deportees can work there too.