Haitian smuggling through Guyana created problems in other countries; legitimate migrants will be allowed entry- Home Affairs Minister

Last Updated on Friday, 22 March 2024, 21:26 by Denis Chabrol

Even as the opposition parliamentary coalition accused the Guyana government’s of double standards in dealing with Haitians in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn on Friday said the smuggling of Haitians to this country had a knock-on effect on other territories in the Americas.

Mr Benn sought to assure that migrants facing difficulties would not be blocked from entering Guyana illegally and that authorities needed to be satisfied that officials were not complicit in any scheme. “We will not in Guyana prevent anyone from coming here who is a legitimate migrant who is in a particular crisis situation but we will not stand with the persons who are people smugglers and traffickers and allowing for corruption in the administrative system in relation to the question for any country,” he told the opening of the CARICOM Regional Security System (RSS) conference.

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, Amanza Walton-Desir said President Irfaan Ali was “masquerading” in the international community as a champion of Haitians but had imposed visa restrictions. “Haitians are part of CARICOM and so they should have had the entitlement (of free movement),” added Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton.

He said Guyana had not only breached the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Treaty of Chaguaramas and other agreements but was allowing Venezuelan migrants and Bangladeshi workers to live and work here. With CARICOM now being chaired by Guyana at a time when the regional grouping has been working to having a Haitian-led solution to the violent political crisis in that country, Mr Norton argued that, “the Government of Guyana should not be involved in dealing Haiti because they  have been anti-Haiti and no attempt now to use foreign policy to cover their domestic behaviour towards the Haitians should be undertaken.”

But, Home Affairs Minister Benn explained that shortly after coming to office in 2020, the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC)-led administration decided to stem the smuggling of Haitians to Guyana after concerns had been raised by French Guiana and Brazil. He said that in one year, 19,000 Haitians had entered in Guyana but only seven percent could have been accounted for. “It created problems and issues and questions between French Guiana/Cayenne with us and particularly with Brazil. It puts us sometimes on the horns of a dilemma with respect to the issue and, given the situation in Haiti, it puts us in a particularly difficult position on the question,” he said.

According to the Home Affairs Minister, the loss of lives in the Yucatan Peninsula, “continued creation of upsets at the United States-Mexican border, smuggling and trafficking of persons and perhaps the destabilisation of relations with neighbouring countries were key considerations.

The Guyana government had previously accused the then A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change administration of facilitating the smuggling of at least 40,000 Haitians to Guyana.