Government’s apathy on issue of Haitians is an embarrassment to the country

Dear Editor,

The issue of migration of people and immigration policies of nations is complex.

For any visitor travelling to a foreign country, the first clearing point is the immigration officer. The officer inquires if she is entering the country for business or pleasure. If the nature of the visit is business, what is the nature of the business? If the visitor is in the country to work, proof is required: a letter from the employer confirming the job. In some countries, the visitor must demonstrate that the job is specialized and there are no locals who can do it. Work visas are difficult to get. If you are visiting on holiday, (visitor’s visa), you will be asked where are you staying (hotel or friend’s house) and whether you have enough money to pay your expenses during your visit.

This screening process is designed for the protection of the host country, and represents good national and government policy to screen incoming visitors. A visitor who cannot pay for her trip will become a burden on the society. A visitor should not take away a job that a citizen can do. But citizens of poor countries will always seek a better life elsewhere, and will ‘put in’ and hope to ‘get through’ in the hope of betterment elsewhere. After fifty three years of political mismanagement in Guyana, there has been mass migration of Guyanese from this country until more than two million Guyanese live in the Caribbean, the USA, Canada, the UK and elsewhere, having run the gauntlet of immigration rules and officialdom before finding those ‘greener pastures’ abroad. And the process was not easy. There is ‘the bench’, ‘backtrack’, ‘overstaying’ and ‘deportation’, expressions familiar to all of us.

In the Caribbean, an enlightened approach has tried to create a single economic regional entity through the formation of Caricom. As part of this combination, Caricom members have agreed that nationals of Caricom should have visitors’ right of entry to any Caricom state without a visa. The right is not unqualified; work visas are not granted by right, and even to get a visitor’s visa, visitors must upon arrival in a Caricom state demonstrate to immigration officers that they have the means to support themselves for the duration of their stay. In June, 2018, Caricom extended this right of entry to citizens of the recently admitted Caricom state of Haiti. It was agreed that six months’ visitors visas would be granted to Haitians seeking entry into any Caricom state, with the single and important qualification being reserved that the visitor must demonstrate to Immigration his or her financial ability to support himself or herself during the period of the visit. This was a continuation of the progressive Caricom policy that our sister States should continue to pursue the original agenda of Caricom of economic and social cohesion and cooperation. The single qualification imposed, that the Haitian visitor demonstrate financial means, was a practical safeguard to ensure that national economic and social interests of the host nation continue to be protected.

However, as usual, in Guyana, instead of providing true leadership for the good of the nation, the two large political parties have permitted our ethnically divisive politics which has so harmed our country to intrude into the Haitian visa issue.

When the President of Guyana implemented the Haitian immigration policy, in January 2019, his Order was not publicised to the national media, and no explanation was given by the government to the public, informing them of the history of Caricom, of Guyana’s obligations as a Caricom member, and of the need for a single and cohesive Caricom model based on inclusivity. The government is here to serve all Guyanese and we should have been fully informed of developments. But we weren’t. Instead, the Order appeared shrouded in secrecy and no explanations were offered.

The inevitable occurred. When Haitians began appearing in the country, suspicions were aroused and xenophobic fears were ignited. Haiti is a black nation. Elections are near in Guyana, and voting in Guyana is based on black-indo ethnic affinity. The APNU has in its former manifestation been guilty of electoral fraud. And now Haitians are being imported into Guyana without apparent restriction and without explanation by the Government, and are disappearing into the country with very few returning to Haiti the same way they arrived. Right or wrong, the suspicions of PPP loyalists, and indeed of some moderate Guyanese citizens, were aroused.

In response to the unpardonable

silence from the Government, the Opposition could have acted in the interest of the country to explain the Caricom system to its supporters and express support for the hand of welcome extended to Haiti, while calling on the Government to reassure Guyanese with real and meaningful information. Instead it has over the past seven months remained silent, doing nothing to restrain the speculations by its supporters. It was only recently that the tepid hope was expressed by the Opposition that Haitians should not be made to feel unwelcome by Guyanese.

Unrestrained by meaningful and informed leadership, the expressions of suspicion by PPP loyalists grew in volume and temperature. Equally unrestrained by meaningful and informed leadership, the response by APNU loyalists has been to accuse Opposition supporters of ‘xenophobia’. The noise reached a crescendo, and the real issue was subsumed. Only the two monolith parties benefit from this polarization of the country, which threatens to reach unprecedented extremes as even moderates are sucked into the morass of accusation and counter accusation. “How can you vote for those racists?” “How can you trust those people?”

Political discussion in Guyana should not be about race, but unfortunately it is about race. It will be about race as long as the two monolith parties each represent one large ethnic group and both continue their politics of divisiveness.

A New and United Guyana calls on the PPP to express its support for the inclusion of Haiti into Caricom as a sister State, and its support for the policy of granting visiting (not working) visas to Haitians for periods of no more than six months. These are our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean and have suffered the same victimization and stigma that we as a people have suffered as a result of failed leadership in both our countries.

A New and United Guyana calls on the APNU to publicly assure the people of Guyana that no Haitian will receive a visa unless he or she demonstrates the financial means to support himself or herself during his stay, and to publicly assure the people of Guyana what steps are being taken to ensure that those visitors leave Guyana by legal means upon the expiry of their permission to stay, and to publicly assure the people of Guyana that no Haitian will be permitted to vote in the upcoming election or will be registered in the ongoing House to House registration process for that purpose, and to advise what system exists to ensure that these assurances will be honoured.

Additionally, A New and United Guyana calls on the Government to remember that we as a sovereign nation must earn international respect. It is incomprehensible that Ministers of Government can officially state that visitors to Guyana are entering through the airport and leaving backtrack to Surinam and Brazil because we cannot control our borders. Over eight thousand Haitians have come into Guyana this year, and only one thousand five hundred have left legally. The media have reported Haitians leaving via back track to Brazil and Surinam, and individuals being paid to facilitate this process. Trafficking in persons is an international crime. Our government’s apathy on this issue is an embarrassment to our country.

It is time to put Guyana first. Guyanese must be able to express their legitimate fears and concerns without accusations of racism and xenophobia. The Government in power, whether the PPP or the APNU, must remember that it serves ALL Guyanese, and must protect and reassure and give confidence to ALL Guyanese. The Opposition, whether the PPP or the APNU must empower its supporters by informing and educating them, having in mind national rather than party interests.

Yours faithfully, Timothy Jonas

A New and United Guyana