Guyana deports Venezuelans who illegally arrived at Essequibo Coast

A group of Venezuelans, who illegally arrived in Guyana on Monday at the Abraham Zuil beach, along the Essequibo Coast in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), have been deported, with the exception of those who have familial ties to the country.
According to an official report from the Guyana Police Force (GPF), the boatload of Venezuelan migrants comprising 75 individuals including nine children, nine women, and 57 men, arrived in a 45-foot by 8-foot boat, powered by two 75hp Yamaha outboard engines.

In a brief telephone interview with this publication on Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister, Robeson Benn disclosed that following their interception by local law enforcement authorities, the migrants underwent a screening process. Those who could not establish family connections in Guyana were deported to Venezuela.
“The morning [Monda]), they were to be returned across the border the same day. There was an inability to do it in sufficient time and they were housed and feed overnight and they departed at 4am this morning [Monday],” the minister explained.
This publication was told that Police will be arresting and charging boat captains and crew who are illegally transporting migrants into Guyana.

Humanitarian assistance
Meanwhile, Minister Benn has made it clear that Guyana remains open to providing humanitarian assistance to migrants seeking refuge in Guyana. However, those migrants, must enter the country legally.
“If they want to come to Guyana, they have to go to the immigration port of entry to the immigration officer be screened and get an ED charge. If they don’t do that and their reaching all the way to Parika and those places we will send them back. They only way if we screen them and look at it, is if we can say for certain they are returning Guyanese,” he added.

Registration is made easy through the implementation of “roaming immigration officers” who traverse the areas usually populated by migrants and offer registration and extension of stay services remotely. This process is focused on regularisation of these migrants thus preventing or reducing their vulnerability to trafficking, sexual and labour exploitation.
In Guyana, all children of migrants, legal and illegal, from Venezuela and other countries are allowed full access to be enrolled in the public school system within the host communities, and to benefit from Government-funded support programmes including school feeding programmes, school uniform vouchers, and the “Because We Care” cash grants given to all students.
The illegal arrival of the migrants in the country comes as Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro plans to unlawfully hold elections on May 25 for a governor of Guyana’s Essequibo region.
Just a few days ago, Guyana approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) seeking provisional measures to block Venezuela from proceeding with its planned elections in Essequibo – two-thirds of Guyana’s national territory.
Guyana is requesting that the Court order Venezuela to refrain from any acts within or affecting its sovereign territory, including the Essequibo region.
This is the second time Guyana has sought provisional measures from the Court, which is currently hearing a case to settle the decades-long border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela.
Back in December 2023, Guyana had approached the World Court after Venezuela’s threat to seize and annex Guyana’s Essequibo region. In response, the ICJ had ordered Venezuela to refrain from any actions to disturb Guyana’s administration and control of that territory pending the conclusion of the case.