Government has noted that a lot of foreign nationals have made their way into the local mining sector without the necessary permission, and has issued a call for these individuals to come forward and get regularised, or face the consequences.
Minister within the Natural Resources Ministry, Simona Broomes, made this call on Tuesday as she spoke on the side lines of an event held at the Marriott Hotel. While acknowledging that she did not have an exact figure on the number of undocumented miners, she estimated that there were many.
“We don’t want to have the genuine persons here come to work and people come seeping in within that crowd (who) are harmful to our people. We don’t want to have that,” Broomes stressed. “We want to have a safe and secure mining sector.”
She is urging undocumented miners to come forward and get themselves regularised with the relevant authorities, including the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
The Puruni area has recently been put under the microscope
She has even posited the possibility exists that undocumented miners could get work extensions, and noted that the syndicates have a role to play in partnering with the Government to weed out those “who should not be there”.
“Just like how, on the coast, you have the policing group, you have syndicates at every single area in the country. And they are working with two Ps… prevention and partnership. Prevention of crime… human trafficking, raiding. It is not ‘the bush’ anymore…His Excellency talked about linking the hinterland to the coast.
“So I was very pleased when Minister (of Citizenship Winston) Felix went into the Puruni area and announced a short window period for the foreign nationals there to come in, get your work permit. If you’re here and (you) want extensions of stay or anything like that, to come into the Ministry of Citizenship… It’s not a case where (if) you come forward you’ll be locked up,” Minister Broomes explained.
Concerns were recently raised in the press about miners paying little-to-nothing for their licences. They would then erect extravagant businesses, sometimes structures that encroach on the road.
Broomes and a team of officials recently had cause to go into the Puruni Landing area at Mazaruni, Region Seven, where they found permanent structures proliferating in the area.
Puruni Landing in Mazaruni is strategically located, connecting the lower and middle Mazaruni in Mining District Three. It is a thriving business hub, and many miners have taken up residence there, having constructed elaborate buildings and structures, some of which encroach on the roadway and water crossing. The GGMC would grant yearly licences for business and residential purposes in mining districts. However, this does not include establishing permanent structures.
Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC), Trevor Benn, had accompanied the minister on her follow-up visit to the Puruni Landing. During the meeting, Benn encouraged operators to visit the GLSC’s Bartica Office to regularise their status.
“For those of you who want to make the area your residence, your home, you have no security of tenure; you have no security to the land that you are on; and the only way you can (obtain that security) is by applying to get a full lease for the land that you are occupying,” Benn is quoted by the Department of Public Information as explaining.
It is understood that the GLSC would be working with the GGMC to survey the area and plan the way forward to ensure regularisation is achieved.
