Dear Editor,
Recently I read a story of a Venezuelan woman who was caught overstaying her time in Guyana and the horrible treatment she was forced to endure. She was rounded up like cattle and dragged before a court, bare feet, fined, then sent on her way back to her homeland. And this would have been the case of others of our neighbours in recent months, including Cubans, Haitians and Dominicans alike. Now this is the newest approach by the coalition Government in its disgraceful, and out of place regard for illegals. Since assuming Office, they have been treating their fellow Third World citizens with scant regard. The dehumanising way illegals have been treated by this government is appalling, to say the least, as it goes on a rampage to belittle others less fortunate than themselves.
Like that Venezuelan woman who said in court that the economic situation in her country was bad, so she decided to come to our shores to look for work and a better life. An economic refugee, like most of us Guyanese who were fortunate to run out of Guyana, this lady tried that route also, only to be corralled into a jail cell and treated in the most inhumane way. It is a situation whereby Guyanese were at one time economic, as well as political refugees, forced to migrate out of Guyana to every known country on the planet. Incidentally, the party that governed Guyana at that time was the PNC, who notably are the major partners in this new coalition Government. Except for a few incidences of inhumane treatment, by and large most Guyanese were accommodated by other countries.
So, why this rush to cast others out of our country? Have they forgotten the way we were, in the not so distant past, aliens and strangers in other people’s countries? And I dare say this situation might very well repeat itself judging from the way The PNC-led Coalition is governing our country? So, let me caution the Guyana Government to be extra careful in the way you treat those less fortunate in your midst. Treat them with utmost care as you would like your people to be treated in return.
The point that I would like to make clear in our minds is, why should Guyana treat anyone this way? Of all the countries on God’s Green Earth, Guyana should be the least to treat aliens in this manner. There is documented proof that there are more Guyanese living out of Guyana than in it. A country that has gained notoriety in the exportation of its nationals to other countries more than any other Caricom nation. If those nations so affected should in turn reciprocate and treat Guyanese in kind, I shudder to think what would be the fate of thousands living abroad, or even right here in the Caribbean. It means that there will be plane loads or boatloads of Guyanese shipped back to Guyana.
Guyanese are ranked high on the charts of illegals in other people’s countries, so I am dumbfounded as to this new policy of the Coalition to round up strangers and sending them back to their respective territories.
Then, I am forced to ask the question, where is the Human Rights Association of Guyana? Have we such an organisation? What has become of them? Have they lost their voice, or have they been bullied into silence? Why can’t they come out and say something on this matter? But it all goes to show how far the democratic process has been eroded in our country, that these and other organisations have conveniently lost their voice to speak out on such issues. Am I permitted to say that Guyana is doomed?
Respectfully,
Neil Adams
