Venezuelan migrants seeking refuge in Guyana are being encouraged to present themselves to immigration authorities to get registered in order to benefit from services offered by the Government.
Reports indicate that there are about 40,000 Venezuelan migrants residing in Guyana, only 21,704 officially documented.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister, Hugh Todd recently convened a meeting of the Multi-Agency Coordinating Committee to address the influx of migrants from Venezuela into Guyana.
The meeting was attended by key Government stakeholders along with international partners during which ongoing efforts to bring humanitarian assistance to those migrants from Venezuela in Guyana were discussed.
At the meeting, Minister Todd highlighted the level of the Government’s response to the migrants which includes registration and regularisation services, socio-economic and cultural integration into the Guyanese society and the provision of healthcare and education for migrant children.
The minister also noted that the humanitarian response of the Government of Guyana to the migrants from Venezuela fits into a larger regional approach to address the issue.
Among the critical issues discussed at this meeting was the need for the migrants to present themselves to immigration authorities to be registered.
“The registration process will facilitate easier access to some services that the Government of Guyana provides to migrants from Venezuela,” the Ministry noted in a statement on Friday.
Humanitarian assistance
Despite the border controversy between Guyana and Venezuela and the case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Government of Guyana has taken a policy decision to offer humanitarian assistance to migrants fleeing from Venezuela.
Noteworthy is that a significant number are the Warraus, one of the Indigenous groups from Venezuela whose sister group of Warraus live in Guyana in Region One (Barima-Waini), close to the border. The Government has put on record that this group poses the greatest concern from a health and socio-economic perspective.
According to a February 2023 document on Guyana’s response to a call for inputs on the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, it was explained that the current border management measure in place is for immigration authorities to register migrants from Venezuela, and grant extensions of stay to those migrants who do not wish to return to their respective countries due to political and economic challenges or fear of returning for any other reason/s.
“On arrival at legal ports of entry, migrants from Venezuela are interviewed by authorities and if they are suspected of being involved in criminal activities, such as the ‘Sindicatos’ and other armed Venezuelan-based criminal groups or guerrilla groups, they are refused entry. Those who have entered via illegal crossing are encouraged to go to the nearest immigration point of entry/office to become regularised,” the document outlines.
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 and prevention or reduction of these migrants being vulnerable to trafficking, sexual and labour exploitation.
Guyana has also created a large shelter with water, and other facilities and land for farming over 200 migrants from Venezuela near the border with Venezuela.
Moreover, it was noted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants from Venezuela and other migrants, have accessed all forms of food and sanitisation relief hampers distributed throughout the country to every household.
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 benefit from Government-funded support programmes including school feeding programmes, school uniform vouchers, and the “Because we care” cash grants given to all students enrolled in both public and private schools throughout Guyana to support education-related expenses of families. In some communities, near the border with Venezuela, Spanish interpreters have been trained to help the teachers in the schools.
In fact, for this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA), papers were translated in Spanish for the 287 Spanish-speaking students that wrote the exams.
