Forcing citizens, who are squatting due to the harsh economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, to leave their make-shift homes knowing that they have no alternative goes against universally established human rights laws, Opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) said on Thursday.
The Opposition MPs described the situation faced by the squatters at Success, East Coast of Demerara (ECD), as inhumane. The Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc. (GuySuCo) is currently flooding the lands which belong to the Corporation’s East Demerara Cultivation (Enmore Estate).
Before then, persons residing there – many with small children – were shot at with rubber pellets, sending several to the hospital. “This has transcended politics. I think the issue of the squatters at Success and their situation, it’s not a political issue, it’s a human rights [issue] and an issue of human dignity and I believe that, were we not so politically divided as a country, we could all agree that it is an issue of human rights and dignity,” said Opposition MP and Attorney-at-Law, Amanza Walton-Desir on Thursday.
Walton-Desir said that one fact that can be established is that those squatting at Success are made up of a large number of single mothers and poor persons who cannot afford the average lifestyle of many Guyanese. When Village Voice Guyana visited the area on October 12, 2020 it met with a woman who was living in a one-room structure made mostly out of zinc. She slept each night on the floor padded with cardboard and an old mattress with her three children. The youngest child is just one-year-old and, at nights, in the area with no electricity, mosquitos keep them busy and the rain, which seeps through the holes in the zinc sheets, is not welcomed.
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SEE: “No Other Home” — The squatters at Success tell their stories https://www.facebook.com/villagevoicegy/videos/3304315516348195/
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Walton-Desir said: “I looked with much distress seeing single mothers packing up their bundles and trekking out there with their children having no idea where they are going to go and it is saddening to see the commentary on social media that we have lost our humanness to the extent that you can see in a pandemic that is gripping the world other countries making interventions [but] it is disheartening to see comments like ‘why didn’t Granger give them land?’ or ‘squatting is illegal’.”
Acknowledging the issue of squatting, Walton-Desir said that the APNU+AFC’s position has always been to help those who cannot help themselves instead of making life even harder for society’s least fortunate. She said that the political party wants to do away with squatting but it is a process that takes time. Targeting a community by flooding them out under police surveillance is certainly not the way, Walton-Desir affirmed.
“The people of Guyana must demand more of their Government. Nobody has asked where these people are going to go. This is the only home that they know. A number of them have been put out because they cannot afford the rent, they lost their jobs due to the pandemic. So, I really want to call on Guyanese…to really roundly condemn this action and to show our support by requiring the Government to have a far more thought-out approach to dealing with this,” she said.
Even as she urged action, Walton-Desir pointed out that having the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) visit the area to receive applications from those there does not solve the immediate question of where these citizens must relocate to.
Attorney-at-Law, Roysdale Forde, also an Opposition MP, accused the people’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government of having a history of violating the human rights of Guyanese, naming the period of the ‘Death Squad’ and the firing of public sector workers as examples.
In his observation, the Government has the interest of the business community over that of Guyanese citizens who cannot currently fend for themselves. He said the challenges of the squatters at Success is just one case of what Coalition Members meant when they contested during the 2020 Budget Debates that the Government’s financial plan is skewed in the interest of the private sector and the rich.
“We are now living the consequences of the poor policies of the PPP,” Forde said. “Our coalition is not against or anti the private sector but when we look at the measure that have been brought by this government in the time of a pandemic they’re overwhelmingly skewed to benefit the private sector and not necessarily transferring through the private sector sufficient benefits for the people who are suffering at this time,” Forde said.
When elected into Office, President Irfaan Ali pledged that his Government would do all in its power to support the development of the private sector as it believes that it was largely neglected under the APNU+AFC. As promised, several recent efforts have been made to form connections between the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and nations such as the United States (U.S.) and Suriname which stand to benefit the business community.
Forde told the media that while he notices this, he questions where are the policies and resources geared towards providing job support and financial cushions amid the pandemic.
As of Thursday morning, floodwaters at the squatting area in Success were rising rapidly. However, Head of the Agriculture Research Centre at GuySuCo, Gavin Ramnarain, when contacted by the Guyana Chronicle, a state owned media outlet, justified the flooding of the land saying it is necessary to clear it of any pests and unwanted vegetation.
