Former President David Granger expressed apprehension over the absence of adequate information about the PPPC administration’s arrangements for the settlement of Venezuelan-Guyanese. Speaking on his weekly programme − The Public Interest – he pointed out that migrants have been entering the country – clueless, homeless, landless and penniless − to start, or restart, their lives. Most Venezuelan-Guyanese are descended from Indian-Guyanese who started to migrate and settle in Venezuela in the 1960s but have been entering the country over the past decade and are distinct from the ‘tribal’ Warrau of Amerindian origin.
Mr. Granger pointed out that some Venezuelan-Guyanese have lost traces of family affiliation or vestiges of village roots and lack evidence of any national ‘identity’. Evidence suggests that about 54,000 Venezuelan-Guyanese are concentrated around Puerto Ordaz and San Felix in the city of Ciudad Guayana but are not in a good place. Most have ‘working-class origins’ and still subsist in slums − barrios − associated with crime and drug-related offences; some are ‘illegal aliens’ who do not possess Guyanese birth certificates or passports and fall outside of the purview of Venezuela’s ‘Administrative Service of Identification, Migration and Aliens – SAIME. Some have been arrested and deported due to the lack of official documents. Their children speak a ‘creolised’ variant of Spanish; practice a ‘Hispanic’ lifestyle and see themselves as Venezuelan.
The former president recalled that the A Partnership of National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Administration had adopted pro-active, administrative and executive practices by establishing the Department of Citizenship under a Minister to manage migration. The Department launched a National Multi-Sectoral Coordination Committee and collaborated with international agencies − IOM, PAHO, UNHCR and UNICEF. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPPC) Administration, however, hastily dissolved the Department on entering office but was obliged to hurriedly reconvene the Committee this year as ‘migrant overflow’ became unmanageable. Some of the boys from Puerto Ordaz and their families have started squatting on State reserves − at Ruby in Region No.3 and Grove and Non Pareil in Region No.4 and elsewhere. Some find work in bars, restaurants and mining camps in Port Kaituma in Region No.1 and Bartica in Region No.7. Others work as interpreters, facilitators to Spanish-speaking ‘informal’ traders and sales clerks.
The PPP/C Administration indicated that the new committee will implement a remigrant regime for the registration of children’s births, acquisition of personal vehicles duty-free, acquisition of birth and marriage certificates and exemption from taxation processes. Administration officials said that Venezuelan-Guyanese would be allowed to vote in elections, suggesting that the PPPC will be canvassing their vote in future elections.
The former president called on the PPP/C administration to promulgate a comprehensive National Migration Strategy and legislation to deal with all migrants – including Africans, Asians, Cubans and Haitians. A ‘Migrant Reception and Resettlement Zone’ should be established to ensure the orderly management of migrants and the Department of Citizenship should be re-constituted to coordinate official actions. Venezuelan-Guyanese – the boys from Puerto Ordaz – whose parents departed in droves are returning in droves. All who are qualified for citizenship should be allowed their constitutional right of return.
