By Sherod Duncan MP (APNU)- As Shadow Minister responsible for Home Affairs, I am deeply concerned that the disturbances at Vigilance and Buxton are being viewed only as a public-order matter when, taken together with the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of two Surinamese nationals and other recent border-security concerns, a much wider picture is emerging.
Police say access roads were blocked with burning tyres and debris, a sand truck was set on fire, suspected gunshots were reported, firefighters were obstructed while responding, and CCTV footage is now being reviewed. These are serious matters and the persons responsible for identifiable criminal acts must be investigated on the evidence.
But the public must also understand what apparently brought Police into Vigilance in the first place. Reports indicate that investigators were attempting to execute a search warrant as part of the investigation into the disappearance of Siegiëllo Lorenzo Van Dalen and Derryl Danillo Bont, two Surinamese nationals who were last seen in Nickerie before reportedly travelling by boat toward Guyana. Investigators are now examining information concerning their movements after they allegedly reached Guyana.
If Police establish that the men entered Guyana outside formal immigration controls, then this case becomes more than a missing-person investigation: it raises questions about informal river crossings, the ability of Immigration and Police to track persons entering the country, the identification of boat operators and landing points, and how quickly such movements can be reconstructed when a serious crime investigation begins.
That concern must also be placed beside the ongoing Office of Professional Responsibility investigation into allegations that Police and Immigration ranks operating along the Lethem Trail and in Lethem received payments to facilitate the movement of foreign nationals. Commissioner Clifton Hicken ordered that investigation on September 17 and said no rank would be shielded if wrongdoing is established.
Those allegations remain unproven, but the investigation itself confirms that questions about the integrity of border controls are already before the Police Force. Taken in isolation, Vigilance, the disappearance of two Surinamese men and the Lethem allegations may appear to be three separate matters.
Taken together, they raise a much larger question about whether Guyana presently has a border-management system capable of reliably recording who enters, where they enter, how they travel internally, and whether those controls can detect irregular movement or corruption when it occurs.
This is why I am calling for clarity from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Guyana Police Force on both the immediate investigations and the wider system. The public should be told, without compromising active investigations, whether the two missing Surinamese nationals have been confirmed to have entered Guyana, whether their boat and landing point have been identified, whether any immigration record exists, what role CCTV and telecommunications evidence are playing, and what progress has been made in the Lethem OPR investigation.
Guyana is preparing for increasing migration, labour mobility and cross-border economic activity. That makes border integrity more—not less—important. A modern migration system must be able to connect entry, identity, movement and exit through records that are reliable, auditable and resistant to corruption.
