‘Backtrack’ Corentyne route reopened

Less than one week after the Suriname authorities imposed a ban on the semi-legal border crossing with Guyana that facilitates mostly small-scale traders, the service was back in operation from Monday.

Some of the traders who were already counting their losses told Stabroek News that their businesses were affected by the shutdown. A few of them were at first not aware that the boats had resumed operations and were relieved at the news.

Suriname last Wednesday closed down the illegal migration route which is faster but also facilitates the movement of drugs and weapons across the border.

Nickerie District Com-missioner Bhagwatpersad Shankar was quoted in the Suriname daily, de Ware Tijd (dWT) as saying that the decision to close the route was made because of “the continuing chaos, confusion and anarchy” associated with it, as well as because bitter competition between boat operators was threatening to escalate.

Shankar had ordered the police and the army to close the crossing and keep an eye on any illegal movements. DWT has reported that boat operators and taxi-drivers had protested against the closure, claiming significant loss of income, but Shankar insisted that as soon as the operators settled their disagreements they could report to the authorities who would then decide whether and when they could offer the service again.

Sandra Giddens who operates a grocery business at the Skeldon market said she ran out of a lot of items and as such “the prices went up at other places because we were not able to bring.” The price for soap, she said, had gone up from four for $100 to two for $100. She also mentioned a few other items that were sold for almost double the price.

Giddens was already distressed that she was out of items such as vermicelli and milk that she normally sells a lot of around this time for the Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations.

But during the interview, after learning that the service had resumed she livened up and planned to make a trip today. “Ah really glad the service start back because nuff people were out of bread. The border does give we a dollar.”

Clothes vendor, Nezam Bacchus related that due to a head injury he suffered during a robbery he is unable to do strenuous work and therefore earns very little at the Skeldon estate. To supplement that and to maintain his five children he said he assists his wife to sell the items after she purchases them through the backtrack route in Suriname.

Bacchus said due to the closure of the service they had already run out of a lot of items and after his wife got word on Monday that the ban was lifted she rushed over to Suriname to do her shopping. Yesterday when this newspaper visited his stall seemed well stocked.

Another vendor who trades mostly clothing said the ban did not affect him too much as he had a lot of “old stocks” that would last him for another two weeks. He is happy that the service is back to normal “because people like to see new things every day.”

Some vendors had told this newspaper they were afraid that the fees to return from Suriname would be ‘jacked up’ since the problem was from that end.

But this newspaper caught up with a passenger who had gone to Suriname around 9:30 am yesterday to purchase “religious CDs and Vico turmeric cream” for his wife. He said he returned at 11:30 am after paying the regular fee of $25 Suriname dollars.

One vendor told this newspaper that a customs official at Skeldon had informed persons that they would not be charging any duty on items imported in large quantities and was planning to “seize the items” instead.

The vendor quite bluntly declared, “We pay revenue to the government every time we bring goods and if they don’t want to collect it anymore then we gon see how to smuggle them. We can’t stop this business.”

Boat owner of Aunty Landing, Fezal Mursaline, who runs the service with his parents, said he also learnt that the officers had planned not to collect the duty on the items. He said he contacted a senior customs official in Georgetown and learnt that no such instructions were given.

According to Mursaline many traders turned up at his landing on Monday and yesterday morning and refused to travel for fear that their items would be taken away. Apart from that, he said, the system was running smoothly.

During the time the service was disrupted several passengers, including women and children who were stranded in Guyana, visited his landing regularly to see if they would have been able to cross.

He said when he received a call from the Dutch authorities around 9 am on Monday that he was free to resume duties he did not have a problem informing his passengers as they were already there. He said the disruption had affected his business a lot.

Roy Ramdass who operates another boat service said he got a call from other boat owners in Suriname around 10 am on Monday that “the dispute among the boat owners in Suriname was settled and that it was ok to work.”

He said a lot of his customers kept calling to find out if the service was operational and when they learnt that it was they in turn informed others. By 3 pm he was ready to send out a boatload of passengers.

The illegal crossing has been in existence for many years and regular travellers prefer to use the faster backtrack route instead of the official border crossing at the ferry terminal at South-Drain/Moleson Creek, since it is much cheaper.

A passenger pays $1500 to travel either way. In order to regulate the backtrack route the authorities in Suriname recently began registering boat operators and laid down minimum safety standards for the vessels.

This followed a river mishap in the Corentyne River last year, when two Guyanese women drowned after the propeller of the boat they were travelling in got entangled in a fishing seine and sank.

Guyanese operators are only allowed to transport passengers to Nickerie, but they cannot solicit passengers coming to Guyana. The same system applies for the Surinamese operators who will only transport passengers to Guyana and then leave.