A Guyanese family of three was last month granted refugee status in Canada under the Canadian Immigration and Protection Act by arguing that the police here provided no protection after they had been threatened by a drug lord.
The decision handed down on September 28, 2007 in Toronto, Canada, by AC Knevel, the tribunal judge acting on behalf of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada said they were accepted as refugees under the UN Convention based on their claims. The case was heard on September 21.
The family was represented by Guyanese immigration barrister and solicitor living and working in Canada, Balwant Persaud who told Stabroek News from Toronto that the family fled Guyana after the head of the family, a former wharf manager of a leading shipping company, was asked to turn a blind eye to shipments of mainly rice, concealing narcotics destined for Europe. Several shipments of products from Guyana – including rice and timber – have been held abroad after cocaine was found hidden in them. Several shipments have also been found at wharves here.
According to the facts of the case, the former manager, was approached on June 16, 2006 by a person, who offered him US$20,000 for each shipment of cocaine that would leave the wharf, where he was manager and security officer.
When the claimant refused, the person making the offer became abusive and threatening. Five days later he received a call on his cell phone telling him that he knew too much and should not be alive.
The business was later robbed and he was interviewed on television. He was told by telephone after the interview that when there was another robbery at the same business he would be the first to die. He reported the offer of money made for him to pass the drugs through the wharf to the owner of the wharf who advised him to make a report to the police.
He made a total of three reports and gave up after they promised to investigate but nothing was done. The claimant said that on making his report to the police the threats began.
In July, 2006 he made a report to the police about being on the seawall with his family when a car pulled up asking for him. The claimant ran and the car followed him and his family and tried running them off the road but they escaped. On August 11, 2006 his windows were “shot out” during the evening. Because of continuing threats and the failure of the police to protect them, the family left for Canada leaving property and their possessions behind.
Knevel’s report said that, “Nations should be presumed capable of protecting their citizens. Security of nations is, after all, the essence of sovereignty.”
Summing up the case he noted that “the claimant was in a unique position to assist the drug trade in getting drugs in and out of the country. However, he refused to work with them and was subsequently targeted for elimination. Ample evidence has been submitted by way of police reports, newspaper clippings and affidavits with regards to this matter. There is no indication on a balance of probabilities, that the claimant ever received police protection” and as such the panel gave him, his spouse and child, the benefit of the doubt and under the circumstances deemed them persons in need of protection under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
In a telephone interview, Persaud told Stabroek News that his clients had made reports to the Brickdam Police station; and that those making threats had promised to kidnap their daughter, then four years old.
In arguing his clients’ case, he said that, he had to show that the government could not protect citizens and he used the case of former minister of home affairs, Ronald Gajraj who had been accused and later cleared of ties to death squads.
He cited, too, the case of the gunning down of former television talk show host and journalist Ronald Waddell and the unsolved cases of murders committed under mysterious circumstances without the police being able to crack the cases.
He also referred to the inability of the law enforcement authorities to interdict any major drug trafficker in Guyana. He said that even smaller countries with less capacity have interdicted drug traffickers.
Persaud noted that this was the second case in which he has had to represent a family which was forced to flee Guyana because of drug-related problems. The other involved a family with two children. The facts in that matter stated that the family’s car, a white carina, was hijacked and used for a number of criminal activities. This case occurred over two years ago. Persaud said that the family had also been threatened.
This is the second known case reported this year in which Guyanese families have been granted refugee status in Canada because of the failure of the state of Guyana to protect its citizens.
In the other case, Guyana-born immigration lawyer in Toronto, Kaishree Chatarpaul successfully represented a family of four – a father, mother and two children from Essequibo, who sought refugee status claiming political persecution and lack of protection from the state.
