Dear Editor,
I was travelling on a foreign, legally obtained passport, returning by plane from a short stay abroad, which involved clearing the Customs and Immigration, stripping, patting down and ‘take-off-your-shoes’ operation three times going and coming.
At one stop on the return stretch I was kept waiting on the official clearance to allow me to board ‘my’ plane. Sitting and watching the officials discussing some documents, glancing occasionally in my direction, my boarding time passed with me sitting and gesturing to the officials, asking what was the matter.
My plane left without me. The official called me to his desk where I was able to voice my dissatisfaction with the treatment given me and the fact that there would be a person awaiting my arrival, uninformed of any reason for my non-arrival. Obviously, he was just obeying instructions. A few minutes later in a lowered tone of voice, I was told that ‘they’ had found forged travel documents on passengers (presumably Guyanese) travelling from Georgetown.
Still in anger I pulled out a folder to prove I was who my passport said I was and unlikely to try anything illegal. The folder slipped from my hand and some assortment of papers fell out on to the desk. Scrutinizing the fallen documents the official reached over and picked up a small rectangular plastic item and immediately said “But you are OK!”. That document, I was told, could only have come directly to me from the official of the country that issued the passport to me and could in no way have been a product of Guyanese enterprising activity.
I was shown a room with a television where I had to pass two hours before boarding a plane to my next stop where I was met by the person who had assumed that I had simply missed the earlier flight and would take the following one which I had done.
This was a minor incident but it exposed a serious problem operating in my country that was probably causing Guyana to have a disreputable reputation in many countries. The ‘simple’ act of forging false travel documents may have been prompted by poor pay or lack of employment. The thought that better pay and more employment opportunities was believed to exist in many other countries apparently made the criminal act of falsification of documents justified. It did not matter what this did to the reputation of Guyana or its citizens abroad.
A final comment on this issue. There were more than twice the number leaving Guyana than were on the return trip. Hopefully, this little report may induce some of our politicians to have a closer look at some of the issues raised.
Yours faithfully,
Prof RO Westmaas
