The Alliance For Change (AFC) yesterday tabled a motion in the National Assembly urging the government to make all diplomatic and legal efforts possible to protect the rights of Guyanese nationals in Barbados and other Caricom states, ensuring there is no discrimination on the basis of nationality.
The motion, in the name of AFC MP Raphael Trotman and seconded by AFC MP Khemraj Ramjatan, seeks to have the House call on government to exhaust all diplomatic and legal efforts to guarantee the protection of its people, providing assistance for “dignified repatriation” in cases where they are returned from Barbados or other territories in the region. It also seeks to have the government make preparation for the social and economic re-integration of such nationals in the Guyanese society.
The move comes almost on the eve of the deadline for undocumented non-nationals living in Barbados to seek to regularise their status, as part of a move by the David Thompson government to clamp down on illegal immigrants.
The motion is informed by the deep concern by members of the National Assembly about the well-being, human rights and dignity of those Guyanese citizens who are resident and those who travel to Barbados and other Caricom states. As a result, the National Assembly is being urged to call on all sister Caricom governments and in particular Barbados, “to ensure due process and protection under the Constitution and laws of Barbados” as well as the “letter and spirit of community instruments” is extended to Guyanese resident or travelling in those territories. The motional also urges the government to seek clarification from Barbados and the other states as to “the well-being, welfare, legal protection, due process and preservation” of the human rights and dignities of Guyanese nationals.
The motion acknowledges the right of the Government of Barbados and other Caricom states to enforce their national laws, but also reminds them that they collectively operate and exist in a community framework evolving from harmonized approaches and law.
It also recognises the conditions and realities that affect the security and well-being of Guyanese citizens in Caricom, and in particular concerns expressed to the government by Guyanese resident in Barbados and elsewhere in the community and also those who travel within the community. It notes that the Treaty of Chagaramus and the Caricom Charter of Civil Liberties to which Guyana, Barbados and the other Caricom state parties are signatories, declare among other things, that the community is moving to become one customs and economic union which requires that everyone as a united community shares and benefits from the region’s resources, including human resources, collective expertise and skills.
