Officials at the Guyana Embassy in Washington DC made a “huge mistake” when they issued travel documents for a man of Guyanese parentage to be deported to Guyana and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett has ordered an investigation.
“A huge mistake was made in issuing the documentation and I have ordered a full investigation into the matter,” Minister Rodrigues-Birkett told Stabroek News last evening when contacted.
The man was deported to Guyana on Tuesday morning but was returned to the US on Wednesday after immigration officers found no record of him ever being Guyanese. The man’s mother confirmed to Stabroek News yesterday that while she is Guyanese her son was born in Suriname, but has lived in the US for some 20 years.
The foreign minister said the “procedures in issuing travel documents” were not followed. She said she was informed of the matter and immediately contacted the mission in Washington. From what she was told initially, she said, a mistake was made. She said she ordered an investigation and a full report.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday via telephone from the US, the man’s mother, who prefers that her son remains unnamed, said officials in the US knew the man was not born in Guyana. While she would not say what her son had been incarcerated for, the woman said he had served his time and should be set free instead of being deported to a country that is not his own.
The young man’s only visit to Guyana was at age four and he spent just about three days here, “to learn to fly kite just to see what Easter is all about.”
According to the woman, when she learned that her son might be deported to Guyana, she contacted the Guyana Embassy in Washington. She said she explained that while she was Guyanese, her son had been born in Suriname and a woman, who she named, told her that the Embassy has been issuing travel documents to deportees born in Suriname to Guyanese parents.
“She knew that his parents left Guyana before the child was born and lived in Suriname,” the man’s mother said. “She knew that Suriname refused to accept him but her exact words to me were, ‘it is in the Constitution that children born of Guyanese parents are Guyanese and the government does not ignore their people,’” the woman said.
The man’s mother said she then asked the woman what support system was in place for deportees in Guyana and was advised that there was none, but relatives of the deportee would have the responsibility to return to Guyana and take care of the person if there are no relatives living there. She was further told “Guyanese family takes care of their own.”
She said when she pointed out that it was not fair to Guyanese to accept someone who has never lived there but was being deported after committing a crime in another country, the woman became annoyed and asked whether she was questioning Guyana’s constitution.
The woman contended that her son was a “convict who paid his price” but said he never lied to any officials in order to be returned to Guyana.
“And I know he was not the first outsider who was issued travel documents… I have been trying to contact the news in Guyana for a long time,” the woman said yesterday.
She explained that her son had been a resident of the US for almost 20 years and when he arrived in the US he did so with a Suriname passport.
“When he had to go for the visa he would have had to present his passport and birth certificate and they were from Suriname,” the woman said.
She said she could not understand why the US officials supported by the Guyanese officials would want to send her son to a country that has never been his home and to which he has no ties.
Since her son’s return to the US on Wednesday, the mother said, she has been prevented from seeing him as he remains in custody. She said she is trying to get her son out of custody so he could continue his life as he has already served his time.
