GUYANA has not received reports of any deportees following the end of the amnesty. Director General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and non-resident High Commissioner of Guyana to Barbados, Elisabeth Harper, said, however, it was not something they were focussing on.
She was speaking to the media yesterday at the Amaryllis Beach Resort, Hastings, Christ Church, where she and Senior Superintendent and Deputy Chief Immigration Officer Carol Lewis-Primo were renewing the passports of Guyanese.
The amnesty ran from June to December 31, 2009 for CARICOM nationals who had entered Barbados prior to December 31, 2005, and remained here for more than eight years without regularising their status.
At that time, it was reported in the Guyana Chronicle many Guyanese who had made Barbados their home had reluctantly returned.
Prime Minister David Thompson said Government had received about 300 applications for amnesty, but unofficial estimates put the number of illegal immigrants here in the thousands.
Guyana’s late Honorary Consul, Norman Faria, said then the amnesty had caused some anxiety and stress among Guyanese.
Harper said their first priority was to institute interim measures to ensure some of the more immediate consulate issues were dealt with.
“We also have a system in place for those who need their machine readable passports to come home to Guyana to have those processed. The timeline for those applications is one week,” she said.
In addition, she said they would be appointing a replacement for Faria soon.
“We will be, very shortly, appointing a new consulate representative because we understand the need for somebody to handle the consular issues of Guyanese in Barbados and we are very mindful it is not just about passports but it is a wider issue of looking to see the possibilities of increased trade and investment,” she said.
Faria, 64, passed away on May 25 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he had been a patient for two weeks.
Any concerned Guyanese here can contact the officials from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Amaryllis today or at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Georgetown after they leave tonight or through the Guyana-Barbados Association. (CA)
