By Svetlana Marshall

OVER the last 18 months, 186 CARICOM nationals have been denied entry into Guyana and among the key reasons provided by the Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix was lack of sufficient funds. Felix made the disclosure on Wednesday during a parliamentary sub-committee meeting on the mandates, roles and functions of the Department of Citizenship with special focus on visas, work permits and citizenship. He, along with Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, appeared before the committee, headed by People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Chief Whip Gail Teixeira.
Additionally, the Minister of Citizenship told the committee that a number of non-nationals, some of whom have been working, have overstayed their time without any attempt to apply for extensions.

Minister Felix’s power-point presentation and written responses to the committee had caused the PPP Chief Whip to question both of the Government ministers on the immigration policy of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Government.
“Do we want as a country to have more people come, work, invest… or do we want to ensure that we are controlling the movement and therefore in some cases restricting?” Teixeira asked.
In response, the Foreign Affairs Minister said Guyana as a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) has certain obligations with respect to the movement of people.
He said while there are provisions for CARICOM nationals under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which gave rise to the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), certain requirements must be met. Despite the commitment made by Guyana with respect to the movement of non-nationals, Minister Greenidge emphasised all the established requirements must be met.
“We are committed to honouring the obligations that are in the Treaty of Chaguaramas and the CSME and of course the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). And those will cause us to look more carefully at the policies that were implemented,” Minister Greenidge said.
He emphasised that while Caribbean nationals are allowed to enter Guyana for a period of six months, upon arrival they must satisfy the minimum requirements.
Minister Felix, in offering his contributions, said Government is concerned about the issue of Trafficking in Persons (TIPs).
“For example, women and young children arriving at your port and they have no support. They don’t have any evidence of how they will support themselves for a month. It must trigger the mind of an immigration officer that something is amiss and some of the persons were treated like that because we did not want to allow the development of any issue of Trafficking in Persons,” Minister Felix explained. However, he said the issue is currently under review.
While the country has denied access to 186 CARICOM nationals over the last 18 months, in 2014, it approved 1473 visa applications under five categories, namely business, employment, courtesy, student and visitor with business representing the largest block – some 790.
However, in 2015, the number of visas approved by Guyana dropped to 1171, but the number of employment visas remain relatively high at 569. Already for this year, 880 visa applications have been approved.
Additionally, 1117 work permits and extensions of stay were granted for 2014, 1525 for 2015 and at the end of June 2016, 194 work permits had been granted.