Securing our borders

ON February 13th, 2018, this paper featured an article about three Venezuelan women who were fined and ordered deported by a local magistrate. They claimed to have come to Guyana in order to escape the crisis in their home country, and that narrative is hardly a new one over the past few years. Right above that article was another report, this time of a Peruvian overstaying! What this indicates is that we need to more and more have a national conversation about migration.

Our law-enforcement, military and border control services are dutifully working to ensure that Guyana’s territorial integrity, but as Guyana begins to leap forward post-2020, one can only imagine this being more and more a problem. We are used to debating Guyanese leaving the country, not foreigners coming here instead, so in many ways this is a fresh concept.

But migration, if left unchecked, can lead to a multitude of outcomes, facilitating criminal activities being amongst the most worrisome. As we cannot always differentiate between illegal migrants who are criminally inclined and those merely overstaying their time, illegal migration poses risks we should not accept. We must make every effort to continue to regulate our borders effectively.

Even further, has there been much discussion about the potential for a large-scale refugee crisis in Venezuela? With elections due this year, and growing civil unrest over the past few years, this may escalate into a conflict if there is no resolution soon.
Recently, a police officer quite notoriously stole a helicopter and dropped grenades on the Supreme Court! While this is but an isolated incident that can’t seriously be considered a coup attempt, it is no secret that there is wide dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs within our neighbour’s borders.

If a civil war breaks out in Venezuela, we can expect far more refugees than those three women, and given Venezuela’s population numbers 31.7 million, according to the World Bank, even a small percentage of Venezuelans fleeing conflict would totally overwhelm Guyana’s capacities.

As the situation develops, we must remain vigilant and adjust our preparedness accordingly, so as to meet such challenges. One need only to look at the Syrian civil war to appreciate the difficulties such conflicts inflict, both on the civilians involved and the nations that take them in.

From an economic standpoint, there is also an interesting question to ask, as Guyana does indeed need people to help develop its interior regions. But what is nonetheless clear is that oil wealth will attract far more migrants from our neighbours which we can either accept, temporarily accept, or deport.
These are just a few of the migration issues Guyanese must confront as our country grows and stretches into new experiences. Our approach should not just be to deal with them on an ad hoc basis, however, but to embrace each new issue in a more holistic plan to address the increasing local importance and impact of migration.

We are therefore heartened to see President David Granger declaring Whitewater, Barima-Waini (Region One) and other communities near Guyana’s border with Venezuela, frontline communities in the fight to ensure the country’s territorial integrity.
Besides, the military setting up of a new patrol base in that area will go a far way in providing the needed protection of our border against the background of reported criminal activities mainly committed by Venezuelans. Guyana’s border with Venezuela is nearly 800 kilometres long and villages such as Whitewater, Baramita, Kaikan and Arau are all border communities, which the President described as Guyana’s guardians. “You’re like our guardian, you’re like our shield, you are in the frontline and let me tell you this, since Guyana became independent in 1966, 52 years ago, our western neighbour, Venezuela, has been claiming this very land that you’re living on. You all are not Venezuelans, you are Guyanese, but Venezuela has been claiming this land all the way up to the Essequibo River,” he told residents of Whitewater.

The commander-in-chief told residents that the borders between Venezuela and Guyana
have already been decided and that the country is readying itself to defend its territory at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

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