— Prime Minister Nagamootoo urges Opposition elements

WHILE he agrees that the departure of Haitians should be better monitored, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo cautioned Opposition elements to stop picking on Haitians and making them into political scapegoats.

In his weekly column, My Turn, under the caption “H2H Hysteria and Haitians”, the Prime Minister said Guyanese should not rush to judgement that Haitians are either being trafficked to Guyana or are here to register as voters. “We need solid proof, not idle speculations.”

At the same time, he advised, every effort ought to be made by government agencies to encourage and facilitate the safe and smooth departure of Haitian visitors at designated ports of exit, either to Suriname or Brazil.

He noted that the opposition is seeing “jumbies everywhere” the latest being terrifying hordes of Haitians, whom Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has described as being at the centre of a “massive people-smuggling racket”.

“The statistics show that between January 1, 2019 and July 30, 2019, some 135,220 persons from 11 nationalities arrived in Guyana. Of those numbers, 41,272 were Cuban nationals. No protests were made over Cuban arrivals, or departures. A full-page ad from an anonymous interest has been appearing in a section of the print media, complaining about a reduced number of Cubans coming to shop here.

“During the past seven months 45,994 American nationals arrived. No protests have been made. Arrivals from Trinidad and Tobago numbered 11,119. No protest. But 8,476 Haitians arrived, and the Leader of the Opposition singled them out as being at the centre of a massive people smuggling racket”, Prime Minister Nagamootoo highlighted.

CARICOM CITIZENS
He pointed out that Haitians are not coming to Guyana illegally. “They are citizens of a Caricom-member state. They have benefitted from an Immigration Order that was unanimously approved by regional Heads of Government in July, 2018 to allow them an automatic six-month stay in all CARICOM member states. It has been long accepted by our leaders that Caricom should build bridges, not walls.”

The Prime Minister said that the opposition wants Guyana to keep out Haitians. “Their claim is that the Haitians are being encouraged to migrate to Guyana to be registered to vote in Guyana’s elections. The adage ‘he who alleges must prove’ is conveniently ignored, which makes this mischief xenophobic, intended only to build hatred again Haitians as Blacks.”
He concluded that it is evident that the targeting of Afro-Haitians as potential vote riggers is intended to send fears and insecurity among Indo-Guyanese and at the same time, to fortify the so-called “home” based against outsiders.

Haitians are today used as political scapegoats by people who should know that Guyana has once shared the despicable fate of Haiti as the two poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, he said, adding that the two countries shared a pariah status of having the most corrupt governments in the region.

Former PPP regimes had made incestuous alliance with deadly, local drugs cartels such as the notorious “phantom squad”, which resembled Haiti’s Tonton Macoute under the dictator, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier. They were both involved in extra-judicial killings.

BE GUIDED BY COMPASSION
He pleaded with Guyanese to let compassion guide them, and not to fall prey to racism.
Political Scientist, Dr. David Hinds, and Chairman of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly (IDPADA-G), Vincent Alexander have also called on Guyanese to condemned the racist attacks on the Haitians, highlighting too that as part of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), they too are entitled to an automatic six-month stay in member countries.

Noting that an attack on Haitians is an attack on ‘blackness,’ Dr. Hinds told this newspaper on Friday that this is another desperate attempt by the PPP. “It points to the desperation of the PPP. I think the PPP is desperate that they are likely to lose the coming elections and are now engaging in that kind of wanton racism. I think all Guyana, including East Indians, who themselves are immigrants of Guyana, all of us, except the Amerindians are immigrants, and all Guyanese, especially East Indians, should push back against those PPP attacks, because as I said it is an attack not only on Haitians, and not only on blackness, but an attack on people who are migrating from one country to the other,” Dr Hinds explained.

For the first seven months of 2019, Cuban nationals entering Guyana have outnumbered other regional travellers, including Haitians, by several thousand. There has been much debate regarding the arrival figures of nationals of the sister Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country of Haiti in other sections of the media as members of the public have criticised the xenophobic focus placed on the French–speaking Haitians by those media houses.

While emphasis is placed on Haitians, the statistics tell a different story. Statistics released by the Department of Citizenship revealed that for the first seven months of this year, a total of 41,272 Cuban nationals came to Guyana via the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), outnumbering by almost 33,000 the 8,476 Haitians who came.

For each of the months between March and June this year, an average of 6,338 Cubans came to Guyana via the CJIA, and according to the statistics, during that same period, the figure for Haitian nationals fluctuated, with the highest recorded being 2,008 for the month of May.

Overall, during the seven-month period, 45,944 Americans travelled to Guyana, in addition to 2,980 Barbadians; 5,048 Brazilians; 2,548 British; 12,259 Canadians; 1,995 Chinese; 41,272 Cubans; 8476 Haitians; 679 Indians; 2,900 Surinamese; and 11, 119 Trinidadians – a total of 135,220.