IT MAY be viewed by some as superfluous for the Guyana Parliament having to pass a motion to remind governments of the Caribbean Community to respect the rights of immigrants living and working in other member states of the regional economic integration movement. However, the bipartisan support given to the motion, as moved by the Alliance for Change (AFC), would certainly have been influenced by the multiplicity of reports, from various sources, and not just the region’s media, about the humiliating and inhumane treatment meted out to Guyanese nationals in particular in a few CARICOM jurisdictions, with Barbados topping the list.

The Barbadian Prime Minister, David Thompson, left Guyana, where he participated in the 30th Heads of Government Conference, with the promise to have an “independent review” of the claims of discriminatory and inhumane treatment against Guyanese nationals by Barbados’ immigration personnel.

As reported in our yesterday’s edition, the AFC’s motion, endorsed by the National Assembly, entreated the Government of Guyana to “intercede with its sister CARICOM states, through diplomatic and any other means, with regard to representing the rights and protection of Guyanese nationals residing and travelling in Barbados and the wider Community…”

In an editorial last Monday, entitled ‘CARICOM’s Ticklish Migration Problem’, the Trinidad Express newspaper noted that Community nationals “at the centre of the (immigration) storm,” in the case of Barbados, “turned out to have been Guyanese nationals,” and added:

“But the more fundamental issue of intra-regional migration of the people of the region cuts deeply to the heart of the matter regarding free movement and its application as a linchpin in the aspirations for a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), the migration of people in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families…”

In her contribution to Thursday’s parliamentary debate on the motion initiated by the AFC’s leader, Raphael Trotman, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, made it pellucidly clear that while the Guyana Government fully respects the sovereignty of all nations, it had no alternative but to condemn the reports of mistreatment of Guyanese and other CARICOM nationals, in the particular case of Barbados.

The Foreign Minister also referred to an amnesty offered to undocumented Barbadians who had entered Guyana prior to December 31, 2008.

It is to be hoped that as a consequence of bilateral and multilateral discussions that took place during the CARICOM summit here, all governments will seek to ensure that correct procedures are followed by their immigration services, in relation to all nationals entering their jurisdictions, without any form of discrimination and, most certainly, not having to suffer physical and/or verbal abuse and degrading treatment.

Such a commitment by ALL of the governments of our 15-member Community will be consistent with the leaders “recognition,” as recorded in the end-of-summit communiqué, that “in the spirit of the Revised Treaty of CARICOM, and the requisites of international law, all migrants should be accorded humane treatment…”