— Chinese present themselves to do their own paperwork, applications
TO PROMOTE transparency and rule out Guyanese sponsors, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee met on Tuesday with that ministry’s listed sponsors who apply for visas and other things in respect to Brazilian nationals working in the mining fields in Guyana. In the auditorium of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), at Camp Road and Young Street in Kingston, Georgetown, he encouraged those Brazilians to present themselves at the MoHA to file for their own paper work, in order to eliminate Guyanese sponsorship.
Rohee felt it was important to meet with the Brazilian nationals applying for various permits and visas, having had to deal with the matter for years; especially since there is now a fee attached to each of those services, besides conditions to be met for each of the three categories of visas.
Rohee told the gathering that the MoHA had received from Brazilians complaints in relation to the length of time it takes for their documents to be processed. “We don’t know why it takes such a long time to issue applications, but some [Brazilian nationals] noted that they have been awaiting their work permits for sometime since in 2011. But during (that) time, we put a hold on all applications, because we had to clarify certain things in respect to the activities of the Brazilian nationals,” Rohee explained.
The minister explained that certain interesting activities in the mining communities had to be clarified before processing of applications to clear the existing backlog resumed. He declared that all applications were processed expeditiously, but he was not in a position to say whether the backlog was cleared. Nevertheless, measures were in place to clear the backlog of applications from Brazilian nationals.
Rohee told the gathering that certain facilitators of Brazilian nationals had inserted themselves in the paperwork process at the MoHA, and they were being paid a fee to do so. He added that once the MoHA finds that documents were forged, appropriate action would be taken against those document holders.
The MoHA’s concern was that the Guyanese sponsors who had inserted themselves in the process were creating difficulties for the process involved. The MHA has also learnt that the Guyanese sponsors were not handing over the documents to the Brazilians unless they were paid thousands of dollars, even though the MoHA never had any problems with the Brazilians.
Minister Rohee said, “In the process, they are giving the MoHA a bad name, and they have tarnished the ministry. But, for example, the Chinese that come here present themselves at the MoHA to do their applications and paperwork; but the Brazilians, on the other hand, have sponsors, which makes things different.”
The minister urged the Brazilians to visit the MoHA themselves to file for their own applications and work permits, thereby making the process transparent.
Chief Immigration Officer Carol Primo; ‘E&F’ Divisional Commander Clifton Hicken; MoHA Permanent Secretary, Angela Johnson; and Greta McDonald of the General Registrar’s Office of the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) were also present at the meeting.