IN view of the recent crimes perpetrated against migrant women in Suriname and Guyana, and amidst continuous xenophobia in the societies of both countries, President of the Guyana Press Association (GPA), Nazima Raghubir, on Wednesday, celebrated International Women’s Day 2021 with a panel discussion themed “Migrant Women, COVID-19 and Gender-Based Violence”.

International Women’s Day this year was observed under the theme “Choose to Challenge”, and saw a series of social issues arising, particularly in relation to gender-based violence, migrants – particularly women – in Guyana, and how their lives have been affected by the pandemic.

Director of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in Guyana, Alex Theran, during the discussion, outlined a few common trends observed by the society since the advent of COVID-19 in Guyana.

“One of the trends that we’re seeing—particularly during COVID, is that people are still moving. Borders can be closed officially, but people in need will always find ways to get to where they can feel safe, or find support; so one of the trends we’re seeing is that people are still moving into Guyana during COVID, but may not have the same level of support, because they’re not being either registered or captured—the numbers aren’t being captured by the Government, and we’re seeing that particularly in the south, and in the west.”

She further detailed the need for various forms of support for migrant women, especially those residing outside of Region Four.
“A lot of people are coming from Venezuela, and they’re simply unable to feed themselves or their families. I’ve been out to the regions, and when I was in Region One, we made contact with a small settlement of Warau who had come over, and children were visibly malnourished, some families were together, others were separated, and they had really taken extreme steps to come to Guyana. It wasn’t a casual walk across the border or boat ride.

They put themselves and their families at great risk, because the situation that they’re facing where they’re coming from is very extreme, and they’re unable to support themselves and their families,” she added.

Deputy Representative of UNICEF to Guyana and Suriname, Irfan Akhtar, reinforced this, and buttressed Raghubir’s original point that migration was not a novel issue, to UNICEF or Guyana.
“From UNICEF’s side, of course the issue of migration is not new to us, and focusing especially on children on the move is very important for UNICEF. So I say, what Miss Alex has mentioned, that despite COVID restrictions, the movement has not stopped. People are coming in different ways, and there are different types of emerging needs.”
These needs, Akhtar noted, were much higher in females and children—girls especially, in terms of protection and access to basic services, such as access to water, access to health services, and access to education, and means of securing a livelihood.

VULNERABILITY AND VIOLENCE
While it is no secret that our society runs rampant with gender-based violence, the impacts and implications of COVID-19 have maximized the rate at which gender-based violence is perpetrated, due to lack of support networks and available resources for women.

“Women and girls are far more vulnerable to violence both in and outside of the home. People who might have been in a domestic violence situation are unable to leave because of lockdown restrictions,” Theran asserted, in a later dialogue within the discussion.

“We’ve seen global trends of women leaving the workforce, or not being able to find work in the workforce at much higher rates than men, and that’s across the world,” she added.
Further, the HIAS Director highlighted that such trends could cause women and girls to be more susceptible to violence both in and outside of their homes, since they no longer had means of supporting themselves, specifically here in Guyana. She placed emphasis on the difficulty migrant women face in these situations, particularly due to language barriers.

“Men might be more easily able to find work on a construction team, or do agriculture, and work with other colleagues who are speaking Spanish. But the language barrier can be a real barrier to entry into Guyanese society for many Venezuelan women and girls coming over the border,” she stressed.

Women and girls are also more prone to be victims of trafficking, due to language barriers, patriarchy in societies, and unequal gender opportunities, the panel noted.
Asked about areas that the international community should be looking at when it comes to protecting women and girls, Head of Development Cooperation for Guyana and Suriname in Georgetown Guyana for the Canadian High Commission, Janine Cocker, said this:

“I think the key issue is to stop normalizing violence against women and girls; and that’s breaking that cycle of violence that we all know about. How we treat our sons, our daughters, our nephews, our nieces; monitoring the language we use, and those kinds of things, so that it becomes completely unacceptable.”

She added: “It’s not just the international community’s responsibility. I think it’s everybody’s – in all of our families, and in all of society. There’s been some really good initiatives on the ground [in Guyana] that we can see coming up. You know, the hotline, some of the shelters, opportunities… you know, things like that. Economic independence for women also enables them to escape situations where they’re not [sic] dependent on somebody else. And I was pleased to see that there are some cottage industry workshops specifically for migrant women that the government came up with, recognising this issue, because these will help in breaking the cycle of violence.”

GUYANA AND THE FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Meanwhile, Theran lauded the Guyanese government for its initiatives in protecting women and girls, including the implementation of the Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) Unit; the 914 anti-domestic violence hotline, which will be revamped to suit the needs of non-English speakers; and the garments and accessories cottage industry, all of which fall under the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.

“I want to give a huge amount of credit to the Guyanese government for making Guyana a safe space, and a legal space for Venezuelans to be in this time of need. I want to applaud the Guyanese government for introducing Trafficking in Persons legislation. There are many, many countries being impacted by this Venezuelan situation, and I’ve worked in many displacement contexts, and Guyana is above and beyond, extremely welcoming and an extremely friendly place.”

HIAS Guyana works along organisations like the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and local partners such as the Guyana Sex Workers Coalition and the Guyana Women Miners’ Organization (GWMO), hospitals in Bartica and police departments, and have begun rolling out support groups in spaces for men and adolescent boys to learn how to break the cycle of violence.

SUPPORT NEEDED
In answering what the media could do to help and provide solutions for immigrants, Area Representative of UNICEF to Guyana and Suriname, Nicolas Pron, highlighted the importance of a society that is both aware of certain situations, and willing to provide assistance.
He also stated the need for the promotion and support of social cohesion in any way possible, as well as anti-stigma initiatives to ensure that communities benefit from the support and goodwill of all partners involved.

“Border entry requirements, extensions of stay, translation of legal documents, psychosocial support, especially to adolescents, and we need to agree—all of us—on a comprehensive plan to prioritise support. We are planning to deliver these to the host communities, and the migrants, and of course, last but not least, we must promote confidence, public confidence in the system at all levels,” he concluded.

“As the media, helping people understand the complexity of what’s happening is important. I think we take for granted that they know what’s going on. But who’s doing what? Who are the specialists? Who’s providing support for these immigrants, where can they go? What are the issues around it? I would say promote that. Promote these access issues; where migrants can go for support, what is actually happening, what is the government doing, what is everybody doing so that they can access these services?” Head of Development Cooperation for Guyana and Suriname in Georgetown, Guyana for the Canadian High Commission, Janine Cocker, weighed in.

“I would also say dispel myths about migrant populations as well. I think misinformation causes fear, and can lead to more negative outcomes, and on that trajectory, I think we can also condemn any violence that happens towards migrant populations, and sort of de-normalize violence as well, against women and girls,” she posited.