-allow them to work, pursue an education

THE United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has disclosed that between August 3 to August 5, 2021, over 200 Venezuelan refugees and migrants were registered and documented by Guyana’s immigration officials in Region One, before being issued with a government registration certificate.

This disclosure was made on Thursday by Head (ag) of the UNHCR Office in Guyana, Suenanica de Rozario, during the recently concluded US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Programme (HAP) medical outreach in the Barima-Waini region.

The UNHCR used the event to partner with the immigration officials in the region to document and register all foreign nationals, who were in Port Kaituma and Mabaruma, to access services during the outreach.

UNHCR statistics revealed that as of December 2020, there were over 22,000 Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Guyana. Venezuelan migrants have been seeking to build a life in many countries including Guyana since the onset of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela in the mid-2000s.

Guyana has seen a consistent influx of citizens from the Spanish-speaking nation and officials here have been working significantly to facilitate them. The government registration certificate issued to migrants and refugees incorporates a legal stay permit issued and renewed by the Government of Guyana. This permit allows those individuals the chance to not just legally stay in Guyana, but also to work, earn and educate themselves.

De Rozario noted that while a large number of Venezuelan migrants have settled in Region One, they have been increasingly making their way into Regions Two, Four, Seven and Nine.
“What UNHR Guyana has done is to work in collaboration with the immigration department of Guyana and we are here today with our immigration counterparts. We are supporting them in the issuance and the extension of stay permits for Venezuelan refugees and migrants. Over the past three days, the immigration department has managed to document and issue stay permits for over 200 refugees and migrants here in Guyana,” she explained.

She noted that the UNHCR has been committed to assisting the Government of Guyana with its documentation efforts to ensure that those migrants and refugees currently in the country have access to resources.

Further, the UNHCR Guyana head noted that at the five-day medical outreach, the most sought-after services among the migrants and refugees were dental care and optometry. She noted that access to healthcare is a basic necessity that must be extended to anyone in need and she used the opportunity to commend the government’s efforts to expend additional health resources to the regions that have an increased foreign national population.

Meanwhile, the International Office for Migration (IOM) Chief of Mission, Robert Natiello, also lauded the government’s commitment to the affected Venezuelans.

He noted that the IOM recognises the significant support the Government of Guyana has given to Venezuelan migrants during this period of humanitarian crisis.

Natiello said that even with Guyana’s support, a multi-stakeholder approach is needed to ensure enough resources are provided to cater to both the residents of Region One and the Venezuelan migrants.

“The IOM acknowledges that the growing number of migrants from Venezuela has really placed an increased burden and pressure on the resources this country has to address and provide basic services to the community, like housing, water, and other services, and being able to address these needs really requires a multi-stakeholder approach,” said Natiello.