— Guyana continues to engage Suriname’s government at the highest level to resolve matter, says VP Jagdeo

VICE-PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo said Guyana will continue to engage Suriname to ensure that the authorities in the neighbouring country follow through with a promise to license Guyanese fisherfolk.

He gave the assurance during a meeting with fishermen at the Classic International Hotel and Resort in Skeldon, Region Six, on Sunday.

The fishermen during the meeting complained that the Suriname authorities are yet to grant them the licences promised to ply their trade in Suriname’s waters and that they have been harassing them.

Mr Jagdeo said the Government of Guyana has been engaging the Government of Suriname at the highest level and pointed out that while the Suriname authorities have shown willingness to address the matter, the people issuing the licences are pushing back.

The issuing of the licences, he said, will mean that they (people who are pushing back) no longer benefit from the old corrupt system from which they had been benefiting for years.

Guyanese fisherfolk have been subjected to exorbitant prices for the rental of licences to ply their trade in Suriname’s waters for the past decade.

The licences will be given to boat owners at a cost of 500 Suriname Dollars (SRDs) annually. In the past, the fishers paid as much as US$4000 in order to rent a licence from a Surinamese, so that they could fish.

In addition to dealing with this high cost, the fisherfolk are sometimes forced to give the bulk of their catch at cheap rates to the person whose licence they had rented.

If they are not in possession of the required licence, they are held, their catches seized and they would usually have to pay fines ranging from US$10,000 to US$12,000.

Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha related that prior to assuming government in 2020, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration had been engaging the Suriname authorities on the licence matter.

On assumption of Government in 2020, he said the Suriname authorities were re-engaged and they had proposed to form a government company to issue the licences, since their laws do permit the granting of such licences to Guyanese.

The government company was expected to give the licences to the Guyanese fishermen, but this is yet to happen, even though Guyana has submitted the names for 150 licences for local fishermen.

On Sunday, the fishermen complained that the Suriname authorities want them to reduce their boat from 40 feet to 30 feet and take their boats to Suriname with catches, among other issues.
These demands by the Suriname authorities they view as harassment.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd, who was also present at the meeting, said Guyana will continue to advocate for affected fishermen.

Minister Mustapha is hoping for an early resolution of the matter.