THE end of the war against Iran couldn’t have come any sooner. Political commentators and pundits will have much to write about in the coming months and years – the missteps, foibles, behind‑the‑scenes shenanigans and the odious nature of modern-day war.
Whichever way you slice it, this ill-conceived war ended with a resounding victory for Iran. In the streets of the Middle East, Iran is not only stronger, but it is seen as the sole protector of the Palestinian people and the only state that has managed to halt Israeli expansion and aggression in the region since the 1948 war.
The global economies that depend on Gulf oil and gas are breathing a sigh of relief. As oil prices drop, manufacturers in India will most certainly begin to re‑hire millions of workers who lost their jobs when factories were shuttered at the beginning of the war.
UN World Migration reports show that India is the single largest country of origin for international migrant workers, with roughly 18 million people born in India working abroad as of 2020–2024. And this brings me to Guyana.
Guyana is unmistakably on a rapid path of infrastructural transformation, with growth evident in every major sector. In 2024, President Irfaan Ali projected that, in the medium term, Guyana will require between 100,000 and 160,000 foreign workers, with “a very large, very significant” share of the labour and semi‑skilled workforce expected to come from outside the country.
In 2025 alone, more than twelve thousand foreign workers obtained work permits, up from fewer than five thousand just two years earlier. Into this context walked thirty‑eight Indian workers at a quarry in Region Seven, whose complaints about unpaid wages, seized passports, and harsh conditions have now been weaponised for partisan gain.
The issue gained national attention after Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed and his WIIN entourage descended on Batavia with cameras and press releases, suddenly discovering a deep love for migrant workers’ rights. Overnight, Azruddin recast himself as the patron saint of exploited labour, accusing the government of turning a blind eye to human trafficking and state‑sanctioned abuse.
Last week, the former Editor‑in‑Chief of the now‑defunct Stabroek News re‑emerged online as Kiskadee Watch and eagerly took up the chorus. The new outlet has devoted itself to amplifying Azruddin and WIIN’s narrative that the Ali administration is complicit in human trafficking. This is presented as brave, insurgent journalism. In reality, it is a three‑syllable echo chamber. Like the bird it is named after, Kiskadee Watch is loud, repetitive and utterly convinced that shrillness is the same thing as song.
Here is where the performance collapses under its own hypocrisy. Trafficking in human beings is a despicable crime that should never be tossed around with cavalier abandon to score political points. Yet those now posing as the last line of defence for foreign workers were entangled in their own ugly history of alleged abuse. The sanctioned Mohamed’s Enterprise, Azruddin’s family company, has already been dragged before the courts over the treatment of its workers. According to local media reports, the company was forced to settle a lawsuit brought by three former employees who claimed they were tortured and abused by the Mohameds.
So, when Azruddin Mohamed, freshly marketed as a human‑rights crusader, stands on a riverbank lecturing the country about the sanctity of migrant labour, it is not compassion we are witnessing. It is a man under indictment abroad, sanctioned for financial misconduct, now wrapping himself in the language of human trafficking to immunise himself from scrutiny at home. And it is a newly minted online outlet dutifully repeating his talking points.
The baseless, blanket accusation that the Government of Guyana is turning a blind eye to human trafficking does more than smear an administration; it throws a shadow over every foreign worker on a construction site.
It encourages the public to see every migrant as a likely trafficking victim and every employer as a potential trafficker, regardless of facts. It also sends a chill through the boardrooms of companies that have invested heavily in Guyana and now find themselves cast as suspects simply because the country does not yet have enough workers to fill the jobs they have created.
The ultimate objective is not the protection of Indian quarry workers or any other migrant worker. The objective is to drive a spoke into the wheels of growth and development, to slow or derail President Ali’s vision, and to recast a fugitive from justice as a moral guardian of the poor.
Once Azruddin Mohamed and his political allies realised they could milk the complaints of a few foreign workers for maximum political effect, they threw caution to the wind.
What we are witnessing is not a new age of accountability journalism, nor a sudden awakening of conscience in the opposition benches. It is a kiskadee chorus: loud, insistent, and always saying the same thing – whatever serves the ambitions of the man holding the megaphone.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.