Government to assist in re-settlement of deportees

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Mar 8, CMC – The Guyana government Wednesday announced plans to implement programmes aimed at reintegrating deportees into the society
Citizenship Minister, Winston Felix, told reporters that while the government has no control over who are deported, it would continue to engage the relevant authorities from the countries where the nationals are being deported from.
He said that the government would also seek to assist those organisations engaged in private programmes to reintegrate deportees and that the ministry would also work with the Guyana Police Force and the Foreign Affairs Ministry to monitor and assist the returning nationals.
“I know that there are private initiatives taken to assist in resettlement of what they call involuntary re-migrants. There are programmes developing privately, and government is also considering the best ways to assist these involuntary re-migrants to be resettled in Guyana,” Felix said.
As at December 2016, an estimated 24 Guyanese nationals have been deported from the United States with some of them having left here as children.
Felix said nationals who often overstay when travelling overseas also put a burden on Guyana’s immigration system.
 “These are issues we have been coping with day after day, week after week. I see no reason to dramatise it. We have a new situation developing in the world today, and all we have to do is to organise ourselves, to be able to effectively manage the situation if the numbers increase at any one time,” Felix said.
He said the government would do its best to create an enabling environment for deportees to become productive citizens and urged the Guyanese not overstay their time in other countries.