GUYANA | Walton Desir wants urgent meeting on Venezuela/Guyanese border issue

GEORGETOWN,  Guyana, October 17, 2023 - Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Amanza Walton-Desir, has called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hugh Todd to convene an urgent meeting of the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Relations to brief members on the developments with regards to the border controversy case before the International Court of Jurist (ICJ).

This as well as the ongoing Venezuelan migrant crisis, Walton-Desir stated, in a statement are critical issues of the border controversy and the escalating Venezuelan migrant crisis that demands our immediate attention.

The shadow minister further stated “these matters have clear implications for our national security, stability, and international relations and it therefore is essential that we address these challenges with the diligence and vigilance that this state of affairs warrants.”

She noted too that “the former Chair of the Committee, Raphael Trotman had convened such a meeting in January of 2021 which allowed Members to receive important information and reaffirmed the commitment of both sides of the House to the preservation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana.”

In 2022 Walton-Desir indicated that “the PPP/C administration brought to the National Assembly the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, which they used their one seat majority to pass into law as Act No. 9 of 2021.

Particularly, this Act introduced into our laws a seemingly harmless provision which the PPP/C Government said was intended to simplify the requirements for obtaining a Guyana Birth Certificate.”

The shadow minister had warned then that the law provides a means for any person to be registered as a born Guyanese, without the need to provide cogent evidence that they were indeed born in Guyana.

The shadow minister had indicated that Russia had cited the protection of the lives of Russian citizens in the Donbas as justification for military action against Ukraine.

Walton-Desir also reminded the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) was welcoming of economic refugees and indicated “our Party wishes to reiterate that despite these deep concerns, we remain committed to the comfortable settlement of these economic migrants in our homeland – as demonstrations of our typical Guyanese hospitality and our full compliance with our international humanitarian obligations to refugees.”

She noted “nevertheless, because of the incompetence of the PPP/C administration, the situation is exacerbated and the dangers heightened by the facts of our extremely porous borders, lax system of immigration and border control, and the inability of the government to determine who is crossing our borders out of real economic necessity.”

Adding to her concern is what she said is government’s  intent to covertly effect tens of thousands of birth registrations, particularly in those far-flung hinterland regions, using an established network of PPP/C aligned Justices of the Peace, Toshaos, and Notaries Public.

The shadow minister warned the danger is compounded by the fact that “the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is engaged in office-based registration and not house-to-house registration, which means that any person in possession of a Guyana Birth Certificate, aged 14 years and above can present themselves at the relevant GECOM office and must be entered on the National Register of Registrants.”