Rickford Burke President Of the Caribbean Guyana Institute For Democracy Clears The Air

Submitted by Rickford Burke, The Guyanese-American President of the New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)

I shall be happy if my letter can receive due prominence on your blog. I have read some of the comments on your blog, in response to statements attributed to me in a press release issued yesterday by CGID’s Director of Communications, Jevon Suralie. First let me remind all that I respect and will advocate for the sovereignty of Barbados as well as its right to conceptualize and enact any domestic policy its elected government chooses.

I agree that the immigration and other laws of Barbados MUST be respected and that violators of the law should be brought to justice. However, I also believe that domestic laws, such as immigration regulations, in any Caricom country, must be congruent with the spirit and intent of Caricom, and must be enforced equitably and fairly, and that people’s human and other rights must be respected and NOT abridged. Individuals must be treated humanly and with human dignity, in keeping with internationally accepted norms and values.

As I said in the CGID statement, “We agree that everyone must abide by the law and that anyone who commits crimes must be brought to justice. However, this must be within the framework of the rule of law and international norms of civil rights and fundamental fairness. We also agree that immigration policy throughout the region needs to be rationalized. In this context, unilateral, singular and uncoordinated action by one government is counterproductive to a harmonized regional policy approach that would be compatible with deeper integration, which we all seek.”

I firmly believe that no one country should enact such policies as Barbados has. Rather there should be a Caricom approach. The response to Thompson’s policy from around the region alone establishes the raison d’être for my expressions of concerns and criticism. This has indeed fractured Caribbean unity.

A cursory review of the relevant article in the Nation newspaper will establish that when Prime Minister Thompson announced his new immigration policy on May 5, I, in an interview with Tony Best, commended the Prime Minister for attempting to address the illegal immigration problem. I also said then that his granting of a form of amnesty to Caricom nationals who entered Barbados prior to 2005 and who remain undocumented, was good public policy and a step in the right direction.

However, I did express serious reservations about his plans to deport those enter after 2005 and remain undocumented. At that time I reserved judgment to observe and analyze the implementation of this aspect of the policy. This is where I part ways with Prime Minister Thompson, who I like. (Apart from this issue, I think his policies are pragmatic).

As a human rights advocate, I will always speak out against raiding the homes of families with women and children for non-criminal reasons, such as immigration. Furthermore, I continue to believe that immigration and traffic violations have no place in criminal court, so long as there is no criminal element to the instant violation. They, in my view are civil matters which should be resolved in the civil term.

The Arbitrary and systematic “deporting” or “removal” of Caricom nationals from a Caricom country at the instant of Minister’s order, for reasons other that criminal convictions, without due process, is bothersome to me. It not only potentially undermines an individual’s human rights, it also undermines Caribbean unity. This is subjective, political territory.

The power to deport is vested in a Minister who is a creature of the executive branch of government, and for which there is no “initial” judicial role. Hence, there could be inherent, fundamental perversion and abuses of the process, as well as abridgements of extant Caribbean integration principles when we go down this road.

I am Guyanese but my grandmother is Bajan, so I am uniquely positioned to evaluate and critique this policy. The largest immigrant block in Barbados is Guyanese. It was fully well known that block would be most affected by the enforcement of such a policy, as the Prime Minister’s own statistics indicate.

Thompson should therefore have been more sensitive to this and handle the matter as a Caricom issue rather that a Barbados issue, or work with the relative governments, like Guyana’s, to stamp out immigration fraud, curb access to and uttering of forged instruments and documents, etc.

I sincerely believe what I said in the CGID statement. “Prime Minister Thompson must halt all draconian immigration practices and confer with his regional counterparts to conceptualize a more “altruistic, uniform and progressive” immigration policy that is congruous with the spirit of Caribbean integration and free movement of peoples as envisioned by the revised Treaty of Chaguramas.”

I believe him when he says that the mistreatment of persons will not be condoned and that perpetrators will be disciplined. I await that course of action where appropriate and also look forward to cases in which immigration officers who were falsely or unfairly accused of wrong doing will be exonerated.

This is the bottom line. If a Guyanese commits a crime in Barbados and he is found guilty by a court of law – then jail him/her. If a Guyanese violates the immigration law of Barbados by uttering forged documents – then jail them and send them back home. However, if a Guyanese overstays his time in Barbados, done raid his home at midnight and drag his wife and children down to immigration. Treat them with dignity. The government must work with other governments in the region to devise a humane way, within the context of Caribbean integration, to resolve this issue as a region.

What Prime Minister Thompson should also do however, is tell President Bharrat Jagdeo, to start respecting the rights of Guyanese citizens first, before he asks others to do so, and create the economic and social conditions for Guyanese to stay in Guyana.