Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has accused the Government of being engaged in alleged “people smuggling”, citing the recent case where several Haitian nationals were caught entering Guyana illegally and using this country as

an in-transit hub to travel to French Guiana.

“We heard that they are registered here, but even if they are not, we believe that this Government is engaged in people smuggling. People come in, they get Government service and special help to go into French Guiana, illegally,” Jagdeo alleged while addressing a political meeting on Sunday.

Making a department an entire ministry to deal specifically with births and deaths (the Citizenship Ministry) is something that Jagdeo said has caught his attention. “We are watching it carefully because we have heard about the issuance of false birth certificates,” he asserted.

Jagdeo claimed if 10,000 false birth certificates were issued, which have the possibility of being used in the registration process, “then they (Government) can

even thwart the will at election time”.

“And we know not to trust these people, because they’ve done it before. They’ve been riggers before. So, we are keeping our eyes wide open,” the former Guyanese Head of State alleged, while referring to the People’s National Congress (PNC), the lead party in the coalition Government.

Jagdeo said Guyanese could not afford to become complacent, but must remain vigilant. “The day we close our eyes, we will wake up one morning and find that in this country, you won’t have rights anymore. And so it goes beyond sugar and the economic hardships, it’s also about what kind of country we want to live in, in the future. It is about what kind of country we want to raise our children in.”

In early June, it was revealed that several Haitians, both adults and children, were sent back to Haiti after it was suspected by the Police that they were reportedly part of a human smuggling ring.

Citizenship Minister Winston Felix had declined to give further details about the probe, but said the Police acted on the outcome of the investigation and upon the advice of its legal adviser.

Felix had disclosed that not only were discrepancies found with the Haitians’ documents, but “a collection of circumstances” were found which led to a decision to send them back. He did not rule out trafficking, saying that “it might be lurking in the horizon”.

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud had disclosed that the probe had found that some of the Haitians were entering Guyana to travel to other destinations. He disclosed that the investigation found that they were doing this for organised reasons.

Officials in neighbouring Suriname have claimed that many Haitians have been travelling there by plane on their way to French Guiana, but they could not convince immigration authorities of their onward journey.

Back in September 2016, at least 12 Haitian men were caught in Linden heading to neighbouring Brazil.