The Guyana Police Force is today denying that it received instructions to ban Haitians from entering Guyana. Today, Tuesday, May 25, seventeen Haitian nationals were returned to their country of birth after being held in Guyana for two days.
The force in a press statement it had not been directed by any authority, neither has the commissioner of police been instructed by the Minister of Home Affairs to ban Haitian nationals from entering Guyana. According to the police there is no ban on Haitian nationals seeking to enter Guyana.
The PR department of the force said between Sunday May 23rd and Monday May 24th, seventeen out of a total of sixty-one (61) Haitian nationals who arrived aboard Caribbean Airlines Flight at Eugene Correira International Airport, Ogle were refused entry because they did not satisfy immigration requirements. The police said the seventeen Haitians were kept at the airport until a return flight was available.
Last year the Irfaan Ali led government came under fire for its treatment of Haitian Nationals. Then more than twenty Haitian including children were illegally detained at a facility on the West Coast of Berbice. Before the court could rule on the matter, they were dumped on the street in close proximity to the hotel where they were initially arrested from on suspicion of being smuggled. The Chief Justice did rule that their detention was illegal.