Controversy erupted on Monday evening between the Government and the opposition Alliance For Change over assistance that should be offered to a group of migrants found stranded outside a city supermarket.

On Monday afternoon and into the evening, the group of over 40 adults and children were observed on the pavement outside the Real Value Supermarket on Church Street seeking assistance.

Leader of the Alliance for Change, Nigel Hughes, visited the scene and met with the group.

During the roadside meeting with the AFC Leader, some of the persons presented Venezuelan identification cards and claimed that they had traveled to Georgetown on the invitation of the President after meeting with the President last week in Essequibo.

The President’s office has since denied the claim.

One of the members of the group explained to the AFC Leader that during a recent meeting with the President, he was asked to provide a contact number. He said he later received a call from someone who said they were from the President’s office and was told that they needed to travel to Georgetown to meet with the President.

“President tell me three day we gon call. One girl call me and say come to Georgetown…and see President”, the man explained.

The AFC Leader said while he was meeting with the persons, Minister within the Ministry of the Prime Minister Kwame McKoy arrived on the scene and also started to engage the persons.

McKoy was later captured on camera facing off with a woman over assistance that should be offered to the group. With his mobile phone in hand recording the confrontation, McKoy was later observed leaving the scene, while declaring “Nigel Hughes and the AFC said he will help them”.

Hours later in an unprecedented move on Monday night, the President’s personal military aide, Lieutenant Colonel Earl Edghill of the Guyana Defence Force, appeared on the President’s Facebook page in a video recorded response to the controversy.

The military officer said last Thursday during a visit by the President to Essequibo, a number of persons surrounded the President to take photographs and ask for assistance.

“At no time at all, Mr. President or persons associated with the President invited anyone to Georgetown”, Edghill stated.

The President’s military aide then explained that one day after the President’s visit to Essequibo, a group of persons claiming to be from Essequibo turned up outside the President’s official residence at State House.

He said the persons claimed that they had been instructed by the President to come to the city.

Lt. Colonel Edghill said he made contact with the President and was instructed by the President to provide humanitarian assistance to the persons as he, the President, never invited or encouraged the persons to come to the city.

“We took them to the One Guyana Kitchen just opposite State House and we fed just about 30 persons, adults and about 15 children ranging from as young as newborn to about 9-years-old. We then give them hampers as instructed by His Excellency. I then made contact with the Guyana Defence Force and got a bus to assist with transporting them to Parika. While at Parika, they were given dinner, they were housed for the night, and they were given breakfast the next morning. There was other financial assistance that they received as well as transportation on the boat to Essequibo”, Lt. Col Edghill stated.

The military aide said it was now “appalling to hear and see the same set of individuals are in town making outlandish claims”.

He said “I feel as though our assistance has been wasted and we are being targeted without cause. I will present photos to show that on Friday they received their hampers”, the GDF Officer stated before ending the video recording.

The statement by the President’s personal military aide was the only one released by the Government of Guyana on the issue on Monday evening.

Back outside the Real Value Supermarket, AFC Leader Nigel Hughes said he had arranged accommodation, meals and assistance for the stranded persons. He said he had also contacted representatives of the international community on the issue.

“We have arranged for them to have accommodation somewhere in Georgetown overnight and we hope to at least raise funds to allow them to either go back to where they were at Charity, we certainly will be contacting the international community overnight to indicate to them what the Guyana Government’s position is, in relation to the treatment of refugees. Because these people are clearly refugees and they were encouraged to come here at the invitation of a high ranking Government official”, Mr. Hughes told reporters.

In the past few years, Guyana has seen a swell of migrants coming from the bordering communities in Venezuela and seeking assistance. While many have remained in the bordering communities, others have traveled to other areas including Charity, Parika, Georgetown, Soesdyke and Linden, to seek assistance and in many cases to find work and settle. It is estimated that there may be more than 40,000 Venezuelan refugees living in Guyana.

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