With American network, CBS News, reporting that the US Government has considered a plan to send third country deportees to Guyana as part of its mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, President Irfaan Ali today said while there have been discussions on migration matters with the US Secretary of State, there has been no talk about having deportees sent to Guyana to be imprisoned.
“Accepting deportees is not having persons in prison. What we are discussing is our partnership with the US and as the US unfolds its programmes and plans, wherever Guyana can be of support, we have expressed our support, but nothing about having prisons and having persons in prison and deportees here. Specific issues were discussed, which I am not going to go into detail here”, President Ali said.
Just after the change of the US administration, President Ali held discussions with the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. A statement from the US Department of State just after that meeting indicated that there were discussions in relation to issue of migration.
As part of its strategy to clamp down on illegal migration, the US through its Immigration and border control agencies have been sweeping through a number of communities across the US in search of undocumented immigrants. It has started to ship many of those illegal immigrants out and has been in talks with a number of countries, including in Latin America, to accept deportees other than their citizens as part of a third country programme.
President Ali made it clear today, that in his discussions with the US authorities, “there is nothing about accepting deportees, there are some specific issues which I will not go into details here in terms of the movement and flight of people. There is nothing specific at this moment”.
The President said he has not seen the report from CBS News, and therefore would not want to comment on the contents of that report.
“The US is a strong partner of Guyana and in my discussions with Secretary Rubio, we have discussed a range of issues including the migration issue”, he told News Source.
On Thursday, the Chambers of the Attorney General announced that a Government of Guyana team led by the Attorney General along with the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, met with a visiting team of law enforcement officers of the United States.
The US team included officials from the U.S Marshals Service and the U.S Embassy Regional Security Office.
The Attorney General said the two sides discussed continuing cooperation between the Government and law enforcement agencies of Guyana and their counterparts in the United States of America on strengthening cooperation on legal matters including rendering mutual assistance in criminal matters and extraditions between the two countries.
The US Government has been pushing for a number of deportation agreements with various countries to accept unauthorizes migrants, including those from other countries than their own.
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