| During January, the Department issued 445 visas to various foreigners seeking to enter Guyana.Minister of Citizenship Winston FelixThis disclosure was made by Minister of Citizenship,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, Winston Felix,Jerseys Wholesale, during the 2016 budget debate held last week.Felix told the National Assembly that the foreigners were granted entry in Guyana for various reasons. Earlier this month Minister of Finance Winston Jordan had presented a National Budget titled Stimulating Growth, Restoring Confidence ‘The Good Life Beckons’ to the tune of approximately $231B.Commending Finance Minister Winston Jordan on what he described as an excellent Budget, Felix noted that the coalition Government will give reality to the enjoyment of a glorious future for all Guyanese and the Department of Citizenship will play its role.This role the Technocrat Minister told the Assembly is one which transcends all the productive sectors of the Government.He explained that “the Department of Citizenship plays an essential role in relation to the work of the Ministries of Tourism,Cheap Jerseys From China, Natural Resources, Forestry, Agriculture, Public Infrastructure and Health and its Immigration Services must perform with high degree of efficiency to ensure that visitors and persons pursuing business in Guyana would be allowed to do so with systems and procedures to facilitate free and easy entry and movement in Guyana void of delays and frustrations, regular experiences of the past.”Additionally, Felix said that the Department must play a role in confronting global terrorist threats and transnational crime of migration and trafficking in persons.“The Department of Citizenship offers services to citizens and foreigners such as visas for Visitors, Students, Employment and Business to allow for business development and enjoyment of Guyana’s Tourism product.”According to Felix, in the years of 2014 –the Department of Citizenship issued 1473 visas to visitors. Last year, 1171 were issued to non–nationals.The department is also responsible for the naturalisation of persons residing in Guyana and satisfying the residency requirements, and the registering of persons as citizens by birth and by marriage.During 2015, Felix said that 94 foreign nationals from 15 countries were registered as citizens of Guyana,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, while eighteen foreign nationals were made citizens through naturalisation.“Our Immigration Service has to be particularly vigilant as visitors seek to enter our country and remain here outside the confines of the law. As soon as this APNU/AFC Government came into office there arose the need to clamp down on persons who arrived at our CJIA without the standard entry requirements recognized and implemented in countries around the world and this form of enforcement continues to this day.”Under the previous administration, the Minister stated that an unrecorded Immigrants attract abuses primarily because they are illegal having arrived in this country without satisfying the entry requirements.“We must be alive to consequences that would naturally flow from unrecorded Immigrants. The result is the abominable crime of human trafficking. Many of the illegal immigrants end up in very dangerous situations, as they do not have proper documents to secure jobs and as a consequence they end up in unfortunate situations,” the Citizenship Minister said.He pointed out that the flow of illegal Immigrants to Guyana is the result of the pull factor in certain developed countries but stringent checks at certain ports have forced these illegal immigrants from those countries to use Guyana as a transit point.These are undocumented immigrants who live in Guyana without permission. Government has only their entry records.“Guyana is an open country, it welcomes all visitors and has landed many who have not been traced to have left the country legally. Our checks revealed that over 5,300 illegal immigrants remain unaccounted for in Guyana,” Felix added.In any country undocumented and illegal immigrants are a source of additional pressure on the resources of Government as they utilise services such as health, education,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, pay no taxes and therefore the law must be enforced against them.“Additionally, illegal immigrants contribute to the ‘dark figure’ of crime which are unreported crime because of their status,” the APNU+AFC member of Parliament statedLast month, the Minister disclosed that 26,736 persons were landed at all ports in Guyana but 53 Guyanese nationals were deported from seven countries; 40 persons were deported for immigration related issues while thirteen persons were deported for their alleged involvement in criminal matters. Forty-three Guyanese nationals were refused entry in the Caribbean.He promised that the Government will not relent in our effort to be vigilant at our ports and to track down those who are in Guyana illegally.Soon after taking office in 2015, the coalition Government, in response to persistent pleas from the diaspora for the speedy processing of their passports, the new Government moved to reduce the three months waiting time to acquire a new passport from overseas. Once passports arrived from the diaspora they are processed in Guyana within five days and are returned to their destinations.“I am sure that these passports are returned to their respective owners within one month, removing two months of unnecessary waiting.”Last year, Felix stated that the Central Immigration and Passport Office at Eve Leary processed 89,136 passports for local use, and 14,606 were processed for Guyanese in the diaspora.Last month, 8059 passports were prepared for local use,Cheap Jerseys, while 1140 passports were prepared for the diaspora.Birth CertificatesA birth certificate is a basic and an essential document of identity and it should be issued either at birth or as soon as possible thereafter so that children could receive health and education services.In this regard, Minister Felix outlined that Guyana has been pursuing one hundred per cent birth registration which is an international standard intended to ensure that children are documented.“In furtherance of our desire to have every child registered the Department has partnered with UNICEF to visit the hinterland and riverain communities to discover and register children. During last week ending February 6, 2016, sections of Region One – the Barima/Waini was visited by staff from the Department and that visit was very successful based on the number of registrations done.”A proposal was made in this year’s budget to digitize the records at the General Register’s Office. .As a consequence of the digitization huge amounts of data would be stored electronically leading to a printed rather than written birth, death and marriage certificates.“We will continue to ensure that children receive the protection they need from the State against abuses and eventually attain and maintain one hundred per cent birth registration.” |
