Only about ten per cent of the Guyanese seeking refugee status in Canada since the PPP/C took office have been successful in their bid, though high numbers continue to apply, claiming persecution without the protection of the state.

Henry Greene -drug trade  President-for-all

Refugee claimants Devi refugee  Drupatie Singh Mahesh_Deokaran

This represents a significant drop compared to the early '90s when some 40% of such claimants were granted refugee status, Guyana-born immigration lawyer Kaishree Chatarpaul said.

Chatarpaul of Toronto, who has been practising immigration law in Canada since the 1980s, told the Stabroek News in a telephone interview on Friday, that during the PNC administration, there had been a high rate of refugee claimants, particularly Indo-Guyanese. While the number decreased after the PPP/C took office in 1992, he said, it had once again increased with Indo-Guyanese leading the way.

Chatarpaul said the majority of Indo-Guyanese claim they are persecuted at home and are not afforded protection by the state.

At present, Chatarpaul has 11 cases pending and three cases on appeal. He said that while the success rate for his office representing Guyanese seeking refugee or landed immigrant status to Canada was "pretty good" the general success rate of applicants "is extremely low and it is not as easy to get into Canada to live as some people believe."

He said many Guyanese fail the screening test and others fail to get the nod of the Immigration Refugee Board before which their cases are placed. Many who fail to get the nod appeal the board's decision and some might get favourable results.

Many Indo-Guyanese, who claim to be supporters of the PPP/C, say they are victims of physical violence, threats and harassment. He said many of them claim that "their homes [have been] broken into and robbed by Black bandits, they were chased from their homes, and when they made reports to the police station no action was taken. Some claim they write to the head of state who is also the head of government and get no response," Chatarpaul said.

However, he said, one basis for rejection by the Canadian authorities was that the country has reverted to a democratic state; the Guyana government is doing its best to resolve the problems of race; and they have found no evidence that the government was favouring any one race above another.

The authorities also contend that the government's cabinet comprises mostly Guyanese of East Indian origin and it was not likely that such a government would discriminate against East Indians, who are its main supporters.

Chatarpaul said one of the criteria for the granting refugee status was that there must be some form of complicity in the lack of protection on the part of the government and the Guyana government is not seen as an active accomplice in this regard.

Going 'backtrack'

In an interview in November 2006, Canadian High Commissioner Charles Court told the Stabroek News that 1,300 Guyanese were awaiting deportation from Canada. He did not say when and how they were to be deported. Those awaiting deportation include persons who would have overstayed their visits or were in the country via the 'backtrack' route. Some 95% of the Guyanese subject to deportation from Canada have overstayed their visits or arrived there illegally. A relatively small number of those awaiting deportation had criminal convictions in Canada.

He said that only 67 out of the 386 Guyanese who had applied for refugee status and whose cases had been heard during the 2005/2006 year, had been successful.

Canada accepted 35,768 refugees and other protected persons from around the world during the same 2005/2006 period and almost 7,000 people were granted permanent residency status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

The majority travel there on visitors' visas, while a significant number also go via the 'backtrack' route. Many on visitors' visa seek refugee status while on 'holiday' or having overstayed their visit.

Political victimisation

He recalled that last year he successfully represented a family of four - a father, mother and two children - who travelled to Canada on six-month visitors' visas. During their six-month stay they approached his office to make a refugee claim to the Canadian immigration authorities.

That case, he said was fraught with emotion because the claimants from the Essequibo Coast felt they were politically victimised and were offered no protection from the state. The father, he said, had changed his political allegiance from the PPP/C to ROAR after becoming disenchanted with the performance of the government which had been in office for more than one term.

He claimed he was visited by members of the PPP and told that he was trying to divide the East Indians. As a businessman, he had supplied the regional administration of Region Three (Pomeroon/Supenaam) which has strong PPP/C backing with a number of supplies but as a result of switching his allegiance his contract was threatened. He was visited by party officials who reminded him that he had two daughters and there was something called "kidnapping." On one occasion, he claimed, persons stating that they were from the Guyana Police Force intelligence branch had visited his home and took him for "a walk" to question him. They roughed him up and asked him a number of questions. He went to the police to complain about the problems he had been experiencing and "they took him for a ride" asking him instead "whose house would be the next to be burnt down."

The processing of their application began with a screening process to see whether the family members were convicted of a crime and if they were eligible to be heard by the Immigration Refugee Board (IRB). The board, which has the powers of a court, is manned by lawyers and representatives of the federal government.

In the case of the family the board heard the case and they spent long hours going through, over a period of time, documentation including a number of newspaper articles - mainly from the Stabroek News - on the situation in Guyana. Articles published by Ravi Dev and e-mails were also used to gather evidence on the situation that forced the family to resort "to seek surrogate protection" out of the country of their birth.

Based on the frank manner in which the father responded to questions, Chatarpaul said, the board believed his story. "The sworn testimony was credible, straightforward and not lacking in detail," he said. The family's claim for Canadian citizenship is now being processed.

Chatarpaul said his office had argued that the state had an obligation to protect each and every individual regardless of their political affiliation and the police did nothing to assist, according to international law, when they were in fear and felt they were being persecuted.

No distinction

Generally speaking, he said, some Guyanese who are caught at the airport with someone else's passport or false documentation and others entering via the 'backtrack' route are either deported or are released on bond without status while they apply for surrogate protection.

When cases are taken before the IRB, he said, there is no distinction between the visitors arriving in the country legally or those arriving without status. If there are reasonable explanations those arriving without status would eventually be granted refugee status but the process was not an easy one since investigations are carried out and evidence gathered over a period of time and in the meantime persons are without any status in the country.

Many who travel 'backtrack' would have sought visas and been denied. Before the board they would explain the dangers, risks and expense they took to get to Canada to escape the situation they perceive to be bad at home.

Those with visitors' visas generally explain that they accepted the six-month visas without explaining that they have would have been experiencing problems at home because they feared they would not be granted the visas. "They lie to get the visas or they would not be given them," he said.

Crimes against humanity

One case which he lost, Chatarpaul said, involved a former policeman of East Indian origin. In that case he said that the Canadian minister with responsibility for immigration issues intervened claiming that as a former member of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) the former officer could not be granted any status by the Canadian government because the Canadian government deemed the police force as an organization committing crimes against humanity.

The minister cited extra-judicial killings by the police, forced detentions and deaths in custody, torture, loss of confidence by the public in the police force, among other atrocities. He cited over 50 cases in which the police had been involved, according to records taken by the Guyana Human Rights Association and Amnesty International. The case of Guyana's then minister of home affairs Ronald Gajraj's alleged involvement in a phantom squad and extra-judicial killings were also noted. Gajraj, who was himself banned from entering Canada, Chatarpaul said, was the first home affairs minister of a Commonwealth country to be barred from entering Canada on human rights grounds.

He said the IRB, with the Canadian minister's intervention concluded that as a former member of the GPF, the claimant was aware of the atrocities being committed by the police force, was witness to persons in police custody being treated inhumanely, did nothing to improve the situation, and was seen as being an accomplice to the atrocities. The former policeman was subsequently deported.

Guyanese applying for refugee status in Canada is nothing new. In the 1980s during the Forbes Burnham administration many applied for recognition as political refugees and while some were considered genuine by the IRB, a large number of them were seen as economic refugees and their applications were rejected.

Chatarpaul said that between 1985 and 1986, Guyanese had headed the list of applicants from Caricom countries seeking refugee status in Canada but the number started to decrease when it became necessary for Guyanese to obtain a visa to travel to Canada in the mid-1980s.

Guyanese along with Jamaicans and Haitians were among the first set of Caricom nationals for whom visas were required. They were followed by Trinidadians, Dominicans and Grenadians. Other Caricom nationals needing visas to travel to Canada are Surinamese and Belizeans.

All refugees are entitled to carry UN passports until they have been granted Canadian citizenship. Those still awaiting a hearing before the appeal board are allowed to remain in Canada until the determination of their application.