Only ten of the 70 persons deported from the United States in the past two months have approached the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security for help.

The 70 are among 112 persons for whom the US had requested the Guyana government to issue travel documents. The US had imposed a ban on non-immigrant visas for government officials and their immediate families to prod the authorities to deal with the issue with greater urgency.

Minister in the Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, Bibi Shadick told Stabroek News yesterday that while there was no formal arrangement in place, there was close collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

She said that the police had been instructed to inform all deportees that they should approach her ministry for assistance with solving some of their immediate problems of adjusting to life in Guyana.

The minister said that so far only ten of them had approached her ministry of these only one wanted any assistance in terms of acquiring tools of his trade. He was an electrician and had obtained a job but had no tools. This deportee was reported to have been sleeping on the sea wall, as far as she knew he had not visited the Night Shelter run by her ministry. In fact, she said that none of the deportees had sought accommodation there.

At the shelter, she said, they could have obtained a meal, a change of clothing, if necessary, and a bed for the night.

Shadick is the first point of contact for the deportees who would be referred to the relevant departments of her ministry as necessary. She said it seemed to her as if most of the deportees had relatives with whom they were staying, as well as relatives overseas who were providing them with other forms of assistance.

One of the concerns of the government was that some of the deportees no longer had any ties to the society as they had migrated at a tender age and most of their relatives were overseas.

She said that in one instance where the deportee did not have a place to stay, he was able to find accommodation with a friend in the village where he had lived before emigrating to the United States of America.

Shadick said that other forms of assistance which some of the ten wanted were obtaining some form of national identification and assistance in getting social security payments from overseas.

The minister said that Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, had been notified about those who wanted to obtain national identification cards. Stabroek News was unable to contact Gajraj to ascertain what had been done to assist those needing some form of national identification. However, Chairman of the Elections Commission, Dr Steve Surujbally, whose organisation is responsible for the issue of identification cards said that Gajraj had not been in touch with him on the issue as yet.

Foreign Minister, Rudy Insanally, said that no more than one or two of them had visited his ministry seeking assistance with obtaining social security payments due to them from their stay in the US. He said that the only assistance rendered was advice that they should get a relative to work with the system in the US.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, had said that in the memorandum of understanding to be concluded with the US there would be provisions to address this issue as well as to ensure that the civil and political rights of the deportees were not abridged.