The Ministry of Home Affairs is in the process of checking whether the eight persons held in the US in the wake of the terrorist attacks were issued with passports here.

Home Affairs Minister, Ronald Gajraj, told Stabroek News that the Immigration Department was in the process of checking when and where passports were issued to them, as part of the process of verifying their nationality.

Guyana's Ambassador to the United States of America, Dr Odeen Ishmael, said that he was still awaiting information requested from the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as to the city or cities in which the eight were picked up by the US authorities; the names of their nearest relatives; and the locations of the detention centres where they were being held. Ishmael said he expected that he would receive some information from the INS shortly as that agency had been more cooperative lately.

The eight, originally detained in the sweep by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations during its investigation of the September 11, terrorist attacks, are being held on various breaches of immigration regulations, all of which are deportable offences. One of the eight has been released on bond.

Ishmael told Stabroek News that if the INS supplied the names of the relatives given by the detainees then either his office or the Consulate in New York could make contact with them to see what assistance could be offered.

He said that so far, no one had sought to report their detention. Ishmael said that this was a worrying feature and there was now some speculation in the Guyanese community that some of the eight might in fact only be in possession of Guyanese passports, but might not actually be Guyanese. It was to clarify this, he said, that it was important that more information should be obtained.

There was speculation, given the suspected involvement of a staff member of the Indian High Commission in Guyana, that some Guyanese in possession of Republic of India passports might be among the Indian nationals detained by the FBI. Representatives of the FBI and Indian Central Bureau of Investigation visited Guyana in the course of their investigation into a passport ring that had been uncovered. The authorities here denied any knowledge of the visit, which was reported by the Times of India on December 3.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a number of immigration lawyers have begun offering free legal advice to persons held in the dragnet. The ACLU announced on its website that it had released a pamphlet titled, 'Know Your Rights: What to Do If You're Stopped by the Police, the FBI, the INS or the Customs Service'.

The ACLU said it was concerned that the Justice Department was interrogating individuals because of their ethnicity without reason to believe that the specific individuals to be interviewed have information about terrorist activities. "Questions to be asked (as outlined in Justice Department guidelines for interviewers) go beyond those seeking factual information and include inquiries about people's political beliefs and the political beliefs of family members and friends," the report said.

The ACLU had since joined with a coalition of civil liberties, human rights and electronic privacy organizations in filing a Freedom of Information Act request for information about the individuals arrested or detained since September 11. The FBI denied the groups' request, while requests to the Justice Department and the INS had gone unanswered.

An appeal to the FBI denial was filed, as this was required before going to court, the group said.

Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago are the only two CARICOM states whose nationals have been picked up in the dragnet.