Caribbean governments will continue to raise the issue of skilled migration from the Caribbean to developed countries, President Bharrat Jagdeo said in an interview with Prime News Editor Adam Harris at State House on Sunday.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) report, the President said "Guyana is not alone" in the situation where our skilled personnel, especially teachers and nurses, are being recruited by developed countries. As a result, the issue of skilled migration has been and will continue to be on the agenda of the Heads of Government of CARICOM at every encounter we have with the US, Canadian, French and British governments.
The issue was raised in Georgetown at two recent conferences held between the Caribbean and the UK and CARICOM and the US. Arising from the Caribbean-UK meeting it was agreed that a study would be done of the impact of the brain drain. At the encounter with the US the possibility of "managing" the migration was floated.
Skilled migration, coupled with the problem of returning deportees to the Caribbean, have affected the region significantly, the President said, and both issues are being treated seriously by the governments, GINA reported.
"On the one hand, you are recruiting our nurses and teachers and other skilled people and then sending back criminals to our country on the other hand. And that is what has been happening," the President noted.
He is of the view, however, that not all deportees become involved in crimes because some who were deported to the region have reintegrated and become hardworking members of society.
"But you have a large number remaining in crime," he said, "and they are deported to our countries. It's an unfair system and we keep saying this to the world. You give us $5M to $10M in aid and take back so many of our skilled people and post back problems and criminals to us."
The President also noted that the impact of these two factors on the region's economy and crime rate has been severely felt. Consequently, he said, organised crime and small arms trafficking have been raised at every meeting with leaders around the world. Guyana is not alone with a high crime rate, he observed, as many of the Caribbean countries' crime rates are high, but often the figures are suppressed even in the media, GINA said.
"A lot of it has to do with people coming back. These guys are sophisticated criminals. When they get posted back here and they come into a small society, they create a network. And then the network conspires and engages in criminal activities, so we hope that those countries will also look at that because in some ways they contribute to the higher crime rates."
Asked what Guyana and the region plan to do about the situation, President Jagdeo said "there is very little you can do because these guys are your own citizens. They never took up citizenship in those countries. They may be permanent residents or illegally there."
According to GINA, the President also observed that the Third World countries have been the victims of skilled migration or "brain drain" for a number of years and Guyana is no exception.