Barbados and Guyana yesterday inked a technical cooperation agreement (TCA), which includes an offer for Guyanese immigration officials to visit that country and observe the system there so that local travellers won't run afoul of it.
Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados, Billie Miller, and Guyana's Foreign Affairs Minister, Rudy Insanally, yesterday signed the agreement which came into effect immediately and gave a year's grace for the naming of a joint commission to implement the areas of agreement. For years, Guyanese travellers have complained of ill-treatment at the hands of Barbadian immigration authorities.
Insanally told reporters after the signing yesterday that the agreement provided for cooperation in almost all areas, including trade, economic cooperation, sports and culture, combating drug trafficking and trans-boundary crime. He saw the TCA as an umbrella for many areas of cooperation between the two states.
Miller said she imagined that the agreement would go a far way to help Guyana improve eco-tourism and tourism generally, as well as culture and sports, adding value to national performances and taking this beyond. She expressed the hope that a maritime and fisheries agreement would flow from the TCA, allowing for maritime delimitation between Guyana and Barbados.
Miller, who also has the foreign relations portfolio, said she felt that a general TCA could do a great deal for relations between Guyana and Barbados and allow for the two countries to move quickly on issues such as immigration matters which are a "little worrisome".
She said the offer was for Guyanese immigration officials to visit Barbados and observe what the immigration officers did there, in an effort to bring a satisfactory resolution to what the differences were. She insisted that it was not a case of Guyanese being targeted by the immigration authorities, pointing out that Guyanese made up the largest group of foreign nationals living in Barbados, putting the figure at 25,000.
She said Guyanese generally enjoyed hassle-free travel to Barbados, but a few did what they shouldn't do and fell foul of immigration authorities, making it difficult for others who wanted to follow.
The deputy Prime Minister said that Barbados processed more visas for Guyanese than any other group of nationals living and working on that island. She said that between 2000 and March of this year, 3,684 work permits were issued to Guyanese nationals, the largest block of permits issued in the period. She noted that in 2000, 968 permits were issued to Guyanese against a total of 3,644 and this figure increased to 1,970 in 2001 against a total of 4,531. For the first quarter of this year, 746 permits were issued.
"Our immigration policy is not anti-Guyanese," Miller said, pointing out that Barbados immigration had problems with nationals of other countries as well. But she said that it appeared that a large number of Guyanese got into trouble with the authorities because of how many of them passed through Barbados immigration.
She said she expected a resolution to the problem once the immigration officials of both states sat down and examined where the difficulties lay. She said that there was much trade in falsified documents and the countries would have to look at how to ensure that they did not run foul of international requirements.
With regards to trade, Miller noted that the region was now in the process of implementing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, while at the same time negotiating entry into the Free Trade Area of the Americas and having discussions at the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) levels.
Insanally also told reporters, as regards the anticipated maritime treaty with Barbados, that Guyana expected similar cooperation with other states to allow for the beneficial use of resources in the region.
He encouraged the local immigration authorities to take up the offer by Barbados to visit and assess what problems had to be ironed out. The minister said that ways had to be found to remove irritants in relations with Barbados and the TAC provided an opportunity for this.