Some 500 Brazilians returning home
-Brazilian ambassador
Stabroek News
February 16, 2003
Some 500 Brazilians, who had been working in Guyana for some years, mainly in the mining industry, had returned to their country over the past year, Brazilian Ambassador to Guyana, Ney Do Prado Dieguez said.
In an interview at the Brazilian Embassy in George-town on Friday, Dieguez told Stabroek News that in spite of the international land transportation agreement signed between Guyana and Brazil over a week ago in Brasilia, he anticipated fewer Brazilians would travel to Guyana seeking employment in the immediate future.
He said that of the 1,500 Brazilians who had been in Guyana employed mainly in the diamond mining sector in recent years, some 500 had applied for free travel documents to return to Brazil "for good," compared to those seeking passport renewals. Those seeking passport renewals usually intended to stay in the country for longer periods, he said.
He explained that when Brazilians wanted to return to their country of origin they usually sought the free travel documents which identified them as Brazilians. Dieguez said, "I have been issuing [the free travel document] in a greater number than I have been issuing in a long time. These people are going back for good."
Asked why they were returning, he said that it was due mainly to the crime situation in Guyana over the past year as well as the re-opening of a number of mines in Brazil.
In addition, he said there had been a change in government in Brasilia, and people were looking at new perspectives. (Miranda La Rose)
