Over four-month period
Several Guyanese charged in Barbados for false documents
Stabroek News
November 14, 2006
In recent months several Guyanese have appeared in Barbadian courts on a range of charges including the possession of fake passports, having bogus stamps in their travel documents and work permit scams.
Newspaper clippings from the Barbados Daily Nation over a four-month period were sent to this newspaper by a person who said he was an immigration official and in a covering letter said, "I believe that the impoverished way of life for the majority of your citizens will force them to try any means to get away but there is a right and a wrong way to do things and a legal way and an illegal way."
He ended by saying "If you are treated according to which way you choose, don't try to blame others for your fate."
The October 7, 2006 clipping showed that three Guyanese men were ordered deported immediately after being caught with fraudulent work permits and extension of stay stamps in suspicious passports. Guyana's Honorary Consul in Barbados, Norman Faria recently told Stabroek News that the passports were genuine but the stamps were not. They were "to keep out of Barbados."
A young woman appeared in the same court as the three and was charged for having a false stay extension stamp. She was released on bail after her brother-in-law posted her bail and was due to return to court on October 18.
The Weekend Nation of September 15, 2006 reported that seven Guyanese were remanded to prison in connection with a work permit scam. One of the seven took money from his compatriots claiming he could provide them with work permits. He took money ranging from Bds$200 to Bds$950 and when he could not fulfil his promise, they complained to the police.
Once they were interviewed by immigration officials and taken before the courts, the complainants wanted to drop the matter against the accused but it was too late. The scam was uncovered. The complainants were remanded to prison.
According to the September 8, 2006 Daily Nation, two Guyanese were fined in District 'A' Magistrate's Court for having fake passports. One from the Corentyne claimed she was given the false passport at the airport by a Barbadian who exchanged her Guyanese passport. She was fined Bds$750 or four months in jail for travelling on a falsified document. She pleased guilty to using a falsified St Lucian passport in the name of Alice Josephine Emmanuel.
Another Guyanese of Grove Squatting area on the same day was ordered to pay Bds$750 or four months in jail for a similar offence. He admitted using a St Lucian passport in the name of Michael Singh. He said it was the first time he was travelling. The passport bore entry and exit stamps from Guadeloupe and St Martin.
The August 25, 2006 Daily Nation reported that yet another Guyanese female was ordered to pay Bds$750 or spend four months in jail after admitting that she had falsely obtained a Guyanese passport to enter Barbados on August 3. The passport bore the name Ramrajie Shivsankar.
On August 22, 2006 the Daily Nation reported that a Guyanese shoplifter, who admitted in court that he stole a bottle of cologne worth Bds$383 and a Bds$50 bottle of deodorant, was ordered to pay for his own ticket to be deported or spend three months in the Barbadian lock-ups. He had arrived on the island three years and five months earlier for a two-week stay. His work permit had expired in September 2004. There was an application for a work permit on file from May 26, 2005 but it was later cancelled by the company for which he had worked.
The July 28, 2006 edition of the Daily Nation reported that a
42-year-old Guyanese woman of no fixed place of abode in Barbados, who shoplifted a number of items valued at Bds$9.80 from Collins Limited was ordered out of the country. She arrived in Barbados eight months before the court day and had an extension which expired in May. Her friend paid the Bds$590 for the ticket to have her deported.
The Daily Nation of July 25, 2006 reported that two Guyanese - male and female - were caught trying to re-enter the island using false documents. Unfortunately for the woman, the same officers who put her out of the island on May 6, 2006 after she had overstayed the week she had been granted on March 23, 2005, were on duty when she tried to re-enter the island using the name Demonicka Cox. She was held at the Grantley Adams International Airport on July 6, appeared before the Barbadian courts and jailed for three months.
The man was deported again after pleading guilty to using a false passport in the name of Joel Emmil Brewley and failure to comply with a deportation order. He was caught by lawmen and immigration officers who carried out a joint raid at Husbands, St James. He was previously deported in November 2003.
According to the June 27, 2006 Daily Nation, a Guyanese trader, who had already spent three months on remand was allowed to return to Guyana if she paid Bds$2,000 in bail or with the alternative of a year in jail. The female trader had been caught with four stolen passports. She was sentenced to a day in jail for each offence. She was also accused of attempting to export Bds$40,852 and US$2,140 in cash, contrary to that country's Exchange Control Act while she was travelling from Barbados to Guyana.
The Barbadian newspaper of June 23, 2006 reported that two young Guyanese women, who were deported and re-entered Barbados were sentenced to two months in jail for using false documents. One, an eighteen-year-old, used the name Luanna Vaneasa December. She was picked up after lawmen and immigration officials conducted a raid at Black Rock, St Michael during the early hours of June 8. She was previously put out of the island after overstaying her time. The other entered the island on April 26 using a Guyanese passport in the name of Terrilyn Ann Haley. She was caught during investigations at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on June 2. She, too, had overstayed her time in 2005.
On June 24, 2006 the Daily Nation reported that another young Guyanese woman was fined Bds$1,000 or a year in jail for travelling on a false document in the name of Malissa Setna. The fine was paid by her Barbadian boyfriend. She was fined, reprimanded and discharged.
The Daily Nation of September 1, 2006 also reported the story of a 28-year-old Guyanese mother of two, identified only as Shelly, who makes her living as a prostitute in Barbados. She went to Barbados some two months before the interview was conducted. She has since repaid her Barbadian sponsor the sum of Bds$3,000, which he spent to take her there. At the time she was reportedly working to earn enough to buy herself a posh car. While she plans to return to Guyana with her earnings which she says she was saving, she also intends to go back to Barbados to ply her trade for the ICC CWC 2007 final to be held in that country.