The Guyanese Deportee

For the purpose of this discussion, our layman’s definition for “DEPORTEE” will be – “one who is removed by one country’s authorities and sent back to his/her home country – or to some other destination (willing to accept the “deported person”)

Nowadays in Guyana these deportees are sometimes (humorously) referred to as “INVOLUNTARY RETURNEES”. Or INVOLUNTARY RE-MIGRANTS.  Though the expressions are a kind of joke, they point to the fact that deportees who lived somewhere for a long period did not VOLUNTEER to return home willingly, but had NO CHOICE when the host country applied its laws to send them back.

REASONS FOR DEPORTATION
All countries have laws that even legal immigrants must respect.  Host countries reserve the right under their (immigration laws) to deport those who constantly or seriously break those laws.

Countries can return visitors or immigrants who commit crimes related to murder, rape, kidnapping, carjacking, narcotic offences, immigration transgressions, even spousal/domestic abuse.  Especially if the foreign-born law-breakers are only in the host countries for specific periods.

GUYANA AND ITS DEPORTEES
Many Guyanese find themselves being deported from the USA, UK, Canada, the Caribbean and Suriname, especially.     Over the past fifteen years or so, Guyana’s government has been asking certain Governments who return many Guyanese, to assist with their re-settlement in Guyana.  The reasons include the fact that the deportees, depending on their age(s), might have spent most of their lives in the deporting country.  These deportees, though Guyanese, would have few or no links to Guyana – no relatives or resources.  And employers and society tend to look down upon them and deny them some basic rights and opportunities.

HELP FOR DEPORTEES
    There are BAD deportees who bring and execute certain forms of crime into Guyana.  They are bad influences and their records are kept by the police who know and watch them.
    The law-abiding Guyanese deportees who want to re-settle peacefully and legally CAN NOW ACCESS ASSISTANCE – made possible by funding from the USA.

The following advertisement is for them:

 
 IOM International Organisation for Migration
IOM Guyana

Have you or someone you know been deported from the United States of America?  Have you found it difficult to resettle in Guyana?

Have you found if difficult to access identification or a job?  Are you considering starting your own business but don’t know how to?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, please call us on                           
                                                   226-4732
For further information on the services available through IOM and its partners.

IOM is an intergovernmental organisation (established in 1951); that is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society.

IOM’s presence in Guyana is to support the resettlement of deportees from the US to Guyana.

It is worth remembering that Deportees from the Diaspora are still Guyanese too!