Marshall: How many Guyanese are there in Barbados?

Faria: That is a question to pose to the local authorities.

Marshall: You are the resident Guyana Consulate and you can’t

provide this information to the public?

Faria: Yes I have an idea but it is not me to provide this information.

Marshall: Oh come on! The public wants to know!

Faria: I have a meeting to attend so I have to leave the program.

Marshall: Thank you Sir.

This is a paraphrase of a discourse which took place between Tony Marshall (Brasstacks Host) and Norman Faria (Guyana Consul General in Barbados) earlier this week. Norman Faria originated the call to the program to respond to concerns raised that alluded to Guyanese involvement in crime in Barbados.

BU wishes to ask Faria why the need to shroud the issue of how many Guyanese are currently in Barbados? Has he ever heard of reverse psychology? The more the secrecy about this issue the more the public will want to know. Why not just deflate the issue by communicating to the public information to which they are entitled. BU has not forgotten that Mia Mottley promised to provide this information a few years ago, as far as we are aware this promise is still outstanding.

The matter of the influx of Guyanese into Barbados we think is an important issue for a number of reasons. A BU source as confirmed that the Guyanese population in Barbados has reached the astronomical number of 34,000 as at January 2007. The source also confirmed that the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Immigration Department have had to allocate significant resources to investigate the issues arising from the influx of Guyanese.

Additionally the source revealed that many Guyanese children have had to be accepted into the school system because Barbados laws make it mandatory for all children of school age to attend school. There is also stress being placed on the health care system and several other public services supported by the taxpayers of Barbados. Special mention was made of the pressure the Guyanese problem currently has on the Immigration Department which continues to struggle to maintain an accurate Guyanese database. It has become the norm for Guyanese to routinely enter Barbados using forged documents many times over. It was recently reported in the Press that a Guyanese woman after being deported seven times was still able to circumvent the system to re-enter.

The greatest concern for Barbadians has been the growing fear that the changing pattern in criminal activity is associated with the modus operandi of the Guyanese-especially the Indo-Guyanese. Other sources confirm that the recent robbery at Champers Restaurant and Lemon Harbor was perpetrated by Indo-Guyanese. The victims were made to lay prostrate on the ground and their personal effects of value was taken, before fleeing, they would have pistol whipped someone at random.

BU anticipates that we will be accused of being xenophobic. It is a quality which Barbadians seem to have mastered, to be more magnanimous than any other country in the world. No apology will be offered for expressing a concern which a growing number of Barbadians currently harbor. It is instructive that the unscientific poll currently being conducted by BU forcefully enforces the point made in the article. Barbadians continue to be afraid of the rapidly growing Guyanese population in Barbados. Several social services are under pressure and of paramount concern has been the changing face of criminal activity in Barbados. It is perhaps what is happening with the worsening crime situation which is of greatest concern to BU. Top of the mind is the recent report of Guyanese and Trinidadians who have been implicated in a plot to destroy JFK Airport.