Over 21,000 registered Venezuelan migrants in Guyana – Benn

More than 21,000 Venezuelan migrants have registered in Guyana between the periods of June 16, 2023 and July 11, 2023, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn told the National Assembly on Monday.

He was responding to a question asked by Opposition Member of Parliament, Tabitha Sarrabo-Halley.

In providing a breakdown, Benn said for this period, there were 1,348 registered Venezuelan migrants in Region Nine; 10,671 in Region One; 3,255 in Region Two; 1,114 in Region Three; 1,215 in Region Four; 4,099 in Region Seven and 80 in Region Eight.

He did not provide figures for the other three regions. Asked about this, Benn indicated that there are no reports of any migrants in these three regions for period.

Over time, there has been a high influx of migrants, particularly Venezuelans in the country. Many claimed that they have come here in search of jobs so that their families can live a better life.

In June this year, the Office of the Special Envoy for the Regional Response to the Venezuela Situation of the United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration estimated that there were 19,000 Venezuelan migrants living in Guyana.

And to address this issue, Benn said the country’s immigration system is being enhanced to ensure that the migrants are processed upon their entry into the country.

To do this, he said both the country’s immigration department and the immigrations services have been modernised and staff complement have been increased.

“We work that they are doing, particularly for the immigration department is being put in electronic forms for proper recovery of information from the databases,” Benn said.

In fact, he said there was a “backlog” in the registration of migrants during the tenure of the previous government.

“We are working hard to make the work we do there more technique and that we should have integrity and that we should not have to be chasing down people and doing investigations,” Benn noted.