Guyanese Pair Faces Joint Immigration Charges

Stabroek staff/November 21 2009

(Antigua Sun) – The 24-year-old Guyanese man who was convicted last month for uttering false documents to immigration officials is expected to be jointly charged with a Guyanese woman believed to be an accomplice.

Latchman Bhola who is facing criminal charges was further remanded to prison on Thursday, when the matter came up for hearing in the St. John’s Magistrates’ Court.

The prosecution told Magistrate Keith Thom they were seeking an adjournment until November 23, since it was likely that Bhola will be jointly charged with Zeena Moonasah. Moonasah is currently on remand until her trial later this month.

She is charged with forging an Antigua and Barbuda immigration extension stamp some time between May and August of this year.

Moonasah reportedly had in her possession a seal, which she later used to stamp time in a woman’s passport after she was paid on one occasion $450 and at another time $550. Latchman Bhola was held at VC Bird International Airport on October 24, after he disembarked a Liat flight from Barbados. Reports are he presented his passport to an immigration officer for clearance to enter the country when the fake extension and work permit stamps were discovered.

He was subsequently charged with uttering forged documents, was convicted, fined and ordered deported.

But his deportation was halted and criminal charges were filed against him, after investigators allegedly

Central Role is Forging More Integrated Region

- UWI VC tells law symposium

Professor Nigel Harris, Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, told a high-level law symposium in Trinidad and Tobago recently that steps to promote a sense of regionalism and a wish for integration will not succeed without participants seeing the profound value in becoming one entity.

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK: A welcome Obama promise - Might illegal Bajans in the USA benefit from Obama's Immigration reform?

Published on: 11/20/2009.


by TONY BEST

CALL IT IN A GLIMPSE into the thinking of the Obama White House that can have a profound effect on the lives of thousands of Bajans.

Indeed, the ideas outlined the other day by the administration are important to people from at least 180 member-states of the United Nations.

Read full article here.

Guyana consul holds talks with Thompson

Published on: 11/19/2009.


AS UNDOCUMENTED GUYANESE nationals in Barbados consider their options to meet the end-of-month deadline to regularise their status, the Guyana Honorary Consul in Barbados has met with Prime Minister David Thompson.

In a news release, Consul Norman Faria termed the nearly hour-long meeting as "fruitful" and held in a cordial and respectful atmosphere at the Prime Minister's official residence at Ilaro Court, St Michael.

Faria, who had previously communicated with Thompson's office regarding the Barbados government's announced new immigration policies, said several issues were discussed with regard to Guyanese and their rights in the island. The Prime Minister was briefed on the situation in which Guyanese had reported to the Consulate and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Guyana difficulties with Barbadian authorities such as being given insufficient time to gather their belongings before being taken to the airport.

Faria said that Thompson assured him that the issues would receive his attention, and reiterated the Barbados Government's concern for the undocumented in Barbados, including sub-standard housing.

Consul Faria invited Thompson and his family to visit Guyana for a vacation. (PR)

Deporting Dobbs

By Nezua, Media Consortium
After 30 years, commentator Lou Dobbs—infamous for his tirades against undocumented immigrants—has left CNN, as TPM reports. Dobbs employed disturbing, dangerous, and dated language to slur immigrants, often equating them with disease and infection.

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OUR CARIBBEAN: Civil society and government partnership

Published on: 11/13/2009.


by RICKEY SINGH

WHILE WE AWAIT the results of last month's two-day Convocation on CARICOM's Single Market and Economy (CSME) and, more specifically how its implementation is to be pursued following expected endorsement by the Community's Heads of Government, there are now growing concerns by civil society over perceived lack of enthusiasm to involve them in improving good governance and strengthening democracy.

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Detention centre opens in Aripo, Trinidad - Minister Joseph: Illegal immigrants to be kept until sent back home

Thursday, November 12th 2009


Containing illegals: National Security Minister Martin Joseph, centre, shares a light moment with, from left, Keith Renaud, director of the Office of Law Enforcement, security officer Gisela Grant, permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security Jennifer Boucaud-Blake, and Curtis Belford, from the Office of Law Enforcement, National Security Ministry, following their tour of the Immigration Detention Centre at Eastern Main Road, Aripo yesterday. -Photo: ROBERTO CODALLO

ILLEGAL immigrants, beware.

This country’s first Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) was formally opened along the Eastern Main Road in Aripo, Arima, yesterday.

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6-week amnesty for immigrants in the Netherlands Antilles

Published on: 11/12/2009.


WILLEMSTAD - The news that the Netherlands Antilles has begun a six-week immigration amnesty has cast the spotlight back on intra-Caribbean migration.

As many as 70 000 immigrants - mostly Haitian, Guyanese and Jamaican - are estimated to be living on the five Dutch Caribbean islands without valid residency or work permits.

They are being given an opportunity to prove they have lived in the Antilles since December 31, 2006, or can show a valid contract from an employer.

Read full article here.

'Good response' to Govt's amnesty

by TRACY MOORE

THERE HAS been a "good response" to Government's amnesty regarding illegal immigrants.

Senator Arni Walters, Minister responsible for Labour and Immigration, made the comments on Sunday at the Democratic Labour Party's (DLP) St Michael joint meeting at Springer Memorial School.

He added that there was a Green Paper in the pipeline where the public would be able to comment on it, from as early as next month.

Read full article here.

Another Guyanese convicted, fined and deported

(Antigua Sun) – Guyanese Latchman “Ricky” Bhola was convicted, fined and ordered deported from Antigua and Barbuda after he pleaded guilty to presenting forged documents to immigration officials.

Bhola appeared in the All Saints Magistrate Court before Senior Magistrate Asquith Reviere and was fined $1,000.

Read full article here

Guyanese ordered deported from Antigua

(Antigua Sun) A 21-year-old Guyanese man was ordered deported from Antigua after he was convicted for remaining in the country after the expiration of his permit.

Lawrence Alfred was fined EC$1,000 forthwith when he appeared before Magistrate Keith Thom in the St. John’s Magistrates’ Court.

Alfred pleaded guilty to the charge.

Read full article here.

Global Forum on Migration

From November 2-3 and 4-5 2009, organisations from around the world met in Athens, Greece to speak to one of the most complex issues of our time...the movement of nearly one billion people around the world. To learn more about that international conference coordinated by the Global Forum on Migration & Development check out http://www.gfmd2009.org/

Athens, Greece, 4 November 2009 - Remarks to the Third Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (as delivered)

On behalf of the United Nations and all of its Member States here, I would like to thank the Government of Greece for hosting this third Global Forum on Migration and Development.

What a fitting place for us to meet. Greece is a crossroads. One of the most beautiful words in the Greek lexicon is philoxenia -- friendship towards strangers. For thousands of years, the sons and daughters of Greece have been venturing to all reaches of our planet. Today, Hellenes can be found almost everywhere in the world contributing in countless ways to the societies of which they are now an integral part.


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Smart ID card coming

Published on: 11/5/2009.


by TREVOR YEARWOOD

A single, multi-purpose, “high-security” ID card is to replace the three major ones issued by Government.
It will simplify transactions for people who have had to show their National Identification Card, driver’s licence and National Insurance & Social Security card to access goods and services.


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Caribbean leaders gear up for immigration showdown

(Trinidad Guardian) - The fight for undocumented workers in the US has moved from the pulpit to the streets, and finally to Capitol Hill.

Taking a page form the African American churches that were at the forefront of the 1960s civil rights movement, the Caribbean clergy has emerged as the key player in the struggle for comprehensive immigration reform.

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Chinese construction workers in Trinidad protest

They haven't been paid in months, they were seen eating "dry bread", cannot speak a word of English and would rather return to the crowded streets of Fujian Province than stay to work as labourers in Trinidad.

However, they want the money that they claim is owed to them before they leave.

This is what about 85 Chinese nationals say they were protesting when they gathered on the South-bound lane of the Uriah Butler Highway, near Guayamare, early yesterday morning.

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Here for some time - from the Guardian

Here for some time

While 25,000 immigrants passed through eight detainee centres, photographer Melanie Friend captured a take on their lives


* Marc Leverton
* Society Guardian, Friday 7 November 2008 00.05 GMT
* Article history

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Barbados' New Immigration Policy is Online

If you're interested in reading the Green Paper - A Comprehensive Review of Immigration Policy and Proposals for Legislative Reform, you may visit four websites: (i) barbadosparliament.com (ii) gisbarbados.gov.bb (iii) investbarbados.org (iv) foreign.gov.bb You may share your views by emailing gapplewhaite@barbados.gov.bb