The GHRA in a statement said it had taken note of the media reports that suggest Guyana is engaged in discussions on receiving African and Asian deportees from the US.  In the event, there is substance to these reports, the GHRA expressed concern that the Guyana Government not be misled or flattered into entering any agreement, opportunistic favours or collaboration in the brutal exhibitionism playing out in the United States.

According to the GHRA, the illegal migrant issue has its origins in a decades-old system of seasonal work permits to service the California agricultural industry, which morphed into massive uncontrolled migration aggravated by global economic inequality, regional wars and the COVID pandemic.

Moreover, the GHRA noted the concept of ‘refugee’, developed originally in international law to protect individuals threatened by political persecution in their own countries, is being invoked in circumstances it was never devised to address.

As such, the GHRA said it is not challenging the right of the US to change its policies and laws on migration, provided this it is done legally and is applied impartially.

However, the association noted: “What is taking place at present is a war on people of colour, who in many cases appear to be legally in the US and enjoy ‘Temporary Protected Status’.

“The current campaign is being implemented in shameless disregard for the law, shameless disregard for family units, and shameless vilifying of people as rapists, murders and criminally insane.”