GHRA blasts Guyana’s U.S. deportee deal

(Kaieteur News) – The Guyana Government’s decision to support a United States policy of forcibly relocating asylum-seekers and migrants to third-world countries has come under blistering criticism from the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA), which says the arrangement reeks of disregard for human rights and may violate Guyana’s Constitution.

The GHRA, in a strongly worded statement, rejected President Irfaan Ali’s reported claim that persons sent to Guyana “chose” to come here, arguing that such a claim is difficult to sustain when the alternatives reportedly include countries such as Equatorial Guinea and El Salvador.

The organisation said no amount of official justification could erase what it described as the “pervasive stench” surrounding the agreement. More seriously, the GHRA contends that the Government’s decision could breach Article 141(1) of the Constitution, which states that “No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading punishment or other treatment.”