Local authorities are ‘wrestling’ with the migrant crisis as there continues to be an influx of migrants in Guyana, many of whom have fled their homeland in search of a better life.
According to statistics provided to the News Room, a total of 104 individuals became citizens of Guyana in 2024 but not all were migrants fleeing the same social and economic hardships.
Another 132 were registered. These individuals hail from 41 countries across the globe.
It is believed that many, if not most, of these individuals are from neighbouring Venezuela.
Recent statistics revealed that there are over 30,000 Venezuelan migrants in Guyana, with the overall figures expected to be higher.
“We are all aware of the challenges on the West in Venezuela, and both the Guyana Police Force and the Community Policing Groups units are involved in the security screening and information gathering, in relation to those challenges, monitoring the situation in relation to the question of what may or may not be as a result of the fallout of the crises in Venezuela, which indeed we are already wrestling with in relation to migrants in our country,” said Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, on Monday.
A foreign national can become a citizen either by naturalisation or registration.
An individual can become a citizen after living in Guyana for five consecutive years, through marriage, or by birth.
Benn told reporters at his end-of-year press conference that the Government has been monitoring its borders and is implementing systems to ensure it can respond to any potential threat.
“There has been an influx from Venezuela of Guyanese persons who still live in Venezuela, and if they are forced to leave in fairly rapid circumstances, leaving everything behind and coming over here, they will perhaps be in a more difficult situation than those who came before,” Benn said.