High percentage of refugees in Guyana vaccinated, UNHCR

A HIGH PERCENTAGE OF THE 23,000 REFUGEES LIVING IN GUYANA has been vaccinated, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) official Suenanica de Rozario said in an exclusive with www.aroundtheregions.com

De Rozario, who is also Registration and Identity Management Officer, and Head of the UNHCR Guyana Mission (ag) lauded the Guyana government’s vaccination efforts which do not discriminate against foreign nationals.

“We want to commend the government of Guyana for allowing equal access to the vaccination,because the sooner we can achieve herd immunity the better it would be for everyone, and this will allow for more social interactions, more social gatherings that will of course allow the programmes to run as planned,” de Rozario said.

The United Nations Official was also heartened by the response of the foreigners to the country’s inoculation drive although precise figures are currently unavailable.

“The response has been very, very good from the refugees and they are very grateful to be able to access this vaccination,” de Rozario reassured.

“We are actually in the midst of compiling (the figures) but we would need to defer to the government for statistics because we don’t have a system that captures it, this is purelygovernment,” she said.

She debunked general perceptions that the persons coming to Guyana are not really refugees but simply seeking improvements in their economic and social standards.

International law defines refugees in the 1951 Convention as, “someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”

“A person is a refugee as soon as s/he fulfils the criteria contained in the definition,” the UNHCR official explained.

Since the UNHCR began operating in Guyana in 2018 they have been working with three administrative regions namely; Barima/Waini, (Region One); Pomeroon/Supenaam (Region Two) and Cuyuni/Mazaruni, (Region Seven).