The government has announced plans to establish a settlement area for over 200 Venezuelan refugees.
This was disclosed by Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix, who said the homestead settlement will be for 260 confirmed Venezuelans who are occupying areas in the community of Barima-Waini.
Felix made the announcement during an interview with the Public Information and Press Services Unit of the Ministry of the Presidency at the conclusion of the third multi-agency coordinating committee meeting on Monday.
Felix said that the resettlement area will allow the Venezuelans to be self-reliant.
“It is intended that we [will] develop something like a homestead where families are accumulated and eventually we can move them into cash crop farming. We can encourage that so that in the first instance they can feed themselves and if they have surpluses they can sell. We are looking at crops for their sustenance and their immediate needs.
“Once you get that…the next thing is to guide them into areas in which they can sustain themselves. The immediate outcome is that we want to see them properly settled and they must be able to sustain themselves” he said.
He noted that the agencies on the committee will continue to play their roles in lending assistance necessary to those in Region One while assessing the migration of Venezuelans into Cuyuni-Mazaruni (Region Seven).
I am a Trini and a Resident of a Caribbean Island. This act by Guyana’s government is most heart warming & awesome and I thank them for supporting their neighbors – Blessings to the Gvt Minister & Guyana