The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) says it welcomes the intervention by the Ministry of Labour and the commencement of investigations into the disturbing allegations concerning Indian nationals employed at a quarry operation in Region Seven. Reports that the Ministry’s intervention has included the return of passports, inquiries into working conditions, and the involvement of relevant state agencies must now be followed by a full, transparent, and credible process.
“If true, these allegations raise profoundly troubling questions about labour protections, human trafficking safeguards, workplace oversight, and the treatment of vulnerable foreign workers within Guyana.
But this matter also points to a wider national concern. Guyana cannot afford loose, opaque, or politically convenient systems at the intersection of migration, labour, documentation, and electoral integrity,” the party said.
The Forward Guyana Movement said that it has already raised serious questions with GECOM regarding the presence, registration, and participation of Commonwealth nationals on the Official List of Electors.
“Those concerns were never about hostility to foreign nationals. They were, and remain, about lawful systems, transparent records, national sovereignty, and the integrity of our democracy.
The same weak oversight that can leave a country uncertain about who is here, under what conditions, and for what purpose, can also create conditions in which vulnerable people are exploited, mistreated, or used,” the FGM noted.
It continued, “That is why these issues cannot be viewed in isolation. A State has both the right to regulate migration and the duty to protect every person within its jurisdiction from exploitation, coercion, unsafe working conditions, and abuse. No person, Guyanese or foreign, should be reduced to a tool of labour, politics, or profit.”
The party is urging that this investigation be pursued without fear, favour, political interference, or corporate shielding, and that the public be given clear answers, not only about what happened to these workers, but about the broader systems that allowed such allegations to arise in the first place.
