STOP THE BAD PRESS. That's what President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, would like to see happen.

He said yesterday at Hilton Barbados there were "some elements" of the media and society that were xenophobic, but none of the heads of governments had "expressed concern about Guyanese going into their territory".

"I know Prime Minister [Owen] Arthur has spoken many times in favour of free movement of people and against xenophobia, because I think you have a significant amount of xenophobia in the region and often perpetrated by some elements in the media where they profile people and stereotype them, in many cases Guyanese, and then they're always slated for the bad news section of the newspapers or whatever other form of the media. I've seen that.

"Now you can have a particular national of the country commit ten robberies and it would never make front page, but if a Guyanese were to be engaged in snatching a purse that is the front page news . . ..

"There is xenophobia and it comes out of a great deal of ignorance.

"Let me make it clear that I don't have a problem if Immigration [officers] do their job and block people who have a criminal record [coming] into a country, or if they present a national threat, but it's a capricious action that I am totally against and often they target Guyanese for capricious action" he said.

The president noted he had seen some people "who are [more wealthy] than maybe more than half of the people where they are going" but who were accused of wanting to stay in that country to work, before being refused entry.

He described this action as "capricious" and noted it came out of "some elements in the region being very ignorant of what's happening in Guyana".

He added: "No one says that we spend a huge sum of money every year. We train about 400 nurses every year and over 550 doctors. They have contributed to the well-being of the system in many countries of the region. That is valuable skills and these people are not recognised . . . .

"I hope that out of this engagement and others that we can have a more rational approach to immigration, one that protects the security of each territory so we don't have movement of criminals and others, but at the same time we can avoid the excesses . . . .," he said.