NUPW: Stops those threats

STOP THREATENING immigration officers!

The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) made this appeal yesterday as public debate over the deportation of Guyanese immigrants continued.

"We have been getting calls from immigration officers who say people are threatening them, calling them at their homes and threatening them," president of the union Walter Maloney told the WEEKEND NATION.

"Let it be known that the NUPW will not sit idly by and allow any public servant and his or her families to have their lives put in jeopardy because of the recklessness and the uninformed position of persons in this society who should know better."

Maloney reported that immigration and, to a lesser extent, Customs officers had come under fire in recent weeks for the circumstances surrounding the deportation of illegal immigrants.

He said immigration officers had been accused of launching nocturnal raids on homes, knocking down doors and "snatching up people".

"However, not one shred of evidence has been produced showing that public servants acted inhumanely, or illegitimately towards our brothers and sisters from the Caribbean," he said.

"It is very unfortunate that persons who should know better are trying to discredit the work of public servants, who have been going about their legitimate business."

Prime Minister David Thompson has said that public officials would be disciplined appropriately if evidence was produced that they were ill-treating Guyanese and other immigrants.

Thompson announced on Wednesday at a Press conference in Guyana plans to set up an independent review panel to investigate claims of ill-treatment by immigration authorities. (TY)