WHILE Guyanese have perhaps had their eyes focused more closely on persons occasionally making their way across the border from crisis-hit Venezuela, there is another regional crisis that highlights the question of migration.

Conditions are so consistently poor in Haiti that perhaps we have become desensitised to the poverty and lack of substantial progress in our fellow CARICOM country. The sad state of Haiti has been vividly depicted in the riots over the past week or so, as steep rises in the cost of fuel brought on by IMF specifications, have unleashed vast public fury at general living conditions. Images of riots featured looting, burnt-out cars, and endless streams of angry people in the streets.

To see a fellow Caribbean country in the throes of such havoc is deeply sad. As might be expected, Haiti’s Prime Minister has been forced to resign in light of the ceaseless chaos. The fuel hike has been postponed for now, but that has not made the path forward for Haiti, both in the short and long run, any clearer. After all, there still is the small matter of the vast sum loaned to the Haitian government by the IMF, which will come with restrictions on government spending of one form or another, despite the riots and change of government.

How, then, can Guyana help? Barbados has introduced visa-free travel to Haitians, a kind gesture in the wake of the threats to disengage with CARICOM’s institutions that preceded their last election, but by no means enough to really help the Haitian people. Given the severe lack of resources on the island one could argue that what Haiti really needs is migration, giving poor people without much opportunity a chance to start over.

Perhaps, as Guyana grows there can be increased migration from Haiti to our hinterland regions. This would not only be of great humanitarian value, it would help develop those areas of the country that Guyanese seldom frequent, which, given our country’s vast size, are themselves vast. After a long history of migration out of Guyana, it still remains hard to see people flocking here, like an illusion or mirage, but I imagine Haitians would really value a fresh start, if we could give it to them.

Migration, however, is always controversial as it creates great social anxiety. One needs only look at the character of politics in the United States and Europe to see that it is an issue to be handled with the utmost care and caution. Even further, however, migration from Haiti is particularly tricky due to the relatively low level of education of the poor, cultural differences and language barrier. It would no doubt be difficult to integrate Haitians among the general Guyanese population.

Sadly, what exacerbates this is that one could ask whether allowing migration would even meaningfully impact general conditions in Haiti, as the population of that country alone is almost double that of every other country in CARICOM combined. At around 11 million people, even extensive migration would be a drop in the bucket, good for the migrants themselves but not enough to turn Haiti around.

These types of questions will surely continue as Guyana grows more wealthy, but a thought that perhaps we have missed is that Haitians have another option. French Guiana, so close and so much easier for migrants to integrate into, is also sparsely populated, with a vast hinterland region that migrants could develop. Given Haiti’s original woes at the hands of the French, perhaps the most appropriate restitution would be to allow that French territory to take a few million migrants in. It would be a big sacrifice from the French, to be sure, but an even bigger, truly heroic, humanitarian decision.