A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament Sherod Duncan says that major reforms are needed to Guyana’s naturalisation system, including clearer eligibility criteria, mandatory reasons for ministerial decisions, stronger security vetting and the publication of detailed annual citizenship statistics.
Speaking in an interview with Kiskadee Watch, Duncan, shadow home affairs minister for APNU, said that the current system does not meet the transparency standards expected of a modern citizenship regime, particularly because the Minister responsible has broad discretion over naturalisation applications.
He shared that while application requirements are publicly available, the most important stage – the decision on whether citizenship is granted – remains too “opaque.”
Based on newspaper advertisements hundreds of persons believed to be mainly Venezuelans and Cubans have applied in recent years for naturalisation. The government does not provide information on naturalisations. Previously the Ministry of Home Affairs occasionally published photos of ceremonies according citizenship to those who have gone through the naturalization process. This is no longer done.
Under the Citizenship Act, Duncan noted, the Minister has broad discretion in naturalisation matters and is not required to provide reasons for exercising that discretion. He also pointed to provisions allowing the Minister to shorten the normal residency requirement in “special circumstances”, without publicly defined criteria for determining what qualifies, arguing that ministerial discretion should not become unaccountable discretion.
He proposed that the Government establish clear criteria for determining “good character” and “special circumstances”, require reasons for naturalisation decisions, and document the justification whenever an applicant’s normal residence requirement is reduced. He also called for the Ministry of Home Affairs to publish an annual citizenship report showing the number of applications received, approved, refused and pending, while distinguishing between persons naturalised and those registered as citizens.
The report, he said, should also provide aggregate information on applicants’ countries of nationality, processing times and the number of cases in which special ministerial discretion was exercised. Such information, he said, could be published without compromising applicants’ personal information or national security.
He is also calling for a formal multi-agency security-vetting system and digital audit trail for every naturalisation case. This, he noted, should include identity verification, immigration history, police and security checks, and international criminal and document checks where appropriate. “Citizenship is too important for the public simply to be told to trust that the checks were done,” Duncan said.
He further criticised the quality and consistency of publicly available citizenship statistics, pointing to an official parliamentary figure from 2015, when the National Assembly was told that 18 foreign nationals were naturalised while 94 foreign nationals from 15 countries were registered as citizens.
He said more recent government announcements about citizenship ceremonies have generally grouped naturalisation and registration figures together, making it difficult for the public to determine how many people received citizenship through each legal route.
Duncan said the Government should provide Parliament with complete figures for 2025 and 2026 to date, broken down between naturalisation and registration, rather than leaving the public to piece together information from government announcements and events. He said the system must be capable of reliably determining an applicant’s identity, lawful entry and residence history, criminal or security background and the authenticity of documents submitted.
Duncan said concerns about security make rigorous citizenship screening even more important. “The answer is enhanced individual screening, not collective suspicion,” he said, calling for identity and residence verification, domestic criminal and security checks, appropriate international checks and documentation of every approval and exception.
Former APNU+AFC minister Annette Ferguson, in a letter to the editor, had called for the re-establishment of the Department of Citizenship, arguing that its abolition in 2020 returned responsibility for citizenship, migration and related matters to a fragmented system.
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