Owner of Olympia Club challenges deportation order

Dec 21, 2008 News

Owner of Olympia Club, Brazilian national Francisca Souza Carvalho, has moved to the court and has secured several orders after being denied her Stay/ Work Permit/ Multiple Entry Business Visa and being deported.

On Wednesday, Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire ordered an Order or Rule Nisi of Certiorari, quashing a decision of the Chief Immigration Officer and/or Permanent Secretary and/or the Head, Immigration Support Services, or their servants, Ministry of Home Affairs, made on August 20, 2008, refusing to grant an Extension of Stay/ Work Permit/ Multiple Entry Business Visa to Carvalho.

The judge ordered an Order or Rule Nisi of Mandamus compelling the said Chief Immigration Officer to order the Permanent Secretary and/or the Head, Immigration Support Services, Ministry of Home Affairs, to grant to the applicant an Extension of Stay/Work Permit/ Multiple Entry Business Visa for a period of three years.

Justice George-Wiltshire also made an Order or Rule Nisi of Certiorari quashing a decision of the Chief Immigration Officer and/or the Permanent Secretary and/or the Head, Immigration Support Services, Ministry of Home Affairs, made on or before November 3, 2008, deeming Carvalho a prohibited immigrant, and ordered them to show cause why the said Order or Rule Nisi of Certiorari should not be made absolute.

An order was also made quashing a decision made on or before November 3, 2008 to deport Carvalho.

These orders were sought on the grounds that the decisions unfairly disappoint Carvalho’s legitimate expectation, are biased, made in bad faith and based on irrelevant and improper considerations, are unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious, contrary to the principles of natural justice, unlawful, null, void and of no legal effect.

The affidavit in support of the motion stated that Carvalho, 28, is a citizen of Brazil, has been living in Guyana since 2002, having been lawfully permitted by the immigration authorities to live here and take up employment with the Mazaruni Mining and Diamond Traders Inc. of 57 Robb and Oronoque Streets, Bourda, Georgetown. It also stated that, from 2002 to 2003, she applied for and was granted several Tourist Visas.

According to the affidavit, on August 18, 2003, Carvalho was issued with a Multiple Entry Business Visa/Work Permit which was valid until June 12, 2004, and this Business Visa/ Work Permit was successively renewed until May 14, 2008, thereby permitting her to reside and work in Guyana for the duration of that period.

In 2006, the affidavit stated, Carvalho duly established a bar under the name and style of Olympia Club at 208 Charlotte Street, Bourda, Georgetown, and to date the said bar remains operational.

She also obtained from the City Engineers Department, Mayor and City Councillors of the City of Georgetown, a Certificate of Structural Soundness for the said premises for the purpose of satisfying the requirements of the Music and Dance Licence Act, Chapter 23:03, and the said premises was thereof deemed as a place suitable for public entertainment, the affidavit said.

It also stated that during 2007, she left Guyana for Brazil, where she gave birth to her son, who was born with several medical complications and had to remain in Brazil for medical treatment whilst she returned to Guyana to attend to her business.

“During this period, the Applicant (Carvalho) made several trips to and from Brazil in order to visit the baby, and as a result of the applicant’s frequent travels to attend to the medical needs of her son, the applicant inadvertently omitted to renew her Business Visa and application for permission to work in Guyana, which expired in May, 2008.

It added that during last August, whilst Carvalho was in Brazil, a letter dated August, 20 2008, and signed by a Mr. E. A. Tappin, Head, Immigration Support Services, for Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, was delivered to her business premises informing her that her Extension of Stay/Work Permit expired on May 14, 2008, and that no further extensions will be granted, and that the applicant is required to leave the country.

“Upon the Applicant’s return to Guyana and upon receipt of the said letter, she immediately retained the services of Mr. Bernard De Santos, SC, attorney-at-law, who dispatched a letter to the Minister of Home Affairs regarding this matter. Despite several enquiries, no response was received in relation to this letter.”

In the meantime, the applicant openly carried on her business without any interruption by or interference with the immigration authorities.

According to the affidavit, on November 18 last, whilst at the business premises, five persons purporting to be officers of the Immigration Department arrested Carvalho and took her to the Immigration Department, Camp Street, Georgetown, where she was shown a document purporting to be a warrant for her deportation from Guyana dated November 3, 2008.