Approximately 1,500 people from Guyana sought refuge abroad, 1000 in Canada and 450 in the United States.

New Developments

Tensions between the Indian minority-dominated government and the black African majority remained high in 2003 and generated fears of unrest and displacement. Although there were no asylum seekers in Guyana, any cases were to be screened by the UN Development Programme office in Guyana and then referred to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) regional office in Venezuela. UNHCR continued to advocate for the government to ratify the UN Refugee Convention and has planned a series of meetings to address government apprehensions relating to doing so.

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