Pawiroredjo: ‘Foreigners find work, while 200,000 Surinamese need social assistance’

Pawiroredjo stated that approximately 200,000 people in Suriname rely on government social assistance. “If one-third of the people are dependent on support, then something is structurally wrong,” he said.

The parliamentarian acknowledges that Suriname is going through an economic crisis and that vulnerable groups need support. However, he warns that, in his view, social assistance is increasingly taking on a structural character, rather than providing temporary help to people who need it.

Pawiroredjo also pointed to the influx of foreign workers, including Cubans, Venezuelans and Brazilians. According to him, many of these people manage to find work and housing relatively quickly.

“All these foreigners can find work and pay for a house, but one-third of the Surinamese population needs social assistance. So something is going on,” Pawiroredjo said.

According to the NPS member, a situation is threatening to arise in which Surinamers become increasingly dependent on government support. He believes this must be prevented. “If you do not provide support properly, it will discourage citizens from taking the initiative to go to work.”

Pawiroredjo fears that, as a result, more and more available jobs will be filled by foreign workers. He therefore advocates stronger encouragement of work and for employees to receive appropriate remuneration for the work they perform.

At the same time, he believes that Surinamers themselves must take responsibility by furthering their education or retraining. This would allow them to prepare better for new employment opportunities, including in the developing oil and gas sector.

I deliberately made the headline slightly tighter and clearly attributed the statements about foreigners to Pawiroredjo, so that they are not presented as established facts by Key News.