Defence Minister confirms operation to verify migrants’ legal status

News Sean Douglas 18 Hrs Ago

Venezuelan migrants line up to register with the government in a mass registration exercise in 2019 at the Queen's Park Oval, St Clair. - File photo

Defence Minister Wayne Sturge has confirmed there was an operation in progress to determine whether Venezuelan migrants in TT were here legally. He declined to give any details about this operation.

Sturge was asked to confirm reports of police stopping people who looked like Venezuelans and taking them to the police station if they could not produce their documents.

In a WhatsApp reply, Sturge said, "I am aware, I will address this question raised by you at the appropriate time."

Asked when that appropriate time would be, he replied, "Toward the end of the exercise."

Sturge provided no further details

Meanwhile, former foreign affairs minister Dr Amery Browne expressed his deep concern at the government's plans for mass deportations of Venezuelan nationals in TT illegally, he told Newsday via text on November 2.

Last Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers at a post-Cabinet briefing doubled down on Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander's promise of "mass deportations".

Sobers had declined Newsday's offer to limit the term "mass deportations" to those engaging in crimes in TT but instead he said the mere fact of entering TT illegally was an offence in itself.

All of this came amid word of a steep cut in work permits issued to Venezuelans,

Browne told Newsday, "For years this country worked in conjunction with our counterparts in Caracas to successfully deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants who had entered our criminal justice system.

"This was managed smoothly and without fanfare, and certainly was not done in any xenophobic or provocative manner designed to inflame tensions or to trigger hostility."

He said in so doing the former government was "not imitating actions being taken in any other country" but simply enforcing the laws of TT whilst prudently managing relations with our nearest and largest immediate neighbour.

"This Opposition fully understands its role and responsibilities under the Constitution, and we will be doing our part to monitor exactly how the current government manages deportations of criminals or 'mass deportations' as they seem to prefer to call it.

"We are very much cognisant of the view among stakeholders that this government, having abandoned our nation's moorings in international law and having farmed out our foreign policy, may simply opt to mimic actions being taken elsewhere or even worse may conduct its actions in manner aimed at provocation rather than peaceful and respectful coexistence."

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