RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Trinidad and Tobago authorities announced on Saturday, November 28th, the deportation of 160 Venezuelans whom they accused of having “illegally” entered the Caribbean country, a few days after a controversial repatriation by sea that included 16 minors.
“The Ministry of National Security would like to announce that the deportation of 160 Venezuelan citizens, who entered Trinidad and Tobago illegally, has been conducted today in cooperation with the Venezuelan authorities,” said a statement.
The decision comes after the deportation last November 22nd of 26 Venezuelan migrants, among them 16 minors, who were later returned to Trinidad and Tobago after spending several hours at sea.
The group was pardoned by a High Court Justice, who ordered the deportation to be suspended and ruled that the minors be released to the custody of their parents on completion of the Covid-19 quarantine.
Trinidad and Tobago warned that it “will continue to enforce the laws and do all it can to secure the borders and prevent illegal entry”.
On Wednesday, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley said the 1.3 million population country is under ” assault” by illegal migrants who “use innocent children” for their ends.
That day, the Maduro regime requested a meeting with Trinidad and Tobago’s authorities to “review security and human mobility issues, as well as the fight against crime and drug trafficking”.
David Smolansky, deputy of opposition leader Juan Guaidó at the Organization of American States (OAS), said that “they were unable to deport 16 children that week, thanks to pressure from society and the international community, but they are now working on a deportation swinging door,” to the Maduro regime.
The United Nations estimates that over five million Venezuelans have fled the country since late 2015, driven by a crisis that is pushing the country with the world’s largest oil reserves into its seventh year of recession. Rowley maintains that his country has allowed 16,000 to be registered.
Protection of Venezuelans
Yesterday, Trinidad and Tobago’s Police Commissioner Gary Griffith assured that the required security measures will be implemented to guarantee the protection of Venezuelans in the country, while waiting for the local authorities’ decision regarding the 16 Venezuelan children, from a group of 26 nationals waiting for refugee status after being initially deported.
Griffith announced this guarantee after meeting with Carlos Amador Perez, ambassador for the Venezuelan regime in Trinidad and Tobago, who paid a courtesy visit to the police headquarters in Port of Spain, the capital.
Perez further expressed his desire for improved cooperation between the two countries on anti-crime efforts.
Meeting between Ministers
On Friday, Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of National Security Stuart Young announced that he will hold a meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart. The Trinidad and Tobago official said that the meeting will be conducted online, but did not provide a date.
Young said the group was escorted out of the Trinidad and Tobago borders.
The latest available data points out that relatives of the 16 Venezuelan minors in the group of at least 26 who were detained last week and had been initially deported from Trinidad and Tobago, remained almost two days lost at sea and were finally returned to the Caribbean country, awaiting the local authorities’ decision regarding the children’s future.
Yesterday the courts determined that a group of them may, for the moment, remain on Trinidad and Tobago territory. The 26, including 16 children, the youngest a four-month-old baby, returned to the country last week and were detained at a police station.
Last Sunday they left on a boat to return to Venezuela, but after about two days at an unknown location they returned to Trinidad and Tobago in poor conditions.
In 2019, Trinidad and Tobago granted documentation legalizing the situation of 16,000 Venezuelans. This has allowed them to work and reside legally in the country.