Immigration Act Trinidad<\/div><\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n
A strong flow of Cuban migrants who arrived in Trinidad in \r\n2014 finally led to the creation of an Immigration Unit. In 2016, Acnur opened \r\nan office in Port of Spain, the capital of this Caribbean nation that comprises \r\nof two islands. But these instances were soon surprised by the arrival of \r\nVenezuelans en masse. \"There had never been a migration of Venezuelans like \r\nthat,\" explains Rochelle Nakhid, director of LWC. \"We are receiving more and \r\nmore people without passports. They always show the identity card. Some arrive \r\nby plane, but most of those who enter by sea do not have documentation, and \r\nalmost all say that they are looking for a better life, ways to send food to \r\ntheir homes or medicines.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Without regulations or laws that support the status of asylum \r\nor refugee, Trinidad and Tobago does not grant this status to anyone, despite \r\nbeing a signatory to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, created \r\nin 1951 by the United Nations. LWC just provides a paper warning that the bearer \r\nis an asylum seeker and the Immigration Office of Trinidad and Tobago provides a \r\nsimilar document, although printed on yellow paper and with a couple of \r\nconditions: Venezuelans must submit their passport to the Immigration Office and \r\nappear before that instance on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
This last document is known as \"order of supervision\" and \r\nthey usually give it also to migrants who were arrested because they entered the \r\ncountry illegally and had not requested asylum. The detainees in these \r\nconditions, who want to request protection once arrested, can only obtain the \r\n\"yellow paper\" if they pay a fine or serve their time in prison.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In practice, none of these papers is equal to obtaining \r\nrefugee status. Nor do they imply a formal residence and, worse still, they do \r\nnot mean a permit to work or study, in the case of minors. \"The paper from LWC \r\nor the yellow paper generally is an alternative to being arrested. It provides \r\nthem with protection from being deported or under arrest. It is the only \r\nmechanism available,\" Nakhid points out.<\/p>\n\n\n
Suspended Lives<\/h2>\n\n\n But to Jean Carlos Anaya, for example, the paper provided by \r\nLWC did not help him. He has an associate degree in IT, born in Valencia, \r\ncapital of the state of Carabobo (center of Venezuela), is a prisoner in the \r\nIDC, Immigration Detention Center, built in 2009 in Aripo, almost an hour from \r\nPort of Spain. He arrived in Erin without a passport when the boat trip from \r\nTucupita, in last year\u2019s November, could still be paid in bolivars. Soon he \r\nsettled in a room and started working in a chicken farm, then in a hardware \r\nstore, in both cases, as an illegal and earning up to 1,500 Trinidadian dollars \r\na week (214 US dollars), which he distributed so that he managed to send money \r\nto his fourteen and six-year old children.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"I was good with money. The first week I paid for the room, \r\nthe second and third week I bought food, and I sent to Venezuela what I earned \r\nin the fourth week,\" he says in a telephone call from the IDC. \"I worked from \r\nsunrise to sunset. I could settle and was happy. Two months later, I went to LWC \r\nand obtained my paper as an asylum seeker, like my brother, who arrived with me \r\nand is also in prison here.\" Both were arrested after a party in the coastal \r\narea of ??Los Iros, despite of showing their asylum seeker certificates \u2014 \"I \r\ndidn\u2019t know that there was so much patrolling,\" he complains. The police \r\noverrode. \"They asked for a $ 1,000 each to let us go. I only had TT$ 700 cash, \r\nso they arrested us.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
That happened in June 2017. Anaya was imprisoned in the IDC \r\nbefore he was presented in court. After verifying that he was an asylum seeker \r\nregistered with LWC, the court decided to give him a verbal reprimand only and \r\nordered his release \"in the next few days\". But the native of Valencia was \r\ntransferred to the maximum security prison (MSP) with common criminals. He \r\nstayed there for seven days without receiving any explanation and then back to \r\nthe IDC, where he remains imprisoned to date. His brother, who entered Trinidad \r\nlike him and was arrested in the same circumstances, has not even been brought \r\nbefore a court.<\/p>\n\n\nOrder of release of Jean Carlos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\"I know my rights. The court ordered my release, but I am \r\nstill here. I asked for international protection and I have a paper that \r\nguarantees it. I'm just waiting to get out of here and I'm going to sue Trinidad \r\nand Tobago,\" says Jean Carlo, who despite being holed up, does not want to \r\nreturn to Venezuela. \"With much grief I must say that I cannot go back. I need \r\nto keep working, earn money and send it to my home. You need to understand my \r\ndesperation. My children and my mother depend on me.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Most of the arrested immigrants must pay a penalty of up to \r\nthree years in prison or a fine of up to 2,100 Trinidadian dollars (about US $ \r\n300), equivalent to a potential return ticket to their country of origin. \r\nBetween loneliness and poverty, not everyone has friends or resources to cover \r\nthat expense. In addition, the amounts of the fines are sometimes set \r\ndiscretionally, as well as the bails.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Jos\u00e9 Heredia, has spent exactly six months trying to collect \r\nthe 3,000 US dollars (21,000 Trinidadian or titi dollars) required to get his \r\nfriend Ericson out of prison, arrested in December 2017 and sentenced in less \r\nthan a week to three years in jail for entering Trinidad illegally. \"It was all \r\nvery fast, without a lawyer, nothing,\" says Heredia, \"They told us that if he \r\ndoesn\u2019t pay the fine he will have to pay the penalty in the maximum security \r\nprison, but the amount is high and it has been difficult for me to collect \r\nit.\"<\/p>\n\n\n
A \u2018Spanish\u2019 is Worse than a Burden<\/h2>\n\n\n Not long ago, the transit of Venezuelans was a routine matter \r\nin Trinidad and Tobago because it was just that, transit. In Cedros and Icacos, \r\nalmost everyone remembers that arrival routine of Venezuelans on Fridays to \r\nparty or go to the beach on the weekend, buy something and return on Sunday. \r\nAnother of the classic activities of Venezuelans, especially middle class, was \r\nto go for a few months to study English. On the other hand, many Trinidadians \r\nremember that they liked to travel to Margarita Island and Cumana, and those \r\nwith more resources, to Puerto La Cruz - all tourist enclaves of the Venezuelan \r\nnortheast - or to Caracas, where they could enjoy the frenzy of a big city that \r\nused to emanate from the Venezuelan capital.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The change began in 2015 with the collapse of both \r\noil-dependent economies -a catastrophic fall in Venezuela\u2019s case- and the \r\ngrowing number of Venezuelans arriving and remaining in a country whose native \r\npopulation was going through the lean times. The smile that was reserved for the \r\ntourist transmuted into distrust for the immigrant, a little fairer in skin than \r\nthe Trinidadian, with little understanding of English and definitely with less \r\navailable resources than the Venezuelans in the past. The constant police patrol \r\non the street, especially in Port of Spain, the legal limbo of their situation \r\nand the scrutinizing looks of the locals keep Venezuelans hidden in their homes \r\nor jobs. \"Hello Spanish,\" as a greeting on the street, is not exactly \r\nwelcoming.<\/p>\n\n\nCedros<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\nNorka Delgado and her two children do not speak Spanish when \r\nthey go to the city center, and they hardly go out. \"We whisper. We do not want \r\nto attract attention. Here we are Spanish, Latin.\" The Trinidadian Government is \r\nso rigid with immigrants that even if an alien has a resident status, their \r\nchildren are not admitted to the formal education system unless they have the \r\nsame status. Norka, a Venezuelan resident\u2014because her father is Trinidadian\u2014, an \r\nadministrator by profession and a waitress by necessity, has over a year in Port \r\nof Spain, but her 14 and 16-year old children are not admitted to any \r\nschool.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"That greeting implies that you are an alien, different,\" \r\nexplains Arnaldo G\u00f3mez, a Venezuelan journalist caught in the legal limbo of \r\nbeing an asylum seeker without the right to study or work, \"it is a phenotype \r\nobservation.\" G\u00f3mez arrived in 2016, and claims to be one of the first \r\nVenezuelans to apply for asylum in Trinidad. He started organizing boxes in a \r\nshop, of which he is a sort of a manager today, because he earned the trust of \r\nthe owners. Considering the time elapsed, he can affirm that the treatment of \r\nthe Trinidadians has deteriorated rapidly. In a recent release, the Newsday \r\nnewspaper of Port of Spain dared to describe the Venezuelan migration as an \r\n\"invasion.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"From the moment I asked for asylum, they told me that I \r\ncould not stay, but they offered to send me to another country in a resettlement \r\nprocess. We chose Canada. I had a very cordial interview at the immigration \r\noffice. I appeared at the office every three months. Then, in the second \r\ninterview, they took my passport and asked me to appear every month. In last \r\nyear\u2019s July, they should have helped me with the resettlement or at least give \r\nus the residence or work permit, but nothing happened. They told me that there \r\nwill be no resettlement. It is a legal nonsense. They push people towards \r\nillegality and they know it. We do not exist in Trinidad,\" he explains.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
In this context, Venezuelans do not adapt, they feel in an \r\neternal transition. Most expect to be able to save and go elsewhere, but many, \r\nlike G\u00f3mez, face another problem, the expiration of their passports and the \r\nimpossibility of obtaining a new one through the website of the Venezuelan \r\nImmigration and Naturalization Service (Saime), because when filling out the \r\nelectronic form, there are the tourist and resident categories only, there is no \r\nrefugee category. Venezuelan immigrants in Trinidad are neither tourists nor \r\nresidents.<\/p>\n\n\n
Out of the Radar<\/h2>\n\n\n With no work permits, arriving Venezuelans can only relocate \r\nin jobs as taxi drivers, construction workers, masons, waiters, household \r\nemployees. Trinidadians express fear that this flow of immigrants will fill the \r\njobs; hence, many applaud the official tightening policy towards immigrants \r\ndeclared by the prime minister in late July. However, not everyone panics. \r\n\"People think that Venezuelans will take our jobs. They get scared because the \r\neconomy is bad,\" says a Trinidadian taxi driver with a strong Hindu accent \r\nduring a long trip, \"but the truth is that there is a lot to do here and a \r\nlittle help would not hurt.\"<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
The condition of illegality to work - with asylum seeker \r\npaper or not - usually means that the payments received by Venezuelan immigrants \r\nare well below the minimum wage. On the coast, where the most common trades are \r\nrelated to work in the country, on farms, in fishing or in informal commerce, is \r\neven worse. But Venezuelans accept it. Any dollar multiplies exponentially when \r\nsent home. \"Trinidadians work for 350 titis a day (US$ 50), but we are paid 150 \r\ntitis, depending on the work,\" says Magda Estaba, a 45-year-old Venezuelan who \r\nlives in Icacos, but who has also become a kind of guide or leader for the \r\ngrowing community of newcomer compatriots.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
\"I help as I can. Sometimes I lend money for them to show \r\nthat they can be on the island and then they pay me back, but mostly, I try to \r\nhelp them find work. In the coconut processing plant at the beach alone there \r\nare five Venezuelans, and I got them the job,\" she says proudly, although not \r\ntrying to idealize that work. She knows, for example, that the work in the \r\ncountry could entail a twelve-hour day. \"Those who want to stay obtain their \r\npaper as asylum seekers in Port of Spain and stay in those jobs, but many, \r\nespecially those who come with the family, end up returning because the children \r\ncannot attend school.\"<\/p>\n\n\nArnaldo G\u00f3mez, whom the government of TT promised him resettlement and did not comply. Working in a store<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\nIn Port of Spain, wages improve a little. But the costs of \r\nliving in the city are also higher. You can find at least one Venezuelan waiting \r\ntables in almost every restaurant in the capital of Trinidad, which by some \r\nprodigy seem to be exempt from police raids. However, a great vulnerability is \r\nperceived even among these privileged immigrants, who enjoy regular employment \r\nand salary.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Women take care of each other with dedication, because, since \r\nthey look different, they are in great demand in the business of sex slavery. \r\nMalena Rodr\u00edguez is a girl from the island of Margarita who has been an \r\nimmigrant for nearly two years. She entered the island of Tobago, more rugged \r\nand northern than Trinidad, but today, she lives on the main island. She has the \r\nmarks and scratches from what she describes as an attempt to kidnap her in April \r\nof this year, when she took a taxi on the street. \"I was going from home to \r\nwork, a route that I do all the time, but the taxi got diverted and turn off and \r\ndrove through an unknown area. I asked the taxi driver where were we going and \r\nhe did not answer me. The second time, he accelerated and I jumped off the car \r\nwhile still in motion. Luckily, I could stand up and run. Who knows what he was \r\ngoing to do to me,\" she recalls.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n
Now, she only uses an Uber-like taxi service, which is the \r\nsame used by all of her co-workers, waitresses at the bar on Ariapita Avenue in \r\nPort of Spain. She hopes to save enough to leave soon. \"Trinidadians does not \r\ntreat aliens well,\" she says. Nearby, at least five Venezuelans work in \r\nprostitution guarded by burly Trinidadians. They look very young and their \r\naccent stands out, like that of two Cuban girls. None of them wants to tell how \r\nthey got there.<\/p>\n\n<\/video><\/figure>\n* \r\nThe identities of all Venezuelans quoted in this report have been changed to \r\nprotect their immigration status and procedures before the government of \r\nTrinidad and Tobago.<\/p>\n\n
Without human rights officers at the ports of entry or legal system that protects the refugee, Venezuelans migrating to the Caribbean island find relief from hunger and shortages. In return, they are exposed to labor exploitation and the constant persecution of corrupt authorities. On many occasions they end up in detention centers with inhumane conditions, from which only those who pay large amounts of money in fines are saved. The asylum request is a weak shield that hardly helps in case of arrest. Yet, the number of those who try their luck to earn a few dollars grows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":52715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387,2210],"tags":[1003,1865,860,852,176],"pais":[4216],"serie":[854],"localizacion":[4227],"ppma_author":[2379],"class_list":["post-2484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internacionales","category-investigacion","tag-dolares","tag-migracion","tag-migrantes","tag-trinidadytobago","tag-venezuela","pais-venezuela-en","serie-venezuelans-in-trinidad-and-tobago-navigating-from-one-hell-to-another"],"acf":{"reportage-top-html":""},"views":1847,"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2387,"label":"Internacionales"},{"value":2210,"label":"Investigacion"}],"post_tag":[{"value":1003,"label":"Dolares"},{"value":1865,"label":"Migraci\u00f3n"},{"value":860,"label":"Migrantes"},{"value":852,"label":"TrinidadyTobago"},{"value":176,"label":"Venezuela"}],"pais":[{"value":4216,"label":"Venezuela"}],"serie":[{"value":854,"label":"VENEZUELANS IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO - 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