Rosinda Nicholson, the young mother who was deported from Trinidad with her autistic son in October, is now back in the Twin Island Republic with the child.
According to activist Mark Benschop, who has been helping Nicholson, 23, she has been allowed to stay until the expiry date of her ticket but it is believed that the authorities would grant her permanent residency on humanitarian grounds.
Nicholson and her three-year-old son Elijah Harris returned to Trinidad yesterday and while initially officials were making plans to return her to Guyana, Benschop said he intervened and she was later allowed into the country and is now with her relatives.
After she was returned to Guyana in October, the woman had turned up at Benschop’s Thomas Street office seeking assistance and he told Stabroek News that he spoke to several ranking officials in the neighbouring state, including the Prime Minister Kamala Persad-Bissessar. However, while there were promises to look into the matter, more than a month elapsed with no new information. The woman again visited Benschop’s office in frustration and he advised her to purchase a ticket and return, which she did yesterday.
As soon as she arrived immigration officials took control of her and her son’s passports and placed them to sit on a bench advising her that they would be returned to Guyana on the next available flight. Benschop said the woman called him in a panic and he said he emailed the Minister of National Security Gary Griffith and the Prime Minister’s office asking them to intervene on humanitarian grounds as the child is Trinidadian and is in urgent need of medical treatment. He said the child and his mother were later allowed into the country even though Nicholson has to report to immigration officials on a regular basis. He said while her stay is until the expiry of her ticket, she has filed papers for permanent residency and it is believed that the authorities would allow her to remain there because of her son’s illness. He said he has since spoken to the woman, who has been reunited with her family, and she sent him a “smiling photo of her and her son.”
In October, Nicholson had returned to Trinidad—from which she had voluntarily removed on October 11th on the advice of immigration officials—and was told she could not enter the country and that she was going to be returned to Guyana on the next available flight. That flight was scheduled hours after she had arrived but while they were waiting to board Nicholson said her son collapsed and after treatment at the airport it was recommended that he be transferred to a hospital. At the Mount Hope hospital, Nicholson, originally from West Coast Berbice, had said that she was initially denied a bath and a meal. She had said as her son was being treated, she was being constantly guarded and her relatives were not allowed access. Following his treatment, they were immediately taken to the airport and placed on a flight bound to Guyana.
Nicholson told Stabroek News that she had been living illegally in the country for almost five years and moves were only made to deport her when she moved to regularise her citizenship because of the constant medical attention her son needs.
