Non-nationals may work up to 30 days per year without permit in Trinidad

(TRINIDAD GUARDIAN) A non-na­tion­al of T&T can work in this coun­try for 30 days with­out a work per­mit for one time on­ly dur­ing a year, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Ed­mund Dil­lon has point­ed out.

Dil­lon gave the in­for­ma­tion in the Sen­ate yes­ter­day fol­low­ing queries from Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Wade Mark on what ac­tion was be­ing tak­en by Ude­cott against con­trac­tors who “open­ly flout” T&T’s Im­mi­gra­tion laws by con­tin­ued em­ploy­ment of non-na­tion­als with­out the rel­e­vant work per­mits.

This fol­lowed yes­ter­day’s T&T Guardian ex­clu­sive which re­vealed some 70 work­ers had been fired from the Red House project be­cause they lacked work per­mits.

Dil­lon said, “Ude­cott has tak­en an ini­tia­tive – where­by when the is­sue was brought to the pub­lic do­main – they wrote the con­trac­tors out­lin­ing the Im­mi­gra­tion laws re­gard­ing work per­mits. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Ude­cott has done ran­dom checks at all their sites be­tween Ju­ly, Au­gust and this month and has as­sured me that to date there is no one on any of their sites – non-na­tion­als – with­out the rel­e­vant work per­mit.

“I al­so want to put in­to the pub­lic do­main the Im­mi­gra­tion laws. You have to do a lot of in­ves­ti­ga­tion. Non-na­tion­als can come in­to this coun­try – as long as they de­clare to the Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cer – and they can work with­out a work per­mit for 30 days. They can do so for once in any one year. So there are peo­ple – non-na­tion­als – who can work for 30 days in this coun­try with­out a work per­mit.”