(Trinidad Guardian) Registration cards have not yet been issued to Venezuelans who registered recently since Government is still working out who should be in T&T, who should not be and who are criminals.
National Security Minister Stuart Young said so in Parliament last Friday night during debate of an Opposition motion seeking to annul Government’s Immigration Regulations.
The regulations—in force since May 24—facilitated the one-year working arrangement Government instituted for Venezuelans who registered in the recent amnesty exercise. Young slammed the Opposition motion which he said arose long after the regulations went into force. The motion failed.
He said the total of 16,523 Venezuelans registered included 7,016 females, 9,507 males and 2,421 minors—1,211 girls and 1,210 boys.
In the current process of determining who can stay, he said he was still signing deportation orders.
He said the wealth of intelligence gathered from the registration—what boats brought people in, how much they paid, who was involved—is currently being analysed by National Security. “T&T will see operations where we go after the Big Fish who acted in human trafficking in T&T,” he added.
‘Registration does not assist with residency or citizenship, they don’t qualify to vote’
He said the Prime Minister’s visa system for Venezuelans was implemented immediately after but could not be announced before to avoid the “pull factor”. He said,”Only three us knew of it…”
Young reiterated registration would not assist Venezuelans with residency or citizenship and they don’t qualify to vote. He said the recent US Trafficking report on T&T pre-dated the registration and Government were commended by the US for it. But he said that wasn’t necessary since Government would “do what’s right and protect T&T’s sovereignty and we wouldn’t have any country dictate to us how we should run our country—we stand proud to say so”!