(Trinidad Express) The High Court has blocked the State from deporting 19 Venezuelan nationals against whom deportation orders had been issued.
Even as the migrants were placed on vessels to be taken back to their home country yesterday morning, attorneys Criston J Williams, Kerrina Samdeo and Jerome Riley petitioned the court to have the repatriations stopped.
They were being held at the State’s quarantine facility at the heliport in Chaguaramas.
The migrants do not form part of the group that was escorted out to sea by coast guard last weekend only to illegally return to Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday afternoon. During the a teleconference hearing, Williams, Samdeo and Riley were successful in having Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams quashthe deportation orders made against the 19 applicants.
They were ordered to be released and placed on State supervision pursuant to Section 17 of the Immigration Act Chapter 18:01.
The migrants were also granted permission by the court to file a claim for judicial review in challenge of the decision of the State to have them deported.
They will remain on State supervision pending the outcome of the judicial review proceedings and determination of their asylum applications with the Living Waters Community, the implementing partner with the UNHCR in Trinidad and Tobago.
