(Trinidad Express) The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard is attempting to explain how its officers came to fire upon a Venezuelan migrant vessel, and act that killed a baby on board the boat.
The child’s mother was also shot.
The mother among the migrants captured after the boat was intercepted.
The nine-month-old baby boy died before reaching a hospital.
The coast guard said they fired on the engines of the migrant boat because it attempted to ram their vessel, and that they were fearful for their lives and acting in self-defence.
Member of Parliament for Mayaro Rushton Paray, who followed the events that unfolded along the east coast yesterday, wants an investigation to determine exactly what happened.
It happened shortly before midnight Saturday in the waters off Trinidad’s south east coast, and involved the TTS Scarborough, one of two Cape Class patrol vessels commissioned two months ago, and deployed to protect the country’s maritime borders.
At the commissioning, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said then “these vessels are now the major assets in our Coast Guard” and will allow us to have an effective presence in the Atlantic Ocean which washes the Eastern shores of Trinidad and Tobago. “
In a statement issued after noon on Sunday, the Coast Guard said that while patrolling the south coast, the TTS SCARBOROUGH detected a vessel that crossed the border from Venezuela.
The coast guard said it pursued the boat which attempted to evade the TTS SCARBOROUGH whose ship’s boat was launched to aid in the interception.
The TTS Scarborough carries two high-speed 7.3-metre rigid hull inflatable boats, and launched one to hunt down the migrant vessel.
“All available methods were used including the use of the loud hailer, ship’s horn, searchlight and flares, to try to get the suspect vessel to stop, however, the vessel continued to attempt to evade TTS SCARBOROUGH. In keeping with standard protocols, warning shots ahead of the vessel were next employed.”
The coast guard that this measure also proved futile.
“At this time, the ship’s boat from TTS SCARBOROUGH attempted to intercept the vessel, however, the vessel continued with aggressive manoeuvres, first coming into contact with the ship’s boat and then making attempts to ram it.”
In its statement, the coast guard said it was familiar with “the catastrophic results that can occur when ramming is used as an evasive technique since twice before in the recent past Coast Guard interceptors have been rammed by suspect vessels resulting in total loss of the interceptor in one incident and major damage to the hull and interior of the other interceptor in the second incident. In both incidents, the lives of the interceptor crews were put at risk since they narrowly escaped major injury and death. On this current occasion, the ramming effort by the suspect vessel which was larger than the ship’s boat caused its crew to fear for their lives and in self-defence, they fired at the engines of the suspect vessel in an attempt to bring it to a stop. “
The coast guard said that the migrant boat eventually stopped “and only then it was discovered that there were illegal migrants on board who had remained hidden and were therefore not seen before. Further checks discovered one adult female illegal migrant who was holding an infant and who indicated that she was bleeding.”
According to the coast guard, the migrant boat was brought alongside TTS SCARBOROUGH and the injured female was subsequently stabilised and has since been transferred to a local health facility.