Judge orders immediate release of 10 Venezuelan minors and four of their mothers

Home*Cover Story*News

Judge orders immediate release of 10 Venezuelan minors and four of their mothers

High Court Judge, Justice Joan Charles, on Tuesday evening ordered the immediate release of 10 Venezuelan minors and four of their mothers from the migrant detention centre at the Heliport in Chaguaramas.

Justice Charles made the ruling during an emergency hearing saying, “More needs to be done…This situation must be rectified and proper procedure and policy must be made so as to facilitate the release of these children from custody.”

She noted that this country’s immigration laws and policies do not provide for the detention and deportation of children.

Justice Charles said this matter set a bad precedent and attracted negative publicity for the country.

She said there must be some type of intervention by the legislative arm of the State, to ensure that incidents like this, do not again take place.

In giving her ruling, Charles also directed that the Children’s Authority perform an assessment of the homes the children and adults would be going to and report back to her in 21 days.

Lawyers representing the Chief of Defence Staff claimed the decision may serve to encourage more illegal immigration from Venezuela.

The ruling came hours after the deported Venezuelans returned to TT shores.

COMMENTS

WORDPRESS: 0
DISQUS: 0