Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has warned Venezuelan migrants who currently are registered here, that if they aid or abet their countrymen to come to T&T illegally, they too will be deregistered and deported.
Speaking on CNC3’s The Morning Brew, Rowley pointed out that just over 16,500 Venezuelan migrants were registered during a process last year and this was evidence of T&T’s humanitarian stance.
He said the decisions on handling of the migrants cannot be simply based on emotion.
However, he pointed out that Venezuelan migrants entering Trinidad and Tobago illegally will be deported.
“We have not taken a decision to register more Venezuelans, what we have also done—and the policy still stands at the time of registration if you were not among those who were registered who were here, who have come in over a period of time—if you were not among them and you turn up in Trinidad and Tobago, we will exercise our right to deport you, but of course it is on a case by case basis,” Rowley said.
He maintained that “Our border is closed. “I have a daughter in New York since January, and she cannot come home. Born and bred in Woodbrook, has to get permission to come into this country, and an illegal immigrant jump in a boat, get on the beach on Los Iros and a lawyer is telling me that person has more right than a child in Laventille who cannot move from here. Come on let’s get serious.”
Rowley said “What we are doing is how much we can do as a little country in a difficult situation.”
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