RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Thir­teen Venezue­lans, who have been stay­ing at the Ir­win Park fa­cil­i­ty in Siparia since last week, have ap­plied as asy­lum seek­ers with the Of­fice of the Unit­ed Na­tions High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees (UN­HCR).

Two rep­re­sen­ta­tives from UN­HCR vis­it­ed the fa­cil­i­ty yes­ter­day and con­duct­ed con­fi­den­tial in­ter­views with the Venezue­lans.

More than 20 of them have been stay­ing at the fa­cil­i­ty where arrange­ments are be­ing made for them to reg­is­ter.

Kim Quashie, an em­ploy­ee of the Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, said the Venezue­lans were be­ing ac­com­mo­dat­ed for a brief pe­ri­od.

Chair­man of the Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Dr Glenn Ra­mad­hars­ingh said peo­ple from Siparia have been as­sist­ing the Venezue­lans.

Coun­cil­lor for Ce­dros Shankar Teelucks­ingh said as reg­is­tra­tion draws near, the Gov­ern­ment should put ad­di­tion­al health re­sources in the dis­trict to as­sist mi­grants. He said Red Cross In­ter­na­tion­al and the Unit­ed Na­tions have re­sources which can be made avail­able to the peo­ple of Venezuela free of charge.

He al­so said he wel­comed the ar­rival of the US Navy hos­pi­tal ship “Com­fort” which will dock in lo­cal wa­ters soon.

The ship will pro­vide med­ical sup­port to Venezue­lan mi­grants. It is es­ti­mat­ed that over five mil­lion Venezue­lans have fled their coun­try over the past few years be­cause of so­cio-eco­nom­ic may­hem.