Derek Achong

A High Court Judge has or­dered the im­me­di­ate re­lease of 10 mi­nors and four of their moth­ers from a mi­grant de­ten­tion cen­tre at the Coast Guard's He­li­port in Ch­aguara­mas.

De­liv­er­ing a de­ci­sion, this af­ter­noon, High Court Judge Joan Charles ruled that this coun­try's im­mi­gra­tion laws and poli­cies did not pro­vide for the de­por­ta­tion and de­ten­tion of chil­dren.

As the mi­nors had to be re­leased in­to the cus­tody of rel­a­tives, Charles had to al­so or­der the re­lease of some of their moth­ers, who were al­so de­tained await­ing de­por­ta­tion.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that some of the chil­dren, whose par­ents and rel­a­tives are reg­is­tered mi­grants, were de­tained along­side the moth­ers and their chil­dren as they made the jour­ney to Trinidad to­geth­er and were caught by po­lice in south Trinidad soon af­ter.

The chil­dren and women are ex­pect­ed to be re­leased from the lo­ca­tion short­ly.

Le­gal sources told Guardian Me­dia that over the past two weeks over a dozen chil­dren and par­ents have been re­leased af­ter bring­ing sim­i­lar cas­es.