The Immigration Department was criticised by a Port-of-Spain magistrate for detaining six Colombian nationals at the Women's Prison for two months before bringing them to court. The women were held for illegally entering this country.
Port-of-Spain Four B magistrate Avason Quinlan questioned why they were only brought to court yesterday, although they were detained since May 9. The six women are Alba Ortiz Angula, Danelly Pai, 26; Monica Andrea, Guisell Caicedo Rodriguez, Carmen Montenegro Delgado, 33, and Maria Angelica Vivas, 26. Angula, Andrea, Caicedo, Pai and Delgado were held as they entered T&T waters in Chaguaramas on May 9, while Vivas was arrested at a club in Tunapuna on June 5.
Complainant in the matter is WPC Hector of the Port-of-Spain CID. Quinlan was informed by the police prosecutor that the women were detained pending an investigation. "But if a person is arrested pending an inquiry, then that inquiry should be done within a reasonable time," the magistrate said. "Why is it that an inquiry has to take two months?" she asked. She said in the normal course of the law a suspect is detained for a maximum of 48 hours.
"The immigration department which is responsible for these detention orders must play a systematic role in dealing with these types of matters," she said.
She said given the length of time the women spent in prison, it would be difficult for them to pay the stipulated $30,000 fine that came along with the offence. She said the first-time offenders would not be sentenced to three years but would be fined, but the court had to consider their means of paying the money. "What means do they have to pay that fine when they have been imprisoned for two months?" she asked. She said there was a proliferation of Colombian women illegally entering the country and a new approach had to be found to treat with this issue.
"I wonder if we are to approach these matters the right way or to just proceed to deportation," she said, before pondering for a few minutes on the women's fate. She concluded that based on the circumstances and bearing in mind that Angula, Andrea, Caiced and Pai had no previous convictions, she fined them $1,000 or in default two weeks simple imprisonment. They were given one month to pay the fine. With regard to Delgado and Vivas, who had previous convictions stemming from break-ins, she fined them $10,000 each or in default three months hard labour in prison. On the charge of illegally entering the country, the two were each charged $1,000 or in default 18 months hard labour.
