The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry grant­ed 12,212 work per­mits to non-Cari­com na­tion­als be­tween 2007 and 2008. Of this num­ber, 2,827 work per­mits were grant­ed to Chi­nese na­tion­als, the min­istry has con­firmed.

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Don­na Cox gave these fig­ures in re­ply to an Op­po­si­tion ques­tion in the Low­er House yes­ter­day. One ques­tion called for an­swers on the num­ber of non-Cari­com work­ers en­ter­ing T&T and grant­ed work per­mits for 2007 and 2008, and the num­ber of Chi­nese im­mi­grant labour­ers-work­ers em­ployed in T&T for 2007 and 2008. An­oth­er ques­tion called for the na­ture of the con­tracts and terms of em­ploy­ment of Chi­nese work­ers en­ter­ing T&T in 2007 and 2008.

Cox said 1,071 work per­mits were grant­ed to Chi­nese na­tion­als in 2007 and 1,756 to such na­tion­als in 2008. She al­so said 5,103 work per­mits were grant­ed to oth­er non-Cari­com work­ers in 2007 and 7,109 work per­mits in 2008. The min­istry, in a writ­ten re­ply to the oth­er query, stat­ed that its data­base showed that most of the Chi­nese work­ers were em­ployed with con­struc­tion com­pa­nies and restau­rants. For 2007, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 74 per cent of the work­ers were em­ployed in con­struc­tion re­lat­ed oc­cu­pa­tions–car­pen­ters, ma­sons, welders, etc.

In ad­di­tion, about 11 per cent of Chi­nese work­ers were em­ployed in food ser­vices oc­cu­pa­tions–chefs, cooks, etc. For 2008, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 82 per cent of the work­ers were em­ployed in con­struc­tion-re­lat­ed oc­cu­pa­tions, while five per cent were em­ployed in food ser­vices oc­cu­pa­tions. The min­istry stat­ed that such work­ers were usu­al­ly grant­ed a 12-month work per­mit. The terms and con­di­tions of em­ploy­ment for these work­ers were be­tween re­spec­tive em­ploy­ers and work­ers and do not form min­istry records, the min­istry stat­ed.