RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Hud­dling un­der um­brel­las to keep out the rain, scores of peo­ple lined up out­side the Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fice in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day await­ing ser­vices.

How­ev­er, be­cause of so­cial dis­tanc­ing pro­to­cols, on­ly a lim­it­ed num­ber of ap­pli­cants were in­vit­ed in­side the of­fice at Knox Street.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, Frances Au­gus­tine said the con­di­tions were in­hu­mane for the chil­dren and el­der­ly.

“At least they could have put up a few tents for us so we don’t have to stay in the rain,” Au­gus­tine said.

She added, “Look at how many el­der­ly peo­ple are here. Look at the chil­dren. What about those who are sick?” she asked.

Sie­u­nar­ine Singh said his ap­point­ment was sup­posed to be for 8 am but up to 10.30 am, he was still wait­ing in line.

“Look at this line which goes all the way down the road. This is not right. Women and chil­dren wait­ing so long in the line and we are all out in the rain. I am an el­der­ly now. This is not good,” he said.

An­oth­er res­i­dent De­onar­ine Nages­sar said he was sup­posed to have an 11 am ap­point­ment but when he reached the of­fice at 10 am, the peo­ple with 8 am ap­point­ments were still wait­ing in line.

“We do not know why this is hap­pen­ing. No­body has come to tell us any­thing,” he added.

A se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer with an um­brel­la manned the gates al­low­ing on­ly one per­son in at a time.

A source at the Im­mi­gra­tion of­fice said be­cause of so­cial dis­tanc­ing pro­to­cols they could not al­low all of the ap­pli­cants in­to the of­fice.

The source said pass­port ap­pli­cants are cur­rent­ly be­ing at­tend­ed to by ap­point­ments on­ly. The im­mi­gra­tion of­fices re­opened last Mon­day to fa­cil­i­tate those who missed ap­point­ments be­tween March 31 to June 5, 2020.