RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Pro­tect­ing mi­grants is not on­ly the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the State but the pri­vate sec­tor and oth­er groups, says Dean of the Fac­ul­ty of Law at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Pro­fes­sor Rose Marie Belle An­toine.

Speak­ing at a vir­tu­al work­shop ti­tled “Pro­tec­tion of Refugees and Mi­grants in T&T; Ex­plor­ing le­gal frame­works, hu­man rights and jus­tice” on Fri­day, An­toine said there con­tin­ues to be an ero­sion of ba­sic rights among the mi­grant com­mu­ni­ty.

With no prop­er le­gal frame­work to pro­tect them, she said many peo­ple, in­clud­ing women and chil­dren, are con­tin­u­ing to suf­fer.

“We need a clear un­der­stand­ing of what is hap­pen­ing and we must find con­crete ways to ad­dress it in terms of so­lu­tions and ways we can make a dif­fer­ence,” An­toine said.

“This is not the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the State alone. The pri­vate sec­tor should get in­volved be­cause Venezue­lan mi­grants are play­ing a role in our so­ci­ety as work­ers, they are in hos­pi­tals, su­per­mar­kets and many oth­er places.”

She added, “We have a poor and in­ad­e­quate le­gal frame­work which makes the role of NGOs more im­por­tant. For chil­dren and women, I am par­tic­u­lar­ly wor­ried.

“UWI is look­ing at ways to help the chil­dren of Venezue­lan mi­grants. There are health is­sues and that is why we felt it im­por­tant to have the Fam­i­ly Plan­ning As­so­ci­a­tion here to pro­vide sex­u­al health ser­vices.”

In light of the re­cent bru­tal at­tacks against Venezue­lan women, An­toine said, “It is im­por­tant for NGOs to be in­volved in this is­sue be­cause of di­min­ish­ing em­pa­thy for Venezue­lans. Liv­ing Wa­ters has a long role. You have done a lot over the years but more has to be done. What NGOs are deal­ing with in a di­rect way are is­sues of hu­man rights, the right for all hu­man be­ings to have eco­nom­ic, so­cial and cul­tur­al rights.”

Mean­while, Rochelle Nakhid, co­or­di­na­tor of the Min­istry for Mi­grants and Refugees of the Liv­ing Wa­ter Com­mu­ni­ty, agreed that le­gal frame­works and min­i­mum stan­dard guide­lines could go a long way in help­ing the mi­grant pop­u­la­tion. 

“It’s a great re­spon­si­bil­i­ty we have. The threats that they face are se­vere. Venezue­lans need in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion,” Nakhid said.

“There is a lack of food, med­ical care, in­se­cu­ri­ty and vi­o­lence, ac­cess to es­sen­tial so­cial ser­vices and loss of in­come. The fear of be­ing tar­get­ed po­lit­i­cal­ly and threats from armed groups.”

She al­so said hu­man traf­fick­ing through co­er­cion, threat of force, ab­duc­tion, vi­o­lence, de­cep­tion and fraud to fa­cil­i­tate com­mer­cial gains, pros­ti­tu­tion or re­moval of hu­man or­gans was al­so of con­cern.

Liv­ing Wa­ter le­gal of­fi­cer Ganesh Ram­per­sad re­it­er­at­ed that there was no leg­is­la­tion for refugees. 

“How­ev­er, there is a draft in the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al but refugees have no right to work or school, no ac­cess to all pub­lic health care with the ex­cep­tion of emer­gency care,” Ram­per­sad said.

He not­ed that mi­grants in T&T come from Venezuela, Cu­ba, Nige­ria, Ja­maica, Chi­na, Bangladesh, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Syr­ia, Colom­bia and Pak­istan.

As part of the do­mes­tic le­gal frame, Ram­per­sad said the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Act, Sex­u­al Of­fences Act, Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence Act,  the Con­sti­tu­tion, Im­mi­gra­tion Act, Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Act and a na­tion­al pol­i­cy to ad­dress refugee and asy­lum mat­ters in T&T ex­ist­ed, but this was not enough.

“It seeks to give pri­ma­ry ac­cess to health care to non-na­tion­als. There is a lot more work to do when it comes to im­mi­gra­tion laws,” he said.

Ram­per­sad lament­ed that un­doc­u­ment­ed mi­grants and refugees were be­ing treat­ed in the same man­ner in T&T.

“Un­der the Im­mi­gra­tion Act, they are charged for il­le­gal en­try. Mag­is­trates give harsh and in­con­sis­tent sen­tences. We had a per­son be­ing sen­tenced to three years, an­oth­er to five years. They face fines of $10,000 or $20,000 and peo­ple can’t pay. Ac­cess to bail is a con­cern and then they are placed in prison. They serve out their time. Neigh­bours are call­ing the po­lice for them and they are be­ing ar­rest­ed,” he added.