Rhon­dor Dowlat-Ros­tant

Two preg­nant Venezue­lan women were among 28 Venezue­lan na­tion­als in­ter­cept­ed in a pirogue in T&T wa­ters on Tues­day morn­ing.

Ac­cord­ing to the T&T Coast Guard, at about 1.30 am Coast Guard of­fi­cers, who were con­duct­ing mar­itime bor­der pa­trols just off the West Coast in the Gulf of Paria, ob­served the pirogue full speed to­wards the coast­line.

The Coast Guard ves­sel in­ter­cept­ed the Venezue­lan sea ves­sel named Dona Is­abel reg­is­tra­tion num­ber AR­SI PE 0159 west of Gasper Grande Is­land.

On board the of­fi­cers found 18 males and 10 fe­males.

They were all de­tained and es­cort­ed to Staubles Bay in Ch­aguara­mas, the T&T Coast Guard Head­quar­ters.

Of­fi­cials from the Im­mi­gra­tion De­part­ment were con­tact­ed and the Venezue­lan na­tion­als will be hand­ed over for pro­cess­ing.

This is the third sim­i­lar in­ci­dent to have oc­curred this month.

On No­vem­ber 7, 34 Venezue­lans on board were de­tained in a pirogue named Don Cir­i­lo reg­is­tra­tion num­ber AR­SI 3715 north-west of Car­rera Is­land that was in­ter­cept­ed by the coast guard.

Aboard were 34 Venezue­lan na­tion­als com­pris­ing, 16 males, 12 fe­males, three chil­dren and three ba­bies.

The ves­sel and its oc­cu­pants were tak­en to the Coast Guard Head­quar­ters, Staubles Bay, Ch­aguara­mas, where fur­ther search­es were con­duct­ed re­sult­ing in the dis­cov­ery of 50 blocks of cheese and one sack of av­o­ca­does.

That said ves­sel, the Don Cir­i­lo, was al­so in­ter­cept­ed on No­vem­ber 2 and the oc­cu­pants at the time were served with re­jec­tion or­ders by the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion and es­cort­ed out of T&T ter­ri­to­r­i­al wa­ters.

The Coast Guard promis­es con­tin­ued mar­itime bor­der pa­trols and vig­i­lance in main­tain­ing bor­der safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty.