Sascha Wil­son

Drenched, cold and hun­gry, 16 Venezue­lan chil­dren and 11 adults who were de­port­ed over the week­end yes­ter­day re­turned to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s shores af­ter three days on the rough seas.

The mi­grants, the youngest a four-month-old ba­by, ar­rived short­ly be­fore 1 pm at the Los Iros beach near Erin. They were de­port­ed on Sun­day via two pirogues from the Ce­dros port, mere hours be­fore the start of court pro­ceed­ings re­gard­ing their de­ten­tion.

Venezue­lan Daniel Mar­cano, who is reg­is­tered and re­sid­ing here in Trinidad, was among rel­a­tives on shore wait­ing for their loved ones. He said the boat had en­gine prob­lems and the mi­grants nev­er made it to Venezuela. He was ac­com­pa­nied by two oth­er Venezue­lan men whose wives and chil­dren were on the boats. Mar­cano was hap­py they had re­turned but was un­sure what would hap­pen with them or where they were go­ing to be de­tained.

A Venezuelan child prays with the group of people who arrivd at Los Iros beach, yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Some of the chil­dren played while oth­ers cried af­ter they got off the ves­sels and were soon round­ed up by po­lice.

The four-month-old seen be­ing breast­fed dur­ing this time.

Fyz­abad res­i­dent Tor­rence Far­ri­er was at the beach when he saw the boats com­ing in around 12.51 pm.

“We just no­tice that this boat was com­ing in with these peo­ple and what re­al­ly hurt me, as I said just now, is the fact that there is a three-month-old child on the boat and they had to pick up that child to bring that child here.”

He said the boat stopped a dis­tance away from the shore and the adults came off and helped the chil­dren out.

“They were in chest-high wa­ter,” he said.

While this was hap­pen­ing, he said the mi­grants’ bags were thrown over­board. The boat sped off. He said they were cold and hun­gry.

“They were cold…It hurt me. That’s why I say mom, what it have to eat and I take the food and give them.”

A sad mother cuddles her baby as she sits under a shed at Iros beach in Erin after a group of Venezuelans arrived at Los Iros beach, Erin, yesterday. 11/24/20

RISHI RAGOONATH

He gave them a meal of chick­en, rice and peas. He said he was hurt and sad­dened by the treat­ment met­ed out to the mi­grants by lo­cal au­thor­i­ties.

“Every­body look­ing for a bet­ter life and it is up to you to make the life that you want and in the case that you don’t do it for your­self, no­body is go­ing to do it for you,” Far­ri­er said.

“So they tak­ing the chance to come here and make some­thing of them­selves no mat­ter how small or how hard it may be. I be­lieve that every­body needs a chance.”

He said peo­ple should al­ways try to help oth­ers in pain, adding when they ini­tial­ly ar­rived there were no po­lice or im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials at the beach. The po­lice ar­rived a few min­utes lat­er. Be­fore the mi­grants were loaded in­to a po­lice bus, they held hands and prayed. They were tak­en to the Siparia health fa­cil­i­ty to be ex­am­ined and treat­ed if nec­es­sary.

A Venezuelan child cries in the arms of her mother after arriving at Los Iros beach in Erin, ysterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Dur­ing the habeas cor­pus hear­ing on Mon­day be­fore Jus­tice Quin­lan-Williams, the state at­tor­neys said it would not be pos­si­ble to bring the mi­grants back to Trinidad as they were al­ready in Venezue­lan wa­ters. The mat­ter was then dis­missed.

Nafes­sa Mo­hammed, one of the at­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing the mi­grants, said they were de­tained last Tues­day in Chatham and tak­en to the Erin Po­lice Sta­tion where they were kept in a cell. She said the mi­grants were tak­en to the Ce­dros Po­lice Sta­tion and that evening she filed a writ of habeas cor­pus. The mat­ter was sched­uled for Sun­day at 2 pm but that morn­ing she got word they were be­ing de­port­ed. Mo­hammed said they in­formed the court and the mat­ter was put to 12.30 pm. How­ev­er, by then the Venezue­lans had al­ready been put on two boats and sent off.

Venezuelan migrants pray under a shed at Los Iros beach in Erin after arriving by boat yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

Mo­hammed called for a full-scale in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to who sanc­tioned the de­por­ta­tion of the mi­grants, par­tic­u­lar­ly the chil­dren. She said the ac­tions of the state vi­o­lat­ed in­ter­na­tion­al prin­ci­ples and stan­dards. She could not be reached for com­ment yes­ter­day af­ter­noon.

La Ro­maine Mi­grant Sup­port group co-founder Ang­ie Ram­nar­ine said the en­tire pro­ce­dure was wrong. “I agree that there are too many peo­ple com­ing il­le­gal­ly but then that’s an is­sue of bor­der se­cu­ri­ty. They de­port­ed them be­fore the court mat­ter could be heard, is that nor­mal pro­ce­dure? Is that the way things hap­pen? Some­thing went awry.”

In­for­ma­tion reach­ing Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day was that the mi­grants would be processed and a de­ci­sion would be tak­en about where they were would be kept.

Venezuelan refugees enter a police bus at Los Iros beach in Erin after their arrival yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

A child rests her head against a relative after a group of Venezuelans arrived at Los Iros beach in Erin yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH