De­spite as­sur­ances from Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young that T&T's bor­ders were locked down, Venezue­lan mi­grants who en­tered the coun­try this week are among those seek­ing to sign up on the fi­nal day of reg­is­tra­tion for Gov­ern­ment amnesty pro­gramme.

Up to Thurs­day, mi­grants en­tered the coun­try through Erin and were out­side the Achie­vors Ban­quet Hall, Dun­can Vil­lage in San Fer­nan­do, seek­ing to reg­is­ter.

Ra­mon Vil­le­gas, 55, told Guardian Me­dia that he and 17 oth­ers came through Pa­lo Seco on Mon­day and im­me­di­ate­ly went to get reg­is­tered. But like many oth­ers, they were giv­en num­bers and had to wait for days.

Mil­i­tary forces had con­firmed that boat­loads of Venezue­lan mi­grants con­tin­ued to try en­ter­ing the coun­try over the past two weeks.

Through trans­la­tor Ang­ie Ram­nar­ine, from the La Ro­maine Mi­grant Sup­port group, Vil­le­gas said he came to Trinidad to work so he can sup­port his wife and four chil­dren back in Venezuela. He, like many

Venezue­lan mi­grants, were con­fi­dent that they would be reg­is­tered be­fore the end of the day. If he is de­port­ed, he will go to an­oth­er coun­try in search of work. The for­mer ma­chine op­er­a­tor said that al­though he learnt of the amnesty weeks ago, he and many oth­ers were wait­ing to see if the Nicholas Maduro gov­ern­ment would be over­thrown. But with the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion get­ting worse, he along with 11 adults and six chil­dren board­ed a pirogue to Trinidad and have been stay­ing in Siparia.

"The lines for gas in Venezuela has about 1000 cars. It is the same for food. The lines here are sim­i­lar to the lines in Venezuela ex­cept there seems to be hope at the end the lines here as op­posed to in

Venezuela. When we line up for food, we are not sure to get any­thing," Vil­le­gas said.

He is hop­ing to get work op­er­at­ing ma­chin­ery but can al­so do car­pen­try or ma­son­ry.

He said once he is reg­is­tered, he will work and at the end of the pe­ri­od, will go to an­oth­er coun­try and seek em­ploy­ment. He lament­ed that Venezuela has many nat­ur­al re­sources yet cit­i­zens can­not even get gas.

"It was such a rich coun­try."

He said that on­ly the gov­ern­ment and high rank­ing mil­i­tary of­fi­cers are liv­ing well and that the an­swer to Venezuela's prob­lem is a change of gov­ern­ment.

"Maduro has tak­en every­thing and left us im­pov­er­ished. The on­ly peo­ple liv­ing good in Venezuela are in the gov­ern­ment and the high­est rank in the mil­i­tary. There are low­er ranked mil­i­tary of­fi­cers here in Trinidad."

Damaris Ro­driguez came to Trinidad on April 12 but has not been able to find work since. How­ev­er, she was as­sured that she will get em­ploy­ment soon. The for­mer nurse said that she had to leave her 14-year-old child be­hind in Guiria while she and her 19-year-old son search for work. De­spite wait­ing to be reg­is­tered for sev­er­al days, she said she has al­ready re­ceived a num­ber and has im­mense faith in God.

She hopes to make as much mon­ey as she can to send back to her fam­i­ly in Guiria.

She said the con­di­tions back home is de­press­ing as there is no med­i­cine in the hos­pi­tal where she worked on con­tract. With the hos­pi­tal be­ing short staffed and crammed, the pa­tients are quite ag­gres­sive.

"Peo­ple are sick and suf­fer­ing, and they can't get any med­i­cine," Ro­driguez said.

As the crowd con­tin­ued to build through­out the morn­ing, donuts and wa­ter were giv­en out to the mi­grants and po­lice of­fi­cers from Pun­dit Sunil Per­sad. As mi­grants con­tin­ued to feel to stress of stand­ing in hu­mid con­di­tion for hours, the stench of garbage be­gan to em­anate.