Rhon­dor Dowlat-Ros­tant

Mem­bers of the T&T Coast Guard are now rais­ing con­cern over the in­flux of il­le­gal im­mi­grants in­to T&T, most­ly from Venezuela, say­ing they are pos­ing a ma­jor health risk in coastal com­mu­ni­ties and for of­fi­cers dur­ing the on­go­ing COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

The con­cern came even as 32 Venezue­lans and a Trinida­di­an were held in Care­nage dur­ing a joint ex­er­cise be­tween the po­lice and the TTCG on Sat­ur­day.

A TTPS re­lease said around 4.36 pm Coast Guard of­fi­cers spot­ted a pirogue near the Third Bo­ca, Ch­aguara­mas, chased the ves­sel and in­ter­cept­ed it near Cha­cachacare Is­lands. Two peo­ple had al­ready jumped in­to the sea and swam ashore where they es­caped. The 32 im­mi­grants were tak­en to Staubles Bay, med­ical­ly ex­am­ined and trans­port­ed to the Ch­aguara­mas He­li­port to un­der­go a 14-day quar­an­tine.

Yes­ter­day, a TTCG of­fi­cer, speak­ing on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty, said from June to last week­end they de­tained close to 200 Venezue­lan na­tion­als, in­clud­ing women and chil­dren.

“Hav­ing these peo­ple here are too risky for us be­cause we are the ones that have to take their vi­tals every morn­ing and our lives are at more risk too and they keep com­ing in by the large num­bers on boats, some of which go un­de­tect­ed and when they make land­fall they spread out through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go. Com­mu­ni­ty spread en mass I feel is in­evitable now,” the of­fi­cer said.

Speak­ing dur­ing yes­ter­day’s TTPS me­dia brief­ing, DCP Op­er­a­tions Jayson Forde said apart from the Care­nage ex­er­cise they al­so de­tained eight and 46 Venezue­lan na­tion­als at Las Cuevas and in the West­ern Di­vi­sion re­spec­tive­ly. He said all the im­mi­grants are cur­rent­ly be­ing in­ter­viewed be­fore charges are laid. Forde said those who en­tered T&T il­le­gal­ly will be de­port­ed ei­ther at the end of their quar­an­tine or af­ter they serve any jail time if charged with a crime. He said those who may be legal­ly in T&T could al­so lose their per­mit cards if they are found to have fa­cil­i­tat­ed hu­man traf­fick­ing or been in­volved in any oth­er il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty.

Last week, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young ini­ti­at­ed an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to re­ports that Venezue­lans were dock­ing at Ch­aguara­mas and com­ing on land de­spite the bor­der lock­down. This came af­ter a busi­ness­man did a Face­book live show­ing at least six Venezue­lan fish­ing ves­sels docked in Ch­aguara­mas. The busi­ness­man claimed the Venezue­lans on the ves­sels were seen on land ven­tur­ing in­to su­per­mar­kets and oth­er pub­lic places and ex­pressed con­cerns over the pos­si­ble spread of COVID-19.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day on the is­sue, Young said he re­mind­ed the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion and port health au­thor­i­ties that no one is sup­posed to dis­em­bark fish­ing ves­sels.

“I have asked that the au­thor­i­ties to car­ry out the nec­es­sary in­ves­ti­ga­tions and I am await­ing the out­come of these in­ves­ti­ga­tions,” Young said.

“Ap­proval has not been grant­ed for per­sons to dis­em­bark these fish­ing ves­sels. I re­mind the Trinida­di­an busi­ness­men who may be per­mit­ting this breach to oc­cur that they may be sub­ject to crim­i­nal charges and that they are putting us, the pop­u­la­tion, at risk.”

Con­tact­ed for com­ment, a se­nior Cus­toms of­fi­cial con­firmed that dock­ing of Venezue­lan boats at Ch­aguara­mas con­tin­ues to be al­lowed.

“They were al­ways al­lowed to come to bring fish,” the source said.

Asked why the Venezue­lans were be­ing al­lowed to dock when the ports at Ce­dros and King’s Wharf were closed to this ac­tiv­i­ty, the of­fi­cial said, “Be­cause the bor­ders were nev­er closed for car­go.”

He not­ed, how­ev­er, that the Venezue­lans are not al­lowed to leave their ves­sels or min­gle when of­fload­ing their fish car­go.

Any­one who has in­for­ma­tion on sus­pect­ed il­le­gal im­mi­grants is asked to call the po­lice at 555, 999, 800 TIPS or 482 GARY.

Sgt (Ag) Adams is con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.