PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

The Unit­ed Na­tions High Com­mis­sion for Refugees (UN­HCR) says gov­ern­ment should al­low the chil­dren of mi­grants to be re­unit­ed with their fam­i­lies, es­pe­cial­ly giv­en the cir­cum­stances cre­at­ed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Com­ment­ing on the de­por­ta­tion of 16 Venezue­lan chil­dren last week­end, UN­HCR said: "As a sig­na­to­ry of the Unit­ed Na­tions Con­ven­tion on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Trinidad and To­ba­go has the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect chil­dren, in­clud­ing the right to be re­unit­ed with fam­i­ly mem­bers."

The UN­HCR ex­pressed con­cern that "the chil­dren, may face height­ened risks in­clud­ing the risk of be­ing traf­ficked, ex­po­sure to COVID-19 and oth­er un­safe sit­u­a­tions. Giv­en the cir­cum­stances in Venezuela, UN­HCR asks States re­ceiv­ing Venezue­lans to al­low ac­cess to their ter­ri­to­ry."

The agency said it is aware that a group of 29 Venezue­lans, in­clud­ing 16 chil­dren and nine women, were de­port­ed from T&T on Sun­da. Among those de­port­ed were chil­dren who were un­able to be re­uni­fied with fam­i­ly mem­bers al­ready in T&T.

UN­HCR said: "Trinidad and To­ba­go has reg­u­lar­ly re­turned Venezue­lans it con­sid­ers ar­riv­ing ir­reg­u­lar­ly in the coun­try. UN­HCR is aware of at least 39 chil­dren re­turned since the be­gin­ning of the year, not in­clud­ing these 16 chil­dren."

The UN agency said it is will­ing "to as­sist the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go as re­quired, rec­og­niz­ing the chal­lenges that states face man­ag­ing move­ment of peo­ple and the ad­di­tion­al con­straints im­posed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic."

On Tues­day morn­ing, Venezue­lan me­dia con­firmed that the de­por­tees had ar­rived at La Bar­ra, Venezuela, and had con­tact­ed their fam­i­lies.