RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young says he is dis­turbed by the num­ber of lo­cals in­volved in hu­man traf­fick­ing rings be­tween T&T and Venezuela.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Young said all avail­able as­sets in­clud­ing the 24-hour radar were be­ing used to mon­i­tor the coasts.

This has re­sult­ed in the re­cent ar­rests of sev­er­al boat­loads of Venezue­lan na­tion­als and lo­cals be­lieved to have been hired to trans­port the Venezue­lans to sev­er­al lo­ca­tions in­land.

A source dis­closed that on Ju­ly 16, a to­tal of 46 Venezue­lans was in­ter­cept­ed and de­tained by the Coast Guard and tak­en to the Ce­dros Se­cu­ri­ty Com­plex.

A fur­ther 12 Venezue­lan mi­grants were ar­rest­ed at the Pa­lo Seco Beach a day lat­er dur­ing a sting op­er­a­tion while eight more were ar­rest­ed in Siparia en route to a safe house on Ju­ly 16.

In pho­tographs ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia, about a dozen of the na­tion­als de­tained at the Ce­dros Se­cu­ri­ty Com­plex were chil­dren, some less than two-years-old. The Venezue­lan moth­ers sat on the con­crete floor un­der a car park shed out­side the Com­plex, hug­ging their chil­dren close while the men were sep­a­rat­ed and placed on an­oth­er part of the com­plex. 

Young said the Coast Guard has con­tin­ued to do its best to pro­tect T&T's mar­itime bor­ders. 

"We are us­ing all avail­able as­sets, in­clud­ing the coastal radar sys­tem. There have been a num­ber of suc­cess­ful in­ter­cep­tions of boats at­tempt­ing to bring il­le­gal im­mi­grants in­to Trinidad with­in re­cent times. Some of these ves­sels are es­cort­ed back to Venezuela and some de­pend­ing on the cir­cum­stances are es­cort­ed to Trinidad," Young re­vealed. 

He added, "What is dis­turb­ing is the num­ber of Trinida­di­ans in­volved in these hu­man traf­fick­ing schemes."

Asked what was be­ing done to pre­vent the pos­si­ble spread of dis­eases in­clud­ing COVID-19, Young said, "In keep­ing with the COVID 19 Health pro­to­cols, the il­le­gal im­mi­grants are quar­an­tined be­fore arrange­ments are made for their re­turn to Venezuela."

He added, "We have set up a spe­cial quar­an­tine fa­cil­i­ty at the He­li­port in Ch­aguara­mas where they are quar­an­tined and mon­i­tored un­til re­turn to Venezuela."

Young said he has asked the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice to in­sti­tute in­ves­ti­ga­tions and charges of the Trinida­di­an in­di­vid­u­als who are in­volved and caught in these op­er­a­tions.

"The T&T De­fence Force, TTPS and Im­mi­gra­tion will con­tin­ue to do their best to pro­tect our bor­ders," Young added.

Mean­while, coun­cil­lor for Ce­dros Shankar Teelucks­ingh said mi­grants were en­ter­ing T&T's wa­ters in the off­time when of­fi­cers leave pa­trols to change shifts. He rec­om­mend­ed that shifts be changed at sea.

Last Sun­day, Guardian Me­dia's Joshua Seemu­n­gal ex­posed the find­ings of a 2019 Cari­com Hu­man Traf­fick­ing study which showed that cor­rupt law en­force­ment of­fi­cers were in­volved in hu­man traf­fick­ing be­tween Venezuela and T&T.

A source told Guardian Me­dia that some Venezue­lans pay as much as US$2,000 to en­sure safe trav­el from Venezuela to T&T. The monies are used to pay to cor­rupt of­fi­cers from Venezuela's mil­i­tary as well as lo­cal law en­force­ment per­son­nel who have links with traf­fick­ers op­er­at­ing broth­els. Many of the women brought in are forced to work as sex slaves and pros­ti­tutes, ac­cord­ing to the Cari­com re­port.

The re­port car­ried out by re­searcher Dr C Jus­tine Pierre, and as­sist­ed by Nay­ro­bis Ro­driguez, gath­ered in­for­ma­tion from traf­fick­ers, smug­glers, vic­tims, law en­force­ment of­fi­cers, as well as from an­ti-hu­man traf­fick­ing or­ga­ni­za­tions in more than 32 coun­tries.

One Venezue­lan traf­fick­er in­di­cat­ed that through his con­nec­tion with el­e­ments in the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, he has been as­sured of pro­tec­tion by of­fi­cers who ad­vise him where to en­ter the coun­try.

He al­so claimed that the of­fi­cers pro­vide se­cu­ri­ty for the safe-hous­es where the women are kept be­fore they are trans­port­ed to spe­cif­ic in trucks, cars, maxi-taxis, and vans.