90 Venezuelans at Immigration Detention Centre

National Security Minister Edmund Dillon reported there were currently about 90 Venezuelans being held at the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC).

He was responding to a question in Senate on Wednesday from Opposition Senator Wade Mark about curbing the growing problem of illegal entry of Venezuelans to this country.

Dillon said from time to time there were raids by immigration officials in areas around the country where illegals tend to gather and several were hit in recent times. He reported the IDC currently has about 90 illegal Venezuelans and Government has negotiated with Venezuelan Ambassador to move to repatriate them back to Venezuela as soon as possible.

Mark asked whether Government intended to introduce legislation to address the refugee and migrant crisis. Dillon responded legislation on refugees was under review and discussions were taking place between Government and the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Dillon said the Police Service and the Defence Force have established land-based coastal patrols, the Coast Guard continued to patrol the waters and based on re-establishment of bilateral cooperation with Venezuela there was now direct contact between the commanding officer of local Coast Guard and commanding officer of the Guardia Nacional and the Guardia Costa. Mark said despite the land-based patrols the "invasion of refugees" continued unabated and asked what further measures would be adopted to address this growing "refugee crisis."

Dillon responded there were discussions at the level of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and counterpart in Venezuela to deal with issues of people from Venezuela coming into Trinidad and Tobago.

Last week during a Joint Select Committee meeting Acting Chief Immigration Office Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews reported 150 to 200 Venezuelans were entering this country by boat every week and estimated larger numbers were arriving illegally. She also reported that the numbers of Venezuelans that had applied for asylum have increased from five in 2016 to today about 2,000 and daily those numbers were being added to.