Pedro’s plight

JENSEN LA VENDE

HE came to TT legally with hopes of earning just over US$2,000 to pay for equipment for his mother’s cataract surgery. After working for four months and saving US$1,375 a former administrative assistant from Venezuela found out the bulk of his earnings was counterfeit.

Speaking with the Sunday Newsday on April 21, Pedro, as he chose to be called, said he went to Western Union to send some of his earnings to Panama. He did not want to travel with the funds fearing he would be robbed by Guardia Nacional. When the teller handled the money she realised something was wrong. She then checked it using a a black lighting machine and informed Pedro that, of all the money he was about to send, only US$175 was legitimate and the rest counterfeit. He took the legitimate money and raced out of the financial establishment before police could come to arrest him.

Now he feels hopeless. He knows there is nothing that can be done.

His problems began last year when he came to Trinidad to work as a security officer for a short period, replacing a friend who was returning to Venezuela. After that job fell through because of concerns he had, he was approached to work at a Chinese restaurant in east Trinidad. He took the job which offered meals, a place to live and a salary of $2,700 monthly. His duty was to assist the chef. To sweeten the deal, Pedro was told the restaurant also bought and sold US which, as he explained to his bosses, he was in desperate need of.

All was well for a while, then his job description changed. He was told to guard the restaurant and clean up. His meals went from three free meals to two, then he was told that all his meals were to be paid for. Then his bosses wanted to charge him rent. He worked six days a week doing whatever he was told. Outside of his duties he was asked by his boss, an elderly woman of East Indian descent, to spy on two employees, the cook – a Chinese – and a local cashier. The cook eventually left and Pedro was now forced to wake earlier to assist the new chef and work longer hours.

“I knew I was being taken advantage of but I didn’t care because I needed the job and all the spying and all of that stuff that was not my business,” Pedro said through an interpreter. When the new cook began, Pedro was accused of being a slow worker and his kitchen duties were taken away and he became a full time cleaner/security guard. One day, his boss told him he could earn $15 an hour but he would have to pay his own rent, purchase his own food and have to work from 7 am to 4 pm. He was also offered a side job of cleaning the restaurant nightly for $15 an hour. The only stipulation was that he cleaned the entire restaurant including washing the dishes in preparation of the next day between 10 pm and 11 pm nightly. The work was overwhelming, but he considered the $15 a day for six days was enough for him to get food for a week. He cleaned for two days and then stopped, having been overworked.

Pedro said he then began looking for another home and another job. He eventually got both. At this point, he had been in Trinidad for four months and had applied for asylum but was now in the country beyond his allotted stay and was avoiding police. Last month, he went to send his money to a friend and learnt the heart-wrenching news that after four months of back-breaking working coupled with an abusive boss, he had very little to show for it.

“I worked really hard for nothing. I feel demoralised. After all that work the hard part is getting up on a morning to go to work.

I have no money so I cannot leave and I came here to get money for my mother’s surgery and I don’t have it, so again, I cannot leave. I feel like I did all of this for nothing.”

Pedro, 52, said he was the only one in his family able to come and work to assist his family. He now lives in a one-room apartment with three other Venezuelan men, each contributing to the $2,000 rent. He sleeps on the only bed in the room. He is working in a grocery in East Trinidad hoping to start again from scratch, knowing that the bigger picture is his mother’s eyesight.

His new boss pays on time and in accordance to TT’s minimum wage of $15 an hour. In the meantime, he is ducking immigration officers, hoping to have his asylum request approved and spending his days working to have a comfortable enough life.