Young: Warehouse site for immigration detainees

NATIONAL Security Minister Stuart Young says a warehouse acquired by the previous administration is being looked at to house immigration detainees as the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) at Aripo was at capacity.

He was responding to an urgent question in Senate on Tuesday from Opposition Senator Wade mark who asked about Chief Immigration Officer Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews' statement at a joint select committee meeting last week that exercises to detain illegal immigrants had been halted by the Immigration Division due to a lack of capacity at the IDC.

Young noted a National Security Ministry statement on Sunday which said that illegal immigrants continued to be detained.

"Up to (Monday) I believe there were 20 illegal immigrants detained."

He said an inter-agency task force was set up which included the Prison Service, and the ministry was looking at utilising some empty prison facilities including a warehouse that was purchased under the former administration for hundreds of millions of dollars that was not sufficient to be a full-scale prison.

"We are looking to utilise that now for the detention of illegal immigrants. So there is no crisis – this continued cry for there to be a crisis, there is none. Immigration continues to do its work along with the TT Police Service and other agencies in National Security."

Mark asked what would have prompted the Chief Immigration Officer to make such a statement if there was no crisis.

Young replied: "It would be impossible for me to put myself in the shoes of the chief immigration officer and the persons alleged to have made the statement. What I can say is the IDC is very close to capacity in terms of the number of people that it can hold. So if that is what the chief immigration officer was referring to, that there was a capacity issue, then yes there is a capacity issue. As I have said...we are currently dealing with the situation by utilising other facilities."

He said for example illegal immigrants picked up on Monday would be housed at police stations. He added there is a process they have to go through for final determination.

The former People's Partnership administration had acquired a former warehouse site in Santa Rosa for a prison facility. Mark asked on Tuesday about the time frame for the warehouse facility to be utilised so illegal immigrants can be removed from police stations.

Young replied: "I have asked that this be done in the shortest possible time frame. The warehouse that was purchased by the UNC for hundreds of millions of dollars is in a position that it can house persons. It needs to be declared as a detention centre by me as minister of national security and I have asked that they put all the arrangements in place in the shortest possible time frame so it can be so utilised to give the taxpayers value for money that was wasted previously."