Note on Venezuela for Cabinet

National Security Minister Stuart Young.
National Security Minister Stuart Young.

NATIONAL Security Minister Stuart Young will be taking a note to Cabinet next week for approval of an amnesty policy that will allow Venezuelans, whether they are here legally or illegally, to live and work in TT for up to a year.

Young yesterday did not want to go into specifics because, he said, details are still being worked out, but the Ministry of National Security will take the lead to register all Venezuelans in TT.

Each Venezuelan will be given an identification card and the registration process will allow the government to get accurate data on the number of Venezuelans who are actually in the country. All Venezuelans, including children, will be processed, he said, but details about school attendance was still being worked out.

Since these people will now be allowed to work, the Board of Inland Revenue will also need to get involved in the registration process. Young noted that a consequence of the regularisation process is that it will combat people, especially employers, from taking advantage of Venezuelan migrant workers.

Numbers have been bandied about, Young said, but he was sceptical of the accuracy. Most prominently, the United Nations has estimated about 40,000 Venezuelans in Trinidad, many of whom have been displaced or fled their country because of political and economic turmoil.

The initial permit period will be a year, and Young said he hoped that within that time, the political situation in Venezuela, where the US-backed Opposition is waging a protest-fuelled challenge to the incumbent Nicolas Maduro-led regime, is resolved. “We hope in that time (a year) the situation in Venezuela will have stabilised and the Venezuelans who are here will want to move back home. (If not,) we will deal with it closer to the time,” he said.

During the amnesty, all Venezuelans can come to register, but afterwards, immigration laws will apply, and he urged future entries to use official ports of entry into TT. Those who falsified information on amnesty application documents would also be prosecuted as necessary.

Venezuelans who had applied for refugee status will also be allowed to register to work, despite existing refugee procedures not allowing asylum seekers the right to work while their status is being processed. Young said that while international organisations, including the UN High Commission for Refugees, offered their assistance with the process, he declined the offer, insisting the government was capable of conducting the process on its own, with the Ministry of National Security in the lead. He added that the government was still in conversation with the UNHCR for overall refugee policy.

Young stressed that, contrary to Opposition statements, including from Opposition leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, that the Elections and Boundaries Commission would be involved in the registration process, this was, in fact, not so.

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"Note on Venezuela for Cabinet"

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