V’zuelan children not taken away from parents

THE children of illegal migrants from Venezuela recently held at Cedros were not separated from their parents to be held by the State, assured Stuart Young, Minister of National Security. He replied to an urgent question by Oropouche West MP Vidia Gayadeen-Gopeesingh, last Friday in the House of Representatives, who asked if the five children in the group of 10 people had been admitted to the Child Protection Unit at the Oropouche Police Station.

“No,” Young replied. “The immigration officers took the very humane decision, after doing an assessment of these Venezuelans including the children, and decided to release them on supervision orders.

“So they were not detained for any length of time and they were not sent to the police station.”

Gayadeen-Gopeesingh asked if there was any set policy or procedure to deal with children of Venezuelan migrants?

Young replied, “All children who are within the borders of TT fall under our suite of children’s legislation. However in immigration matters, the Immigration Division can take decisions with respect to the detaining of persons who have entered illegally or who have overstayed their visits. So with respect to these particular children, that was utilised.

“With respect to other children, Venezuelan or otherwise, the Children’s Authority is the body that has jurisdiction over them when they’ve run afoul of the law, which would include overstaying. They work hand in hand with our Immigration Division.”