Immigration agrees to supervison orders for 8 Venezuelans

AFTER being detained at a Trincity guesthouse for almost six days, a group of eight Venezuelans who were rejected by immigration at the Piarco International Airport, will be released and will be placed under supervision orders.

Today, immigration officials agreed to issue supervision orders for the eight who came into TT last Thursday, after their attorneys filed a writ of habeas corpus application in the high court.

The Venezuelans are being represented by a team of lawyers from Regius Chambers – Wayne Sturge, Mario Merritt, Lemuel Murphy, Hasine Shaikh, Kirby Joseph, Delicia Helwig-Robertson, Shirvani Ramkissoon, Karunaa Bisramsingh and Danielle Rampersad.

The writ called on Nav Tours – the travel agency acting on behalf of the airline that brought the Venezuelans to TT – to justify the continued detention of the eight.

The eight were in the care of the airline that brought them, Venezolana, but, since the airline does not have an office in the country, Nav Tours housed them at a guesthouse, awaiting instructions from immigration on what to do with them.

The eight were said to be locked in their rooms with no cellphones, and were kept in rooms with more people than beds.

On Saturday, a high court judge ordered that they not be deported, pending the outcome of their lawsuit against the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO).

Earlier today, their habeas corpus applications were listed for hearing before two judges at 11 am, and were called in two separate courts, at which time a request was made to have one judge hear all applications.

The matters were transferred to Justice Jacqueline Wilson, who was told of the agreement of the CIO to issue the supervision orders for the eight.

For two hours, the judge heard submissions on the question of who should pay the costs of the eight having to come to court.

The State, represented by attorney Coreen Findley, argued that at no time were the eight in the custody of the CIO, so the State should not have to pay costs to either party, despite agreeing to issue the supervision orders.

“They are not in the chief immigration officer’s custody,” she said, adding that the agreeing to the supervision orders was only to facilitate the judicial review claim of the eight.

“We have not detained the applications so we are not entitled to pay costs,” she said.

In the end, Wilson made no order for costs, saying that she saw nothing in the conduct of immigration to warrant the State having to pay the Venezuelans’ or Nav Tours’ costs.