Cedros port closed

Cedros councillor Shankar Teelucksingh has expressed concern with the continued closure of the Cedros port while other ports remain open.

The Cedros port has reportedly been closed for the past two weeks.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Teelucksingh said a spin-off effect was the increase of illegal immigrants in the district while legal travellers were being denied entry to conduct their business.

“At present the port is closed to all passenger vessels, they were denied entry by the coast guard and those are the ferries that come on a daily basis and bring passengers coming through legally.

“They are normally processed by immigration and get a visa, come out do their shopping, the basic supplies, board the vessel and go back to Venezuela but that was stopped over the past two weeks.”

Venezuelans head to customs at the port in Cedros on February 4. PHOTO BY LINCOLN HOLDER

He said instructions to close the port reportedly came from senior officials in the Ministry of National Security.

Teelucksingh said the port closure seemed to be confined to Cedros as the processing of immigrants continued at other ports such as San Fernando and Chaguaramas.

“It is important to note that a cargo vessel with scrap metal was given permission to dock at the san Fernando kings wharf port and we have information that vessels were coming in at Chaguaramas port.”

He said while the coast guard possessed limited resources to adequately patrol the southwestern peninsula he said some Cedros residents had imposed a “lock down” on their households at nights as strange vehicles were seen in the area as illegal immigrants entered the country through unsecure beaches such as Icacos and Chatham.

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