TOO LITTLE TOO LATE

TOO little, too late.

In welcoming Government's decision to afford an amnesty to African immigrants locked up at the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), similar to that offered to Venezuelans, social activist Khafra Kambon says the gesture has come too late for many who suffered while incarcerated, sometimes for years, at the centre.

Kambon who is head of the Emancipation Support Committee spoke yesterday of the many "untold stories" of human tragedy which could have been avoided if only the Prime Minister’s recent decision to regularise illegal migrants from Africa had been taken years ago.

“It has been brutal,” he said. "Broken families, children in TT growing up without their African fathers and a number of families with all kinds of tragic situation as a result.

“It is really tragic that it took this situation of Venezuelan mass migration and people reacting to the inequality (of Africans and Venezuelans) to get a statement from Government to recognise what has been taking place to migrants from Africa."

While he was "extremely pleased" at Dr Rowley’s announcement to treat Africans like Venezuelan migrants who are being regularised and allowed to work in TT for a year, Kambon said he would wait to see how the initiative would be carried out, given a certain negativity towards people from Africa shown by some immigration officers.

Kambon sharply contrasted the shoddy treatment of Africans to the warm welcome given to Venezuelans, even though it was not the former but the latter group, which threatened to overwhelm TT. A UN report has said that over four million Venezuelans have fled their homeland in the wake of political chaos and social and economic hardship.

He said while there is no mass African influx, some Africans have started families here but were deprived of them. He suggested some people developed mental conditions after being held at the IDC for years, and related the story of one man in particular who had disappeared.

“One man almost went mad in IDC. It’s an African tradition that when a father dies, his son must be present (for final rites). He begged to be released to go to the funeral. His family sent money for him to return (back to Africa). He was not allowed to go. The man committed no crime in TT (apart from illegal entry.) and he went mad.

“Their children in TT can’t even go to school because the guy, the African, was the breadwinner.” Kambon said that indefinite detention in the IDC amounts to torture, as you simply don’t know when you’ll get out. "I’m extremely pleased they have ended this.”

He said there were extremely few Africans in TT and they could all be registered within a day.

“They don’t need any elaborate set up. The forms are there and they are all competent in English. It won’t have the complexity of registering the Venezuelans, but could be done virtually immediately.

“The Prime Minister’s statement represents a breakthrough, so we now have to see how it will be converted into a rationale policy.”

However, Kambon saw the whole saga of African migrants languishing in detention (even as Venezuelans enter easily) as reflecting something very negative and deep in TT's psyche as a nation. He said it can’t even be termed as one race being against another, as he saw that even TT nationals of African descent harbour very negative attitudes towards those from Africa.

“It’s across the board.” He said that over and over again, he had seen cases of African migrants being unfairly treated at the discretion of certain immigration officers.