Even sick, we wait

VENEZUELAN migrants have chosen to ignore medical and physical challenges to spend long hours in lines as the registration deadline draws closer.

One such person is 29-year-old Carla Sofia Sulbaran Silva ,who recently had a Caesarean section and brought her newborn baby to be registered. “Her name is Carla Sofia Sulbaran Silva. She is 18 days old. Right now, I am in pain. I have a fever, but we are here. I am on antibiotics.

“We came yesterday at about 5 am and had to return today because there were so many people,” Silva told Newsday in Spanish.

The Tucupita mother of three was at the San Fernando centre today with her husband and two of her children. Her oldest child, aged ten, is in Venezuela with relatives.

Resting her head on the shoulder of her husband, Carlos Alberto Sulbaran Quiroz, 31, Silva sat on a drain outside Achievors Banquet Hall in Duncan Village. She was too ill to stand in line with other immigrants.

“I returned at about 7 am today. I cannot stand for too long because my condition. I had the baby at the San Fernando General Hospital,” she said, showing the scar from her surgery.

Johana Barreto, 27, the mother of two, explained to police that her five-year-old son Omar Baeza was having trouble waiting hours in the sun.

Barreto said: “About three years ago, we began noticing that something was wrong with his right eye. He has a tumour at the back of his eye. He cannot see it. It hurts a lot and he is in pain. He cannot stay long in the sun and the eye is running.”

She said he needs an operation and she is hoping to get medical care for him after registering.

Little Omar wore shades and relatives tried to shield him from the blazing sun by covering his head with a small blanket.

Nurvis Rojas, 30, cuddled her ten-month-old son Haiseell Caraballo as she tried to find shade under a tree outside the registration centre. The worried mother said her baby had a fever but she had no option but to wait to register.

The amnesty period began on May 31 and ends tomorrow. National Security Minister Stuart Young, who visited the centre on Tuesday, has said there will be no extension of registration.