Moonilal: 'Extend the amnesty'

OPPOSITION MP Dr Roodal Moonilal has called for an extension to the amnesty for Venezuelan migrants and accused the Government of taking a "disastrous approach" with the existing process, which is expected to end tomorrow at 5 pm.

"The Government has absolutely no option now than to extend this period, having started it. It would be inhumane and possibly a breach of rights of the migrants now, if they do not have a reasonable time to register," Moonilal said yesterday.

His call came theday after National Security Minister Stuart Young announced there would be no extension.

Moonilal spoke to the media at the SS Erin Road outside the Duncan Village registration centre. He was part of a march for the completion of the Roodal Moonilal Ramai Trace Hindu School, named after him. The march started in Debe and ended in San Fernando.

Moonilal criticised the "ill-conceived process," saying there should have been more than three registration centres.

Migrants are all over, he said, and suggested it should have been done in community centres or other government facilities as opposed to private establishments.

"This is a tragedy that Stuart Young and the PNM government have caused. Given what I have seen yesterday and today, in the south alone, they would need to extend it by 14 days or so. Government has created this confusion and they have to solve the problem," he told reporters.

The MP referred to Young as "a riot police" and the "minister of bullhorn." This was in reference to the minister using a bullhorn to address Venezuelan migrants at the San Fernando and Port of Spain centres on Tuesday. The minister intervened to quelled frustrated migrants, some of whom had been waiting in line for days.

Moonilal said: "The issue is not whether Stuart Young is looking like Watson Duke with a bullhorn. The issue is, the registration process needs to be dealt with. If it is it cannot accommodate the numbers, which we knew it could not, the Government would have no choice but to extend."

The Oropouche East MP referred to the process as a "human tragedy" and again blamed the Government.

"If they had sought international help with patrolling our coasts and managing this in a proper way by people who come in legally, you will not have this disaster that we see here today."

Venezuelan migrant Ana Rodriguez stopped Moonilal to enquire about the march. He told her it was for the reopening of the school in Debe, where many Venezuelan children are living.

Moonilal suggested that the Education Ministry create "some type of bilingual remedial classes" so Venezuelan children would not be denied an education and an opportunity to go to school.

"Apart from the registration, we are concerned that the children must also have an education and an opportunity for school. If the Government opens the school, it will also benefit the children of the migrants," Moonilal said.

Former education minister Tim Gopeesingh was also on the march and said no child should be deprived of an education. The fact that the Venezuelan children are in TT, he said, makes it the responsibility of the Government to set a policy and to implement a policy to take care of their education.

Gopeesingh said: "They have to come fast with a policy that would take care of the children’s education, possibly a bilingual type of situation where there would be special care for the children."