2 V'zuelan women get 3-month stay

TWO Venezuelan women who were to be deported will be placed on an order of supervision for three months, pending their applications to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for asylum.

This was the position of the Chief Immigration Department, as relayed to Justice Ricky Rahim, who stopped the women from being deported to Porlamar, Venezuela, earlier this week.

Yoselin Pacheco Tourasi and Annys Maria Blanco Perez applied to the UNHCR for refugee status on August 27 and received UNHCR registration cards on August 28 and 29.

They said they reported to the Immigration Division on August 30 and were issued orders of supervision with specific conditions attached and an order to verify their departure to Porlamar on September 1. They were required to be at Piarco Airport at 11.40 am on Sunday.

Attorneys for the two then approached the courts after they received no response to a pre-action protocol letter sent to the Chief Immigration Officer on Friday.

In granting the writ of habeas corpus, Rahim also ordered the Chief Immigration Officer to put the two on an order of supervision or conditional release until he heard their applications. Immigration officials were also been restrained from removing the two from TT.

However, when the matter came up for hearing on Friday, the judge was told of the decision to put the two on a three-month order of supervision. If the three months expires and they are still awaiting word on their applications before the UNHCR, they will be given another three months.

Submissions on the issue of costs will be heard on a day to be determined by Justice Jacqueline Wilson, who is assigned the case.

According to a certificate of urgency filed on behalf of the two by attorneys Amit Mahabir, Shirvani Ramkissoon, Joseph Sookoo, and Lemuel Murphy, the two women entered TT on March 21 at Piarco.

They were denied entry and were detained for almost six days at a Trincity guesthouse.

Attorneys for the group filed writs of habeas corpus seeking their release and their applications came up for hearing before Justice Wilson.

However, before the judge could hear submissions on the case, the Immigration Division granted them and six others conditional release.

The women said in August, relatives in Venezuela told them there were looting and riots and no basic food supplies, such as bread, rice or sugar. They also said there were no jobs, water, medicine, and the country was rife with fights, persecution and killings. According to the document, the salary of the average Venezuelan was US$4.