Immigration head: Illegal immigrants are covid19 threat

The Chief Immigration Officer, Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews, said on Wednesday that the entry of illegal migrants is one of the biggest threats to the measures implemented to control the spread of covid19.

Speaking at a Caribbean Community Virtual Security Conference on Migration and Mobility in Times of Crisis, Gandhi-Andrews said the Immigration Division of the Ministry of National Security is working with the Ministry of Health to detect arriving immigrants.

"Some have been able to escape the increased maritime controls implemented by the Coast Guard and lands controlled by the police and the Defence Force," she said.

She said the government has noticed on social media boat trips between Trinidad and Venezuela being advertised, along with a taxi package to take passengers to their accommodation.

"This speaks of an organised smuggling network and facilitation by people in TT, and with blatant disregard or ignorance of this country and it is a crime under the immigration law," she saidd.

Gandhi-Andrews said the Coast Guard and the police are working to arrest the illegal arrivals and their collaborators.

They are tested, put in 14-day quarantine, then sent back to their country she explained.

Gandhi-Andrews related the recent cases of covid19 in TT to the arrival of illegal Venezuelans.

"In the last two weeks there has been a sudden increase in coronavirus cases that require an epidemiological investigation, which, coincidentally, is happening with the illegal increase in Venezuelans, leading to widespread speculation."

Reopening the borders, she said, must be handled carefully and the issue is being examined by a multi-sectoral committee.

During the conference, in which heads of Caribbean immigration offices participated, Rana Ksaifi, head of the Caribbean Protection Unit of the UN High Commissionfor Refugees (UNHCR), also answered questions.

"We all know that the Caribbean is a region of origin and destination transit for migration and, with the recent crisis in Venezuela, we have over 150,000 Venezuelans in the region who are refugee migrants and therefore need international protection," she said.

She said several states in the Caribbean are signatories to international conventions have certain responsibilities, and a pandemic does not change the government's responsibility towards these conventions.