Families have no news on children, women sent to Venezuela

Relatives of the 16 Venezuelan children and nine women sent back to their country on Sunday from Cedros said on Monday afternoon that they had no idea where they were.

The parents met with attorney Nafeesa Mohammed, who represents them, while attending a virtual court hearing.

They said no organisation has been held responsible for the deportation or repatriation. They asked for an investigation and for both the children and their mothers to be returned to TT.

Felix Marcano, father of a nine-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy, both with heart disease, told Newsday he is worried because he has had no news of them.

“They came with their mother, I brought them (to be) with me because in Venezuela you can't get the medicines for both of them. The last I heard, from a person who called us from Venezuela on Sunday, is that several of the 16 children were vomiting. But we don't know who.”

Marcano and his family come from Tucupita, Delta Amacuro state. He has been in TT for two and a half years and has his registration card, issued by the TT government last year.

He says he is “desperate" at not having information about my family.

"We do not have answers from the Venezuelan embassy here, neither from the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees) nor from the Living Water Community nor from the TT government. Nobody is telling us anything.

"They only sent them to Venezuela in two small boats and in the middle of a storm. It is an inhuman deed,” he said.

Also on the boat ride back to Venezuela was a 17-year-old girl with her four-month-old son.

Eliezer Torres, representative of the family group, said: “We do not have any type of information about our children and their mothers. We are asking the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago to give answers and to investigate who is responsible for sending these children and women to Venezuela under these inhumane conditions."

The commissioner of the OAS General Secretariat for the Venezuelan migrants and refugee crisis, David Smolansky, said on his Twitter account that: “The government of Trinidad and Tobago deported 16 Venezuelan children, denying them refuge and separating them from their parents who were already in Trinidad.

"The 16 children deported by the government of Trinidad are in great danger because the route used by the boat they embarked in is used by irregular groups that are dedicated to human trafficking and smuggling."

The group was detained last Tuesday when they arrived illegally in TT. They were kept at the Cedros police station.

Attorneys acting on their behalf filed a writ of habeas corpus to prevent the deportation. But all were still sent back to Venezuela.