UNC MP on deportation: It reflects poorly on society

THE deportation of migrant women and children, including girls, who were put in two pirogues and sent to Venezuela, shines a light on the need for society to be more sensitive to the treatment of women.

The migrants have since returned to TT.

Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe in a message commemorating the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Girls and Women, said, “We must stop this global menace within our borders and be an example to the world.

“Violence against any woman or girl in our nation is equivalent to an attack on all women and girls in TT. It should not matter if the female is an immigrant or a citizen.”

He noted the UN General Assembly in 1993,defined violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

Based on reports that the migrant children were kept in police stations while a legal process was pending, he called on the police Child Protection Unit to say where it was when all of this was happening.

“If the reason for inaction was inadequate resources then this must be swiftly remedied with funding and state support.”

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in her own message, called on all citizens to do their part in creating a safer society for girls and women. “A nation that allows women to thrive is a nation in which we all will thrive,” Persad-Bissessar said.

Bodoe suggested that organisations in the frontline against domestic violence, such as the Rape Crisis Society, women’s shelters and halfway houses should be better resourced by government.

“Given the alarming incidences of human trafficking within our borders, institutions like the Shelter for battered women and children, can do more with support from the State.”

Persad-Bissessar also commended Police Commissioner Gary Griffith for the “tremendous work” done in establishing the Gender-Based Violence Unit of the police.

She agreed with the World Health Organisation that “Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it,”

Although women have been making enormous strides in every field over the past decades, Persad-Bissessar noted that sadly, violence against women and girls continues to plague the nation.