Returning Venezuelan family granted UNHCR asylum-seeker status

JADA LOUTOO

A VENEZUELAN family of three – a four-year-old boy with a heart condition, his sister and his mother – were removed from the Erin police station early Thursday morning and taken to the State’s quarantine facility at the heliport in Chaguaramas in keeping with a court’s order.

They have also been granted asylum-seeker status by the UN High Commission for Refugees .

Attorneys for the family were told on Thursday that the family’s applications will form part of Felix Marcano’s case. Marcano is the father of the two children and partner to their mother.

The letter from the UNHCR said everyone had the human right to claim asylum, regardless of their registration status with the UNHCR, and adopted the family’s application on the principle that every effort should be made to ensure the reunification of separated families with the least possible delay.

The letter also highlighted an independent fact-finding mission on Venezuela and its conclusion that its state actors have committed large-scale human-rights violations, some of which amount to crimes against humanity. It also spoke to its own guidance note on outflows of Venezuelans, which calls on receiving states to allow Venezuelans access and not deport, expel or forcibly return them.

Twenty-three other Venezuelans were expected to remain in state-ordered mandatory quarantine for at least 14 days, and will not be deported at least until the court determines their status.

Newsday understands the boy and his family were removed just before 2.30 am on Thursday and taken to the heliport. They, along with 23 other Venezuelans who returned to Trinidad on Tuesday, after being deported on Sunday, are under quarantine orders. The orders, dated Tuesday, stipulate that they are to be quarantined for 14 days.

But the orders Newsday has seen for the 23 do not say where they are to be quarantined, and this appears to be a source of contention with the administrators of the heliport facility, who say they cannot accept the group unless the order specifies they are to be held there.

At a scheduled court hearing on Thursday night, attorneys for the State said they had no instructions on where the remaining Venezuelans were.

Attorneys for the 23 are expected to file individual applications to have them released and not be deported until their cases were heard.

Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams reminded parties that quarantine was not jail as she asked what contact the family of three would have with their relatives in TT.

On Wednesday night, Quinlan-Williams instructed the State to remove the family from the Erin police station.

The child’s father is a UNHCR cardholder. He has also applied for amnesty from the government but is yet to get his card. After the child and his family complete their quarantine, they will be released into his father’s custody. The Children’s Authority has inspected the father’s home and approved it.

Up to late Thursday, the other 23 Venezuelans, including a two-month-old, were still at the Erin police station and were expected to be taken to the heliport later in the night.

At Wednesday’s hearing, the judge urged the State to establish a policy for asylum-seekers since Venezuelans could not be approaching the courts on a daily basis.

The judge also said she did not allow the media at the virtual hearing since it involved children. However, she asked the media to leave the names of the children out of their reports. The Attorney General, in a press release on Thursday, referred to the four-year-old child by name.