AG: Refugee laws under consideration

EVEN AS this country continues to face a battering in the international arena over its inhumane treatment of Venezuelan migrants, particularly children, the Government is considering laws which can protect refugees and asylum seekers.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, in a telephone interview on Saturday, said by implementing legislation to give effect to international conventions for asylum seekers and refugees places a mandatory obligation on the State to provide housing, education and other needs ahead of citizens.

"The issue of the international convention concerning asylum seekers and refugees is one which is globally in a state of flux. That is so because the convention requires a prioritisation of asylum seekers and refugees to citizens who are in your jurisdiction when you look at it," he said.

"We are wrestling with the provision of housing for our own, education for our own, social services for our own," Al-Rawi said, and emphasised that the country was still in the middle of a pandemic which has negatively affected the economy.

He said Trinidad and Tobago has adopted other conventions, such as the protection of children rights into domestic law with the passage of the Children Act, the Trafficking in Persons Act and took the bold move to register all Venezuelans, both legal and illegal, allowing them to work, get access to health services and education. It has also reduced the number of detainees at the detention centre by allowing them to leave under supervised orders by immigration authorities.

"We must be very careful in TT to distinguish between refugee and asylum seekers and economic migrants. It is dangerous to conflate the two.

"The matter of the overall policy of legislation, therefore, that is bringing in international convention into local law, is one which must be taken before the Cabinet for its consideration in several constituent parts," he said, noting that it straddles several ministries including, national security, health, labour, social services, foreign affairs and education.

"I am quite confident under the direction of the honourable Prime Minister that we are looking at all of the elemental pieces," he said, noting the final decisions will come in due course.

"It isn't a matter with a wave of the hand and snap of the finger, it is something in which we must take careful scrutiny with a measured approach so we can get this thing right for all of the people that we have an obligation to look after. That is our citizens of TT as well as persons who are the most vulnerable," Al-Rawi said.

The migrant crisis took a sharp downward turn last week after 16 children were among a group of 26 Venezuelans arrested and escorted by the coast guard on two pirogues back into Venezuelan waters.

On Tuesday, National Security Minister Stuart Young defended the decision and noted that all migrants have since been categorised as "undesirables" under the immigration law and can be turned away by law enforcement authorities without any deportation order.

The following day, the Prime Minister, in two statements, criticised the Organisation of American States (OAS), its "misguided" leader Luis Almargo for "triggering and fuelling" the migrant crisis and claimed the region's oldest 35-member organisation had "virtually declared war" on TT for failing to support the United States to overthrow the Maduro administration.

Prof Andy Knight, lecturer of international relations at the University of Alberta, Canada and former head of the Institute of International Relations at the UWI, St Augustine campus, said the return of the migrant children last week was a matter of grave concern.

"This kind of thing goes against the international legal principle of non-refoulement. Non-refoulement is basically a guarantee that no one should be returned to a country where they could face torture, inhumane or degrading punishment, potential death and so on. When you send people back to that situation you are basically going against that international principle of non-refoulement and I think one of the challenges that Trinidad and Tobago has is that it does not have yet, legislation to deal with refugees and asylum seekers," Knight said in a telephone interview on Saturday.

He said while TT was a signatory to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and adopted its protocols in 1967, that gave the country an "international appearance" that it has a humane policy for refugees.

"From an international standpoint, it looks as though TT is adhering to principles of non-refoulement, principles of addressing refugees and asylum seekers when they come into the country but in practice because there is no legislation dealing with this we see these kinds of situations occurring," he said.

Knight said migration was affecting countries globally and TT was a haven for refugees from Asia, Africa, other Caribbean islands, South and Central America and of course Venezuelans.

"There needs to be a proper policy developed by the government to address this issue in a humane way. Because of that gap in policy, that gap in legislation, this allows groups like Living Water Community, for example, to try and fill that gap of governance that exists with respect to helping particularly children but also migrant workers, and so on, who are seeking asylum in TT," he said.

Knight suggested that the government work with groups such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with Refugee International and Amnesty International to get up to date with international standards in treating with the issue of migration.

"TT is not viewed very well internationally because of its failure to adopt a domestic policy through legislation and until that happens we are going to have this kind of situations all the time," Knight warned.

He said it seemed what Dr Rowley "is trying to do is thread the needle between what he considers to be economic migrants, people who move from Venezuela in search of better economic opportunity in TT, but you can't put children in that category. They are not in the same category."

Knight conceded that it would be an economic challenge to cater for economic migrants but those fleeing their country out of fear of persecution should not be lumped in that group. And there is always the possibility too that there are insidious people from Venezuela that would use this situation to prey on children and perhaps even traffick children, he said.

He said this was all the more reason for the government to work with the international agencies like the UNHCR, Amnesty International "to develop a humane policy that could be enacted through legislation."

He suggested the opportunity now arose for TT to take a leadership role in Caricom to develop a policy to put pressure on the new US administration under President-elect Joe Biden to remove the harsh economic sanctions which were crippling the people of Venezuela which would in turn reduce the number of migrants seeking a better life for their families and see migrants returning to their homeland.

Human rights attorney Jason Nathu also referred to the principle under international law of non-refoulement which put this country in a negative light after the Venezuelan group was turned away last week without any determination of whether they were genuine refugees.

He too noted that as a small country there is a scarcity of resources, even more so during the covid19 pandemic and there is a real economic concern for citizens but that does not mean "we abandon our humanitarian obligations and principles of international law." He suggested that there "must be a balance" in achieving both goals.

Nathu also pointed out that this country did not have any legislation protecting refugees and noted last year's registration of 16,523 Venezuelans which allowed them to work was facilitated under the Minister of National Security's permit.

Ralph Maraj, who served as a former foreign affairs minister, said the decision to turn away the Venezuelan children had tarnished the reputation of the country as "an uncivilised backwater with no respect for its obligations under the UN conventions it signs whether that pertaining to the status of refugees or the status of children."

"The impression would have been strengthened by the characteristic vituperation coming from the prime minister lambasting the Organisation of American States, accusing it of 'declaring war on T&T' and creating the Venezuelan crisis and also attacking the UNHCR. Shame!" Maraj, said in reference to the public statements of Dr Rowley.

He said while he applauded the decision to register over 16,000 Venezuelans last year it was "heartless" to send the group back.