At sea on migration

NEWS OF children, one as young as four months old, being placed on a pirogue and returned to Venezuelan waters by the TT Coast Guard rankled international agencies and a smattering of Trinis.

At a red herring festival, thinly disguised as a news conference, Stuart Young deflected questions on the incident. He conflated human trafficking with the specific instance of 16 deported children in the hopes of diluting international ignominy. Just for good measure he added this: “Whoever was involved (in human trafficking) hopefully one day will be brought before the courts, be it politician, police, Coast Guard officer, Defence Force officer or Immigration officer.” Politician...hear that uncle carbuncle?

At any rate, the media were left with a sufficient ball of twine to play with while the minister was likely back home in time for tea and biscuits. After the PM’s all-rounder gave the nation a classic googly, it was Dr Rowley’s turn at bat – and it was mad voopin’.

The PM was a parade of paroxysms, striking wildly like a cornered mapepire. As a mapepire is prone to doing, the Government put itself in that corner, through agents acting on behalf of the State, by callously putting younglings on a pirogue and sending them into the uncertainty of a roiling sea. Desperation moves migrants to endanger their lives in the attempt to get here. When we make them risk their lives by sending them back under the same conditions, what’s our excuse?

The storm of condemnation from international watchers was easier for some than others to anticipate. It’s a good thing we don’t have any interest in foreign policy, relations, trade or any such trifling conceits. Dr Rowley swung at the Organisation of American States, accusing Luis Almagro of “single-handedly fuelling the crisis.” He also accused the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees of exaggerating the crisis to “inflate and sustain their own operational budgets.” Pretty incendiary stuff. It sounded like anyone who passed near him would catch those hands...everyone except Nicolás Maduro anyway.

All the noisy protestations conveniently drowned out some otherwise plain realities; untrammelled entry of Venezuelans is wholly unsustainable, but they will keep coming. Our borders are weakly defended and there aren’t enough patrols to reroute pirogues laden with strife-weary migrants.

Voicing humanitarian concerns about how they’re treated, however, isn’t the same as endorsing a migration free-for-all. It’s unlikely anyone can be found in this country who endorses turning TT into a migrant camp, no matter how often the PM says it. Additionally, there is no concrete policy governing our response to the migrant influx. The flow of Venezuelans into the country has been going on long enough for TT to have established guidelines on how this challenge should be managed. A registration process is not a policy, but merely an exercise.

The economic catastrophe in neighbouring Venezuela which, to be clear, preceded US sanctions, was unquestionably exacerbated by them. Consequently, citizens of that beleaguered nation will leave their homes and make for Trinidad no matter how many times they’re sent back. The alternative, for many, is illness and starvation.

Incidentally, as a measure to force regime change or shifts in political ideologies, sanctions are typically a blunt instrument. This is seen most notably in Cuba where that country has lived under sanctions since 1960. Those Cubans eat sanctions for breakfast, at times because there is nothing else to eat. The rigour of economic prohibitions don’t bend despotic ideologues who govern. They buffet the poor and the vulnerable; people who are pouring into this country.

The migrant crisis is a complex challenge, one which demands astute leadership, not grand-charge from the gayelle. TT can’t win a sabre-rattling competition. More importantly, this is a problem we can’t face alone. Caricom must act as a unified force to provide support for TT, the member most severely affected by the fallout of enduring sociopolitical and economic convulsions in Venezuela.

A committee ought to be established immediately, ideally chaired by Barbados PM Mia Mottley. Ms Mottley wields a steel fist in a velvet glove and is uniquely erudite, articulate and level-headed to corral the region and advocate on our behalf on this crucial issue.

What we’ve been doing hasn’t been working. That’s not surprising because we’ve been doing nothing at all. It’s probable TT is well past the number of migrants this country can absorb. We don’t have the luxury of being at sea on a crisis we’re ill-equipped to control or remaining stubbornly disinclined to concede that deficiency.