Activist: 159 Venezuelans deported in inhumane conditions

An activist says 159 Venezuelans, including 25 children, were deported to their country on Saturday morning.

Most had been arrested trying to enter TT illegally.

Yesenia Gonzalez, a human rights activist for Venezuelans in TT, said 32 of the deportees had arrived in recent weeks and were detained after entering the country in Mayaro.

After that, she said, "The authorities detained these people in a police station that was not in humane conditions to deal with people, especially children and women."

The group was later transferred to the Chaguaramas heliport, where they were held for several days until they were deported.

Families of the deportees told Newsday on Monday they were sent back to Venezuela by boat. Details of the vessel are unknown.

Among them were several people who had been detained in various police operations, as well as two women with government registration who were waiting on a beach for their children, who arrived in an illegal boat.

Gonzalez said, "I am a little disappointed, concerned and surprised, because there is no progress on the complaints of human rights violations against children and women."

She said in a meeting between several Venezuelan spokesmen and National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds a few months ago, they raised the need to evaluate the ways and conditions in which detained migrants are treated.

"There are no suitable places to take care of children who are fleeing with their parents from the socioeconomic problems of their country. They are not common criminals who must be locked in a cell. There must be better treatment as human beings and evaluate their cases," Gonzalez said.

The boat was to take the deportees to the port of Guiria, Venezuela.

Newsday tried to contact Hinds to confirm the deportation, but messages were not answered.