Attorneys for Venezuelan migrants want answers on Trinidad and Tobago refugee policy

ATTORNEYS for the group of Venezuelan migrants who were deported earlier this month after weeks of being detained at the Chaguaramas heliport are seeking details relating to TT’s stance on refugees and asylum seekers as well as specific disclosure on their clients.

Their request was made last week in correspondence with attorneys for the State.

Among their requests are for records and details relating to their clients’ detention and eventual deportation.

On August 8, Justice Ricky Rahim restrained National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds from enforcing the deportation orders for 64 Venezuelans who were detained at the heliport after close to 200 of them were held during a raid at the Apex Bar in St James on July 9. He also ordered their conditional release.

Only a handful of migrants were released before the State filed an appeal seeking a stay of Rahim’s orders. The stay was eventually granted and the 64, along with scores of migrants were eventually deported on August 12.

In the request, attorney Blaine Sobrian, of the firm Quantum Legal said they were not certain if their clients were arrested by police and immigration officers in a joint exercise as dictated by TT immigration laws so they have asked for the names, ranks and regimental numbers of both the police and immigration officers who were part of the raid.

They also want the names of everyone deported on August 12, as well as information relating to the immigration process before deportation orders were issued for their clients.

The attorneys are alleging that the proper processes were not undertaken by the authorities before their clients were deported.

Other requests included any denouncement by the Government of the 1951 UN Convention on the Status of Refugees or a 2014 National Policy to address refugee and asylum seekers as well as information relating to the Anti-Terrorism Act which gives the minister the power to deny entry to anyone applying for refugee status who he suspects has committed a terrorist act or likely to be involved in the commission of one.

Sobrian said their clients have not planned, facilitated or participated in the commission of terrorist acts so they want disclosure of any legislative instruments, guidelines, regulations or policies that referenced the act which may have informed the minister’s decision.

Specific disclosure was also sought relating to the heliport which was declared an immigration station on July 25, after a High Court judge ruled that the facility was not one and the detention of those held in the July 9 raid was unlawful.

“There are numerous accusations of gross violations of human rights of the respondents and all other detainees at the heliport, against the appellant and the personnel who fall within his purview.”

Sobrian noted that most of the allegations remain unanswered.

In the letter, Sobrian reminded that they have reported the minister to the Commission of Police alleging breaches of immigration laws and crimes against humanity on behalf of one of their clients who was deported but returned to TT days later.

A private complaint was also filed by Juan Manuel Acosta and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has been notified, the attorney said.

He also said as a precautionary measure, their clients have sought protection from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The State was given until Monday to provide a substantive response to the request.