NATUC president: Citizens before Venezuelans

President of the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) Michael Annisette is demanding Government take care of its citizens before giving Venezuelans special treatment. "How are we going to address this issue if we cannot get beds or proper treatment in our hospitals?" he asked.

"We are not saying the Government should not bring people, what we are saying is that in order to bring people, they should see about our house first."

He questioned whether TT has the social infrastructure to deal with such a large number of Venezuelan migrants. He made the claims during a press conference at the Seamen and Waterfront Workers Trade Union headquarters in Port of Spain this morning.

Annisette called for the process of evaluating Venezuelan migrants to be disclosed and questioned why Government isn't providing the same refugee privileges to Jamaicans, Haitians, and Guyanese migrants. "Why the Venezuelans only?"

He also said NATUC believes more than 10 per cent of Venezuela's population is currently in TT but did not say how he came up with this assessment. According to the World Bank, the population of Venezuela is an estimated 32 million, and ten per cent of this would mean there would be about three million in TT.

Annisette said this issue is also a result of the arrogance of power that NATUC seeks to address in the upcoming march on June 7.