Dookeran: V’zuelan visa policy needs to be clear

On Friday, National Security Minister Stuart Young announced that Venezuelans will now need visas to legally enter TT from tomorrow. The question now is how will this be implemented.

Former foreign affairs minister Winston Dookeran said it was a simple operational issue which meant the relevant authorities on both sides will have to be informed that visas are now required, and for it to be enforced.

As for the response to this new policy by the Nicolas Maduro regime, Dookeran said the politics was different to the administrative issues.

“It means the government of Venezuela will have to request that visas be granted to people and, given the political situation there, it will work contrary to the free flow of immigration. I think that is the part that bothered me. They will apply to the TT Embassy and the embassy here will have to recommend them. The criteria which they will use is not clear.”

He said the fact that the embassy here will have to vet, brought a political air to to the process.

Dookeran said this announcement has come all of a sudden and has created a little bit of confusion in the attempt to regularise what really was a human flow based on historical and political factors. He said the data was based on the fact that things were normal, but “really and truly things are not normal.”

He said it added some complexity and confusion to the current process because the politics of it was different.”

“I think what is happening is not a normal situation. What you are having is an exodus (of people) from Venezuela who are trying to escape the conditions in which they have found themselves. I see it as part of a larger historical movement of people that has happened from time to time in the history of mankind, and in this particular case it is happening in our back yard.

“The historical movement of people for reasons that are always based on conditions at home, political or economic, has generated this movement.”

Dookeran said there were two forces at work – the natural process of movement of people which will happen whether or not there are rules, and the position of assuming that things are normal.

He approved of Government’s decision to have the Venezuelan refugees registered because it gave people certain rights and also helped to regulate the process.

“It was a very good move. I don’t know how it worked out, whether all the people were registered or not, I have no idea, but I thought that was a good move. I think this visa thing has come as an additional move.”