Court gives Venezuelans right to sue Immigration

ATTORNEYS for two Venezuelan women who were deported in November despite a High Court judge’s order blocking the Immigration Division from sending the women back to Caracas have received the court’s permission to file contempt proceedings against the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO).

Earlier this week, attorneys Lee Merry, Shirvani Ramkissoon, Amit Mahabir, and Devvon Williams filed the contempt application on behalf of Julie Vivas Abanero and Nayelis Del Valle Hernandex Ugas. The application is being heard by Justice Nadia Kangaroo, who granted them leave and adjourned the hearing of the matter to April 24.

A conspiracy to injure by unlawful means and misfeasance in public office claim has also been filed against the immigration officers who effected the deportation of the two women on November 17, although Justice Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell granted an interim injunction restraining the CIO from deporting them.

In that claim, the women are asking for compensation for the failure by the immigration division to obey the terms of Justice Donaldson-Honeywell’s order.

According to the application, immigration officials were told of the judge’s order. The attorneys said even as the two women were seated on the flight back to Caracas, they spoke to the deputy CIO, as well as other officers at the Piarco International Airport, telling them of the injunction.

Calls were even made to Caribbean Airlines’ staff who told the attorneys the matter was “out of their hands” as they had no instruction from any immigration officer to de-board anyone from the flight.

Up until the plane was taxiing with the women on board, the lawyers were on the phone with them as well as the deputy CIO trying to get the women off the plane. The flight eventually departed Trinidad at 7.48 am. A copy of the judge’s order was also e-mailed to the immigration section at the airport.

In their application, the attorneys say despite a judge’s orders not to deport the two women, they were not removed from the flight.

“The defendants conspired to injure the claimants by agreeing between themselves and/or with other persons whose identities are not known to deliberately flout the order of Madam Justice Honeywell by failure to take urgent and immediate steps to ensure that the claimants were not deported,” the application says.

The lawsuit also adds that the women suffered humiliation and embarrassment by being deported in the full view of other passengers and airline staff, were forced to return to Venezuela where they are unsafe and unable to support themselves or their family and will find it extremely difficult to return to Trinidad because of the costs and dangers associated with making the journey.

The two were part of a larger group which fled Venezuela to Trinidad because of looting, riots, and lack of basic medical and food supplies.

They entered TT in August 2018, by boat through Moruga. They applied for refugee status through the Living Waters Community and were in receipt of refugee cards while their applications were being processed for determination.

In November 2018, they were held for illegal entry and were jailed for six months at the Women’s Prison in Arouca before they were transferred to the Immigration Detention Centre where they stayed for several more months before they were able to get an order of supervision securing their release.