VENE REFUGEES BLANK T&T FOR US

HARD times in Trinidad and Tobago and the easing of immigration restrictions in the United States are causing Venezuelan refugees to head up north. 

American authorities have confirmed that the Venezuelan exodus to the US has been accelerating, and they attribute it to a short-term new policy announced by President Joe Biden. 

The Biden plan allows more Venezuelan migrants on humanitarian grounds, once they travel by air and have a US sponsor and a valid Venezuelan passport. 

The Americans have cracked down on land migration through the Mexican border, which was utilised by tens of thousands of refugees fleeing Nicholas Maduro’s oppression. 

In the year leading to last August, some 150,000 illegal Venezuelans were apprehended at the US-Mexican border. 

In September, 33,000 Venezuelans were held at the border. 

That migrant emergency prompted the short-range intervention by Biden. 

The limited US air migration programme allows refugees to leave Caracas on flights to US cities. 

Some have flown to airports in Florida, Texas and other southern US States. 

But the emigrants must first afford a Venezuelan passport, which costs the equivalent of TT $1,500, 10 times the minimum wage in their economically-devastated country. 

They must also pay for their airfare. 

The ease-up by the US has caused some backdoor entrants to T&T to try their chances in the US. 

For the past few years, porous local borders, especially in south-west Trinidad, have been an easy gateway for an unchecked flow of migrants since the Venezuelan crisis began. 

But many – especially young mothers – have been seeing hard times in T&T, in the midst of high unemployment, poverty, absence of proper housing and runaway crime rate. 

Several beg for handouts, often with posters explaining their plight, at San Fernando and other urban centres. 

The refugees are also having serious difficulty in securing education and proper health care for their children. 

They are ongoing reports of women being sexually exploited by pimps at clubs and other centres of recreation.  

People in the know also tell of some Venezuelan workers suffering workplace abuse and not being allowed National Insurance Scheme, vacation and other employment benefits. 

There have been some arrests of migrants from the mainland for various criminal activities.  

The Government has not made any attempts to limit the flow of illegal immigrants, and Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley reacted angrily in 2019 to a BBC report that put the number at 40,000. 

There is speculation that the number could now be as high as 150,000, with the migrants settling in various parts of the country. 

Only a limited number have had their migrant status formalised. 

The tough economic times in T&T and the short-term US migrant window could now see a significant shift in travel patterns by those fleeing Venezuela. 

The United States International Organisation of Migrants (IOM) said there are many Venezuelan migrants stranded in various Central American and Caribbean countries, and most cannot afford three meals a day. 

Without naming countries, IOM said the immigrants faced discrimination and limited job opportunities. 

But the widespread migration to T&T could resume with the expiration of the Biden humanitarian programme.