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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 14 JULY 2019
SUNDAY 14 JULY 2019 – UWI TODAY
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Gang rape and abuse without recourse.
Denial of legal
rights. Endangerment and exploitation of children. Human
trafficking.These are just some of the horrors being faced by
Venezuelan migrants in Trinidad and Tobago, highlighted
during a May 8 regional hearing on human rights.
AUWI-led delegation painted a picture of the situation
on the ground before the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights (IACHR) in Jamaica. The resulting portrait
was an ugly, incriminating and disturbing one.
The delegation, headed by Prof Rose-Marie Belle
Antoine, Dean of the Faculty of Law at UWI’s St.
Augustine Campus, included Dr Priya Kissoon, Head of the
Department of Geography, and Dona Da Costa Martinez,
Executive Director of the Family Planning Association of
Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT).
The IACHR, part of the Organisation of American
States (OAS) works to protect human rights in the Americas.
Professor Belle Antoine noted it was the first time the
University has formally come before the international body.
She was inspired to pursue the hearing, in part by
xenophobia: “I find it incredible, the callousness we are
hearing from ordinary people” and found it ironic, in light
of the recentWindrush scandal in theUK, that “we complain
about how we were treated and, without even thinking, we
don’t see the parallels.”
“The Caribbean does not see itself as having human
rights violations,” she reflected, and yet Venezuelan
migrants, fleeing to Trinidad and Tobago in increased
numbers, are facing harsh realities that see their very
presence increasingly stigmatised and criminalised.
Professor Antoine said the administrative failure of
the country to put legal and policy frameworks in place has
led to adverse conditions for Venezuela migrants, who find
themselves unable to regularise their status or have access
to health, work, education and basic protections.
“Human rights violations are occurring.” she declared.
Making matters worse, instead of a humanitarian approach,
we seem to be going in the opposite direction.
Government has actually decreased previous protection
measures meant to be alternatives to detention. Instead, law
enforcement has relied on the more archaic Immigration
Act — which provides no provision for asylum seekers or
human rights standards for migrants.
“The right to seek and receive asylum is enshrined as
an individual human right,” Professor Antoine asserted,
“yet migrants and refugees are increasingly criminalised in
Trinidad and Tobago.”
Despite ratifying the UN’s Refugee Convention in
1951, the twin-island Republic has not been following the
UN Refugee Agency’s operating procedures. Migrants face
exploitation by officials, ad hoc detentions and deportations,
even where asylum has been granted, and a breakdown
of systems at all levels, undermining migrants’ rights and
forcing them into illegality.
“Irregular migration is not a crime. Detention should
be a last resort.”
She said while Government’s recent two-week amnesty
period for migrants was “a step in the right direction,” it
was “unclear in scope,” and does not provide due process
guarantees.
Antoine also hailed the multi-disciplinary nature of
the hearings, with forensic human geographer Dr Kissoon
and FPATT shedding light on human and social aspects of
the issue.
Kissoon told the panel: “While men are increasingly
stigmatised as criminals, women are labelled as hypersexual
and face prejudice, discrimination, harassment, and assault.”
Local men are “emboldened by the stereotype”
and by the vulnerability of immigrant women, she said.
“Verbal assaults and harassment are prolific and seemingly
condoned in the absence of any recourse.”
She shared a harrowing account of an adolescent girl
whose flight to Trinidad and Tobago exposed her to sex
trafficking and unwanted pregnancy.
“When borders are enforced in a draconian manner,
people take greater risks, with more likelihood of
exploitation,” she said.
Children were especially vulnerable, withmany lacking
access to education and healthcare.
Many migrants’ living conditions are inadequate
and unsafe, especially for children. An International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) survey of pregnant
Venezuelan females in Trinidad and Tobago, revealed that
20 per cent were children.
Even police and detentions and immigration officials
have been implicated in kidnapping, rape, sex trafficking,
and sexual abuse of detainees.
Kissoon said, with “coordinated multi-stakeholder
effort, we can work towards rights-based sustainable
development for the nation.”
“Recognising the humanity of the non-national will
help us to recognise our own humanity.”
FPA Executive Director Dona Da Costa Martinez told
the IACHR Commissioners of the work her organisation
has been doing with the migrant community. She said they
had been able to establish trust and were even sought as
primary care providers for children, some of whom were
malnourished or suffering from diabetes.
She said through the support of international agencies,
FPATT was able to provide lifesaving sexual health
and psycho-social support to migrants, meeting needs
inadequately provided by the State.The association provides
language interpreters and case liaisons, with special late
hours to facilitate those with inflexible work schedules.
Despite misconceived fears that migration leads to
the importation of infectious disease, FPATT had found
that Venezuelan females are more vulnerable to sexual
and reproductive health problems and violence while in
Trinidad and Tobago.
Da Costa Martinez said the State’s response was poor:
“Although the Ministry of Health declared migrants were
free to access public health services, the reality is that no
mechanisms are in place to ensure that migrants who do so
are not persecuted, prosecuted, deported, or even detained.”
Responding to the presentations they had heard,
IACHR Commissioners Antonia Urrejola, Second Vice
President; Joel Hernández García, Vice-President of
the Inter-American Juridical Committee; Luis Ernesto
Vargas, Rapporteur on the Rights of Migrants; and,
Francisco Eguiguren, Rapporteur on the Rights of Human
Rights Defenders expressed shock, sadness, and anger,
especially because Trinidad and Tobago had sent no State
representative to the hearing.
Vargas called the situation “perverse” and said the
State “should have been here to answer to this “serious,
documented crisis” that saw “migrants’ rights violated in
such a flagrant way.”
“Migration presents problems for States, but there is
support.” Hernandez noted that Trinidad and Tobago is
a member state of the OAS, thus giving the IACHR the
competence to act fully in the situation.
Professor Antoine said the Commission’s work has
helped topple dictators and she hoped its attention would
bring about policy changes to improve themigrant situation.
She felt “If the average citizen would listen, they would
feel moved.”
“I would like to think we have that basic humanity.”
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Dona Da Costa Martinez (left), Executive Director of the Family Planning Association of Trinidad and Tobago, makes her presentation while
Dr Priya Kissoon, Head of UWI St Augustine’s Department of Geography looks on.
Gillian Moore is a writer, editor and singer-songwriter.
VENEZUELAN
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
in Trinidad and Tobago
Human Rights Clinic takes on migration issue
B Y G I L L I A N M O O R E
Professor Antoine (left) speaking with Antonia Urrejola Noguera, IACHR’s Second Vice-President and Rapporteur for Trinidad and Tobago,
and IACHR’s First Vice-President, Joel Hernández García.
PHOTOS: COURTESY THE FACULTY OF LAW, UWI ST AUGUSTINE
She was inspired to pursue the
hearing, in part by xenophobia:
“I find it
incredible, the callousness we are hearing
from ordinary people”
and found it
ironic, in light of the recent Windrush
scandal in the UK, that
“we complain
about how we were treated and, without
even thinking, we don’t see the parallels.”
FPA Executive Director Dona Da Costa
Martinez told the IACHR Commissioners
of the work her organisation has been
doing with the migrant community. She
said they had been able to establish trust
and were even sought as primary care
providers for children, some of whom were
malnourished or suffering from diabetes.
‘Recognising the humanity of
the non-national will help us to
recognise our own humanity.’
Dr Priya Kissoon, Head of the
Department of Geography,
Faculty of Food and Agriculture,
UWI St Augustine.
ILLUSTRATION:
CORI-ANN CHIN
Cori-Ann Chin is an
artist and third year
student at the Faculty
of Humanities and
Education, UWI St
Augustine pursuing a
degree in Visual Arts.
She enjoys depicting
life through her art
and writing.
