Derek Achong

Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials have been giv­en a two month dead­line to de­port an il­le­gal im­mi­grant from Ghana who has failed in his bid to stay in T&T while seek­ing per­ma­nent res­i­den­cy through his wife and three-year-old son.

In a oral rul­ing de­liv­ered at the Hall of Jus­tice, Port-of-Spain, Thurs­day af­ter­noon, High Court Judge Vasheist Kokaram grant­ed Ghana­ian Musah Ibrahim a con­di­tion re­lease im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials failed to de­port him by Sep­tem­ber 30.

Kokaram's rul­ing came af­ter hear­ing sub­mis­sions from lawyers for act­ing Chief Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer Ger­ry Downes, who claimed that his of­fice was hav­ing dif­fi­cul­ties find­ing a suit­able flight for Ibrahim, as he re­fused to sign his de­por­ta­tion forms and visa ap­pli­ca­tions for a pro­posed route through Brazil and South Africa.

"I can see no rea­son why the claimant could not be re­leased on con­di­tions un­til the State is ready to de­port him," Kokaram said.

Kokaram said the State was ob­lig­at­ed to de­port Ibrahim with­in a rea­son­able pe­ri­od of time as he asked if a char­tered flight had been con­sid­ered. The Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty will de­cide on the terms of Ibrahim's re­lease if the dead­line is not met.

Al­though Kokaram ruled against Ibrahim's lengthy de­ten­tion, he did not agree to over­turn his ar­rest and de­por­ta­tion or­der.

Ibrahim, who has ad­mit­ted to en­ter­ing Trinidad il­le­gal­ly in May 2009, will re­main at the Im­mi­gra­tion De­ten­tion Cen­tre in Aripo un­til dead­line if of­fi­cials fail to find an al­ter­na­tive route. He is be­ing iso­lat­ed from oth­er de­tainees af­ter he suf­fered head in­juries in an al­leged al­ter­ca­tion with staff on Ju­ly 22.

The in­ci­dent re­port­ed­ly prompt­ed his wife Ash­ley, who he mar­ried in 2010, to file the writ of habeas cor­pus be­fore Kokaram.

Ac­cord­ing to an af­fi­davits from his wife, who he lived with at Sec­ond Street West, Barataria be­fore his ar­rest, Ibrahim wrote to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in March, last year, seek­ing per­mis­sion to leave the coun­try and re-en­ter of­fi­cial­ly to be­gin his res­i­den­cy ap­pli­ca­tion.

She said af­ter con­sult­ing a mem­ber of staff at the Im­mi­gra­tion De­part­ment's Port-of-Spain of­fice, her hus­band de­cid­ed to go ahead with the process.

On April 2, last year, Ibrahim was ar­rest­ed at Pier One, Ch­aguara­mas, while at­tempt­ing to board a boat bound for Venezuela with his son, Ja­mal.

He was charged with en­ter­ing the coun­try through an il­le­gal port of en­try and was tak­en to the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court.

Af­ter plead­ing guilty, Ibrahim was or­dered to be de­port­ed and was hand­ed a $5,000 fine, which was paid by his wife.

Ash­ley claimed that since be­ing sen­tenced, her hus­band has been "in­flict­ed with the most cru­el and in­hu­mane form of pun­ish­ment" at the cen­tre, which cul­mi­nat­ed with the re­cent in­ci­dent with guards that re­port­ed­ly left him with a cracked skull.

Ibrahim was rep­re­sent­ed by Farid Scoon and Richard Is­sac, while Ra­jiv Chaitoo rep­re­sent­ed the Im­mi­gra­tion De­part­ment.