Casan­draTh­omp­son-Forbes

There will be some eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits to be de­rived by em­ploy­ing Venezue­lans in this coun­try says Act­ing Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds.

He was speak­ing to re­porters in To­ba­go fol­low­ing his vis­it at the Car­o­line Build­ing reg­is­tra­tion cen­tre on Fri­day. Min­is­ter Hinds, Glen­da Jen­nings-Smith and THA Chief Sec­re­tary Kelvin Charles vis­it­ed the cen­tre and re­port­ed that the process ran smooth­ly and ef­fi­cient­ly.

Com­ment­ing on a ques­tion that Venezue­lan im­mi­grants might be dis­plac­ing na­tion­als when it comes to gain­ful em­ploy­ment, he said while the coun­try has a four per cent un­em­ploy­ment rate, 96 per cent were gain­ful­ly em­ployed and many lo­cals have been pass­ing on avail­able jobs

"I am sure they would eas­i­ly agree that there is a lot of work to be done here in To­ba­go and there are peo­ple who would pass by that work every day but wouldn't touch it and if the Venezue­lans are here and they are will­ing to do some of the work in To­ba­go and in Trinidad that Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans have not been do­ing, then as the econ­o­mists have be­gun to un­der­stand, there will be some ben­e­fits in that re­gard as to their pres­ence, be­cause there is work to be done.

"We have not seen and we do not an­tic­i­pate that the Venezue­lans would he dis­plac­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans or Trinida­di­ans and you will agree with me that there is work to be done and we have been pass­ing the work for one rea­son or the next and oth­ers in their cir­cum­stances are will­ing to do it," he said.

Hinds is al­so urg­ing busi­ness own­ers to do right by the im­mi­grants, which in­cludes pay­ing them noth­ing un­der min­i­mum wage and al­low­ing them to make Na­tion­al In­sur­ance con­tri­bu­tions.

"This process al­lows them to do that work and NIS must be paid on their be­half, I seem to re­call and, of course, they must not be paid less than min­i­mum wage, once they are prop­er­ly reg­is­tered and if you agree with me that they are not dis­plac­ing To­bag­o­ni­ans and Trinida­di­ans from their jobs, and if you agree with me that is just spec­u­la­to­ry Trinida­di­an/ To­bag­on­ian talk, then there is no is­sue" he said

Up to clos­ing time at 5 pm un­der 30 Venezue­lans vis­it­ed the To­ba­go Cen­tre, while on­ly 12 com­plet­ed the process.