Despite calls from some of her Members of Parliament for government to extend the registration process, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar is calling on government to lock down this country’s borders.
Persad-Bissessar was greeted by a group of protesters outside the Parliament this afternoon, the same group that staged a demonstration outside the Queen’s Park Oval registration centre on Thursday night.
“We should lock down our borders immediately. We can’t take it,” Persad-Bissessar remarked.
However, during a demonstration earlier this week, Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal said it would be inhumane and possibly a breach of rights of the migrants now if they do not have reasonable time to register.
On Friday, the Opposition Leader expressed concern about the influx of Venezuelan nationals into the country saying “it is like we have an open door and every day more and more people are landing on our shores”.
Persad-Bissessar felt government was out of touch with the national temperature regarding the registration of Venezuelan migrants.
Social media, she said, demonstrated the level of anger from citizens “with respect to the migrants”.
“There is a lot of anger in the society out there and government seems totally incompetent and unaware,” she continued.
Persad-Bissessar criticised what she described as government’s lack of policy and called for Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and his team to engage the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to help develop a comprehensive migrant policy for this country.
Even though the registration period closes today, Persad-Bissessar was still worried a lot more people would still be “coming in.”