Drenched and shivering Venezuelan national Andreiana Reyes desperately tried to shield her baby and two young children from the wind-driven rain as they waited for hours outside Achievors Banquet Hall for registration on Sunday.
Even though the facility offered no cover from the harsh weather, taxpayers are footing a reported $23,000 a day to rent the Hall while other venues like the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts could have been used for free.
The rains began around 7 am and by then scores of Venezuelans had already gathered outside the facility at Duncan Village, San Fernando, in a long line. Over a hundred were lined up outside of Photofusion Limited waiting to get help with copying documents and taking photos.
Desperate to register, many of the Venezuelans braved the rains and cold. By midday, numbers quadrupled and police officers, also drenched from the rains, quarrelled among themselves.
One officer seated in a police vehicle tried to get a family with young children to move forward in the line but he was stopped by another sergeant who told him everyone has to wait their turn.
“You already send people wild, wild inside and then you stopping them?” the officer shouted. As the rains fell heavier, migrants tried to shield themselves with plastic folders, sweaters and anything else they could find.
Eventually, Marsha De Caires, from the La Romaine Migration Support Committee, arrived at the facility and provided jumbo garbage bags and umbrellas to the Venezuelans. They used bags to make raincoats which only covered up to their waists. Others tied the bags around their legs and over their heads. De Caires started shuttling them from Photofusion to Achievors Hall.
Reyes was seen huddling with her children under a packed tent and she smiled despite her obvious distress. There were puddles of water under the tent and most of the Venezuelans had no umbrellas as the rains blew in.
Reyes said she came to Trinidad in February with her three children—Anderson, four, Andres, 10 and one-year-old Arciel.
Asked why she chose to come yesterday, Reyes said she worked at a food outlet in Rousillac but she did not want to get a cut in her salary as she needed money to send back to Venezuela. She said yesterday was her only free day so she decided to brave the rains to register.
Her brother Carlos Reyes helped her with the children.
Venezuelan electrical engineer Tony Chacon, who now works at Point Lisas as a refrigeration technician, said he too had no choice but to come for registration yesterday.
“This is the only day I am off work,” he said. He said he left his family at Maturin, Venezuela and came here to work so that he could provide for them. He also said he was happy to be registered.
Carlos Rosillo said better accommodation could have been provided to them.
“We are in the rain. We are not animals, we are human beings,” he said.
Several other Venezuelans said they were grateful for the opportunities given to them by Trinidadians. However, they said they would have appreciated better registration accommodation.
Yuleixi Fernandez said she had been living in an apartment in Princes Town. She works in a bar for $500 per week. However, she said every day she worried about her three-year-old daughter whom she left back in Venezuela with her mother.
She said she came to Trinidad in January and was looking forward to getting her registration papers so she could better provide for her family. Since Thursday many Venezuelans have been camping outside the Queen’s Park Oval and the Achievers Banquet Hall as registration opened last Friday. Migrants are being allowed to work and live in this country for a year if they qualify. Registration is expected to continue today and end on June 14. There will be no registration on June 5 as it is Eid-ul-Fitr, a public holiday.
The registration process in Tobago has been slow. The workers at the Caroline Building in Scarborough were seen idle outside the venue for the past two days.