The lead at­tor­ney at Quan­tum Le­gal Criston J Williams, who works with mi­grants and asy­lum seek­ers, is con­cerned with the UN­HCR’s clo­sure of its Trinidad and To­ba­go of­fice.

Williams ques­tions if the al­ter­na­tives pre­sent­ed will be enough to as­sist mi­grants seek­ing a home in this coun­try.

The de­ci­sion by the Unit­ed Na­tions High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees, which takes ef­fect on Au­gust 31, was dri­ven by glob­al fund­ing short­falls.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia on Fri­day at his Port-of-Spain of­fice, Williams de­scribed the de­vel­op­ment as “a sad mo­ment for our coun­try and for per­sons who seek in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion.

“UN­HCR has been a cor­ner­stone for the sup­port of dis­placed in­di­vid­u­als in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Williams stat­ed. “Its de­par­ture sends a trou­bling sig­nal at a time when glob­al and re­gion­al in­sta­bil­i­ty con­tin­ues to dri­ve mi­gra­tion.”

Though the UN­HCR’s op­er­a­tions in this coun­try will be han­dled re­mote­ly by its Mul­ti-Coun­try Of­fice in Pana­ma, and some ser­vices will con­tin­ue through lo­cal part­ners such as La Ca­sita His­pan­ic Cul­tur­al Cen­tre and the Caribbean Cen­tre for Hu­man Rights (CCHR), Williams feared this might not be enough.

“While these or­gan­i­sa­tions are do­ing im­por­tant work, the clo­sure of UN­HCR’s in-coun­try of­fice could cre­ate se­ri­ous gaps in ac­cess to le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and pro­tec­tion for refugees and asy­lum seek­ers,” he said.

De­spite the clo­sure, Williams em­pha­sised that he and at­tor­neys from his firm re­main com­mit­ted to help­ing mi­grants.

“We al­ways try to help per­sons who are in need of in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion. That’s one of our man­dates,” he said. “Whether or not UN­HCR has a phys­i­cal of­fice, we will con­tin­ue to do our part.”

When asked if the clo­sure of the UN­HCR’s of­fice might lead to few­er mi­grants ar­riv­ing in T&T, Williams said it was too ear­ly to tell.

“Every­thing de­pends on how the new ad­min­is­tra­tion han­dles na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and in­ter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions,” he not­ed. “The Min­is­ters of De­fence and Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty must be giv­en time to ar­tic­u­late a co­her­ent re­sponse.”

How­ev­er, he warned of po­ten­tial glob­al fall­out.

“The up­com­ing 2024 US Hu­man Rights Re­port and Counter-Traf­fick­ing Re­port will un­doubt­ed­ly as­sess whether our coun­try has the sys­tems in place to pro­tect mi­grants. A lack of such pro­vi­sions could af­fect our in­ter­na­tion­al hu­man rights rat­ing some­thing the Unit­ed Na­tions will be watch­ing close­ly.”