The fam­i­ly of the Venezue­lan mi­grant ba­by who was shot dead over the week­end by T&T Coast Guard of­fi­cers wants the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to grant them per­mis­sion to stay in this coun­try.

The broth­er and cousin of the ba­by Ya Elvis San­toyo has re­tained the law firm of Criston J Williams to make the ap­pli­ca­tion on their be­half.

Ba­by Elvis and his moth­er Darie Elvis Eliag­nis Sara­bia were il­le­gal­ly en­ter­ing T&T on Sat­ur­day night from Tu­cu­pi­ta when they were or­dered to stop by the Coast Guard.

How­ev­er, the pirogue which was car­ry­ing 17 adults and 10 chil­dren re­port­ed­ly did not heed the warn­ing.

Speak­ing on be­half of the res­i­dents, at­tor­ney Blaine So­brien stat­ed, “Present­ly our clients are refugees and there are rel­a­tives of the ba­by in Trinidad and To­ba­go that can­not re­turn to Venezuela as some of them were mem­bers of the armed forces and if they re­turn they can face jail time or killed and the rest of the fam­i­ly are al­so at risk should they re­turn as of many Venezue­lan Na­tion­als in Trinidad and To­ba­go seek­ing refugee sta­tus in this coun­try”.

He said his clients are seek­ing the per­mits from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty pend­ing the in­ves­ti­ga­tion with re­gards to the mi­nor on the boat which he said is an ex­treme­ly un­for­tu­nate and un­prece­dent­ed event “and our clients will al­so want the Unit­ed Na­tions Refugee Agency UNCHR to fa­cil­i­tate their man­date and speak with them and en­sure that they are per­mit­ted and fa­cil­i­tat­ed their safe trav­el to an­oth­er coun­try where they may not be per­se­cut­ed and that their lives may not be in dan­ger.”

Ya Elvis Santoyo and his mother Darie Elvis Eliagnis Sarabia with other children before leaving Tucupita, Venezuela, for Trinidad.

He added: “We would like to see this fam­i­ly re­unit­ed and re­uni­fi­ca­tion of this fam­i­ly in line with in­ter­na­tion­al prin­ci­ples and all UNCHR prin­ci­ples as well cur­rent­ly we are en­list­ing the in­ter­na­tion­al Par­lia­ment of Hu­man Rights in this mat­ter and we are sim­ply seek­ing to have the Sara­bia fam­i­ly unit­ed once again,” So­brien said

“These peo­ple are feel­ing very vul­ner­a­ble and at any point, they may be de­port­ed and they may not have safe haven in Trinidad and To­ba­go they are refugees and right now here in Trinidad and To­ba­go we are not do­ing any­thing to ad­dress the sit­u­a­tion as refugees are be­ing de­port­ed with the risk of be­ing killed or sent to prison for life,” he added

Since the in­ci­dent, the Venezue­lan mi­grants have been placed at the Ch­aguara­mas He­li­port– there the next child Darie Elvis Eliag­nis Sara­bia, a two-year-old girl, is be­ing housed.

Broth­er of the dead ba­by, Joel Sara­bia who spoke with the as­sis­tance of a trans­la­tor, told Guardian Me­dia that he spoke with his moth­er at the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal. He said she was out of the In­ten­sive Care Unit (ICU) and do­ing well.

How­ev­er, the fam­i­ly is con­cerned about his two-year-old sis­ter who they have not been able to speak to since the in­ci­dent.

He said his fam­i­ly in Trinidad and Venezuela were con­cerned and wor­ried be­cause they are now in the spot­light.

Many Venezue­lans in T&T are al­so call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to as­sist them with find­ing fam­i­ly mem­bers who were on board the pirogue that night.

Re­port­ing by Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Venezuelan Darie Elvis Eliagnis Sarabia, mother of one-year-old baby Ya Elvis Santoyo was shot and killed at sea on Sunday