Arrangements are being made to place three children who were at the Heliport Assessment Centre in Chaguaramas with the Children’s Authority and a matter has been reported to the Law Association, where their parents had opted to be repatriated to Venezuela but their attorney went to court and said “No”.
National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds indicated this in the Senate yesterday.
He responded after UNC Senator Wade Mark asked if following “reports of abuse” at the Heliport, Government would have three children removed immediately and placed with the Children’s Authority.
Hinds said he didn’t know where Mark got “reports” of abuse from, since he’d received none. He said a recent newspaper article was fulsome (sic) in the treatment of the matter.
Hinds said the centre was not a “detention” centre but an assessment centre for illegal migrants on their landing status and for quarantining and screening for COVID-19.
They are repatriated “...as necessary and applicable promptly thereafter,” he added.
Currently, Hinds said there are about 40 people there, including children, since people’s preferred option is to be with their children and families are therefore kept together.
Hinds explained that action had been taken to repatriate certain adults from the facility and they challenged their deportation orders for repatriation.
“In the context of that challenge in the court, three children loomed large for the court’s attention and the court suggested that alternative accommodation be made for the three. Arrangements are now being made between the Children’s Authority, to whom the court directed that focus and those responsible for their safekeeping at the Heliport. Those discussions are underway and the matter is expected to be resolved but it only arose as they challenged the deportation orders.”
Hinds continued, “The parents of those children had opted for and signed with the Venezuelan authorities that they want to be repatriated and strangely, their lawyer came to court and said ‘No’ and that created a bit of a discrepancy.
“That matter was reported to the Law Association as well, because there was a suspicion that the lawyer was working in contradistinction from his client or purported client.”
He said the children are yet to be placed so he could not speak of which Children’s Authority home yet.