Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young be­lieves Thurs­day’s in­ci­dent in­volv­ing 14 Venezue­lan na­tion­als be­ing re­fused en­try in­to the coun­try, de­spite hav­ing the nec­es­sary pa­pers, was a re­sult of the Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers ex­er­cis­ing their du­ty.

In a What­sApp mes­sage yes­ter­day, Young told Guardian Me­dia: “I ex­pect that the men and women in the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion at Pi­ar­co are ex­er­cis­ing their de­ci­sion-mak­ing du­ties in ac­cor­dance with the im­mi­gra­tion laws of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

He was re­spond­ing to anger from some mem­bers of the Venezue­lan pop­u­la­tion here in T&T af­ter their com­pa­tri­ots were de­nied en­try af­ter they ar­rived at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port on a flight from Venezuela on Thurs­day.

Pressed fur­ther on the is­sue, Young said, “As the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, I have a statu­to­ry role to play and it would be im­prop­er for me to say any more. I take the op­por­tu­ni­ty to thank the men and women in the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion for their ser­vice and com­mit­ment.”

On Thurs­day, La Vene­zolana flight AW1302 ar­rived at Pi­ar­co from Cara­cas around 10.24 am with 14 Venezue­lan na­tion­als on board—12 adults and two mi­nors. How­ev­er, al­most 23 days af­ter Young pro­posed an amnesty for any Venezue­lan na­tion­als re­sid­ing in T&T, they were re­fused en­try by Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials. Jua­na Reyes, who was es­cort­ing her nephew to meet his moth­er here in T&T af­ter they were grant­ed asy­lum in Aus­tralia, as well as one of two broth­ers were al­lowed en­try.

It is still un­known ex­act­ly why the Venezue­lan pas­sen­gers were turned away as Guardian Me­dia was un­able to get a hold of Chief Im­mi­gra­tion Of­fi­cer Char­maine Gand­hi-An­drews.

Com­ment­ing on the sit­u­a­tion at the air­port yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Venezue­lan ac­tivist Yese­nia Gon­za­lez said she did not un­der­stand why po­lice and im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers were treat­ing with the na­tion­als in this man­ner and mak­ing them suf­fer.

“We’re al­ready go­ing through a war in Venezuela and we’re fac­ing hunger and we’re fac­ing a short­age of elec­tric­i­ty and the wa­ter peo­ple have to drink is al­most black…when those peo­ple leav­ing to come here, they’re leav­ing to come here for pro­tec­tion be­cause we have an agree­ment that we must pro­tect the refugees and those who run­ning away from that,” Gon­za­lez said on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew.