RHON­DOR DOWLAT

Se­nior Re­porter

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt

There was con­fu­sion among Venezue­lan mi­grants yes­ter­day, as some re­mained wait­ing for their re­newed per­mits to live and work in this coun­try legal­ly, de­spite a no­tice from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty stat­ing the per­mits were ready for col­lec­tion.

A no­tice from the min­istry on Sun­day said Venezue­lans reg­is­tered un­der the Mi­gra­tion Reg­is­tra­tion Frame­work would have their per­mits re­newed and ready for col­lec­tion from yes­ter­day.

From as ear­ly as 7 am, scores of mi­grants were seen lin­ing up in front of the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion’s En­force­ment Unit, up­per Hen­ry Street in Port-of-Spain. How­ev­er, by 1.30 pm a hand­ful of them were still wait­ing.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, a Venezue­lan mi­grant, who ex­it­ed the com­pound around 1.45 pm and pre­ferred not to be named, said he was leav­ing emp­ty hand­ed as he did not re­ceive a new per­mit.

“I was told to keep my old card, that it was ex­tend­ed. I thought I would have got­ten my re­newed card to­day, that is why I came but noth­ing,” he said.

An­oth­er mi­grant, Maria Ron­don, said she was still wait­ing to be called to col­lect the per­mit.

“Yes, I have my job/reg­is­tra­tion card, I am not on the new list of re­new­al of the card. I’ve been wait­ing for a month for the re­new­al of the card,” Ron­don said.

“I need the card re­newed as I’m be­ing asked for its re­new­al sta­tus at my place of work. I need the job as I am a sin­gle moth­er. My two kids are here and I need my reg­is­tra­tion re­newed. To­day, I looked at the list to find out if I am on the list but I am not. I am not on the list for col­lec­tion for to­day (Tues­day),” she added.

Ron­don is cur­rent­ly em­ployed at a bar and restau­rant in Freeport. She ex­plained she has a 15-year-old daugh­ter and a one-year-old son, who was born in Trinidad.

She said she hopes to re­ceive the re­newed per­mit very soon to be able to con­tin­ue work­ing since she has a fam­i­ly here and in Venezuela to take care of.

She said she can­not af­ford to be out of work.

The Mi­grant Reg­is­tra­tion sys­tem was im­ple­ment­ed in 2019 af­ter an in­flux of Venezue­lans to this coun­try.

The Gov­ern­ment im­ple­ment­ed the sys­tem, which al­lowed the mi­grants to legal­ly live and work in this coun­try. The reg­is­tra­tion per­mit was orig­i­nal­ly meant for six months to one year but has been re­newed by the Gov­ern­ment every six months since then.

The first batch of re­newed work per­mits un­der the Mi­grant Reg­is­tra­tion Frame­work, be­tween June 21 and Au­gust 11 was ready for col­lec­tion from Sep­tem­ber 4 to 8.

Dis­tri­b­u­tion of the sec­ond batch be­gan yes­ter­day from 8 am to 2 pm.

Ef­forts to reach Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry, Gary Joseph, for an up­date on how many mi­grants ap­plied for work per­mits, and how many were re­newed, dis­trib­uted and pend­ing re­new­al were un­suc­cess­ful.