Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

A Russ­ian na­tion­al is plead­ing with the Gov­ern­ment to let him leave T&T.

The 38-year-old man en­tered T&T’s bor­ders in Jan­u­ary af­ter flee­ing from be­ing re­cruit­ed by the Russ­ian mil­i­tary to fight in the Ukrain­ian war.

Ali Iakupov, a prac­tis­ing Mus­lim, was ar­rest­ed in Oc­to­ber in Debe at a masjid, and he is cur­rent­ly be­ing de­tained at the Im­mi­gra­tion De­ten­tion Cen­tre in Aripo.

Iakupov came to Trinidad with his wife and chil­dren, who are now re­lo­cat­ed to Turkey, where he wants to re­unite with them. When Iakupov was ar­rest­ed in Oc­to­ber, his wife was al­so ar­rest­ed. How­ev­er, she was giv­en an ex­ten­sion of time by the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion and has since left and is now in Turkey with the chil­dren.

At­tor­ney Aki­no­la Goodridge, of Quan­tum Le­gal, yes­ter­day said his client came to T&T to seek asy­lum. He said Iakupov has three chil­dren and did not want to risk his fam­i­ly’s life in the war, so he fled.

Goodridge said his client was be­ing charged for breach­ing the terms and con­di­tions of his vis­i­tor cer­tifi­cate.

“My client wants to come out, and he wants vol­un­tary de­par­ture or repa­tri­a­tion, in that he wants an or­der of su­per­vi­sion so that he can come out and es­sen­tial­ly get a tick­et and leave on his own terms,” he added.

“This op­tion will not cre­ate any eco­nom­ic hard­ship for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Gov­ern­ment, as he would be re­spon­si­ble for leav­ing on his own.”

Iakupov is a res­i­dent of Moscow and has reg­is­tered with the UN High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees.

At­tor­ney Blaine So­bri­an said, “What we have here is a case that hap­pens al­most dai­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go, and where, as it stands, in stark op­po­si­tion to the enun­ci­a­tion by the Gov­ern­ment be­fore the Hu­man Rights com­mit­tee of the Unit­ed Na­tions. On nu­mer­ous oc­ca­sions, our Gov­ern­ment has in­di­cat­ed oral­ly and in writ­ing that we in­tend to pro­tect the rights of asy­lum seek­ers and we wish not to re­foul any­one or make them sub­ject to re­foule­ment. We have some­one who has a re­al fear for his life and is not an eco­nom­ic mi­grant but an asy­lum seek­er.”

So­bri­an said be­fore his client was ar­rest­ed, he had reg­is­tered for a min­is­ter’s per­mit to al­low him to stay in the coun­try. He ex­plained that be­fore any de­ter­mi­na­tion in this mat­ter, he ought not to be de­port­ed.

“That is es­sen­tial­ly the po­si­tion of an asy­lum seek­er. He ought not to be sub­ject to any re­foule­ment, which is be­ing pro­posed right now, and we do not wish to go to court, we have gone to court nu­mer­ous times on these mat­ters.”

Guardian Me­dia spoke to an of­fi­cial at the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion, who con­firmed that Iakupov is de­tained by the di­vi­sion. How­ev­er, they did not want to di­vulge any fur­ther in­for­ma­tion.