Venezue­lans are ex­press­ing grat­i­tude to Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young for his pro­posed amnesty which will al­low them to reg­is­ter legal­ly and be able to work at least for one year.

They said the pro­pos­al to reg­is­ter legal­ly will curb the con­tin­ued ex­ploita­tion of the Venezue­lan peo­ple.

Manuel Gue­vara, who spoke to Guardian Me­dia from his work­place in San Fer­nan­do said he has been liv­ing in fear since he ar­rived in Trinidad last March.

“I work at a tyre shop now and I do all kinds of odd jobs. I am a law-abid­ing man but when I see the po­lice I get scared as if I am a crim­i­nal,” Guev­era said.

With the new reg­is­tra­tion card, Guev­era said he will feel more at peace.

“This is some­thing I have prayed for. At least in Trinidad, we can get food. In Venezuela, we have noth­ing,” he said.

An­oth­er Venezue­lan who works on an agri­cul­tur­al field said the reg­is­tra­tion of Venezue­lans will pre­vent ex­ploita­tion. He said some Venezue­lans con­tin­ue to be ex­ploit­ed.

“They take our doc­u­ments and then make us work from morn­ing to night,” he said.

Mean­while, Dean of the Fac­ul­ty of Law, Prof Rose-Marie Belle An­toine who has been work­ing with refugees said the reg­is­tra­tion of all Venezue­lans was a wel­comed de­vel­op­ment.

An­toine, who holds the Chair as Prof of Labour Law and Off­shore Fi­nan­cial Law said, “It is clear we are not talk­ing about cit­i­zen­ship or vot­ing rights. It is a way of us har­ness­ing in­for­ma­tion not just to know who they are but al­so to pro­vide sup­port to them,” An­toine said.

Say­ing the reg­is­tra­tion process has to be man­aged care­ful­ly, An­toine said she al­so wel­comed the idea to al­low all Venezue­lans the op­por­tu­ni­ty to live and work in Trinidad for one year.

“Peo­ple need to be able to sus­tain them­selves. They are in dire need. They are be­ing ex­ploit­ed. They are fac­ing sex­u­al vi­o­lence and abuse,” she added.

Hav­ing worked on a project with the Fam­i­ly Plan­ning clin­ic, An­toine said, “We are of­fer­ing our ser­vices to mi­grants and we are find­ing lots of cas­es of abuse. Per­sons are vul­ner­a­ble. They have no means of sus­te­nance. They are be­ing ex­ploit­ed sex­u­al­ly and any pro­pos­al to have peo­ple in­de­pen­dent and to work to get a de­cent days work is wel­comed,” she added.

An­toine said, “At this time of need, Venezue­lans need help and it is a good idea to of­fer them the op­por­tu­ni­ty to work with­out be­ing ha­rassed.”

She said hope­ful­ly the sit­u­a­tion in Venezuela will be­come sta­bilised in a year.

“The vast ma­jor­i­ty of Venezue­lans want to go back home and this amnesty will as­sist them great­ly,” An­toine added.

Refugee pol­i­cy need­ed- Charles

Mean­while, Na­pari­ma MP Rod­ney Charles said Young’s plans were vague and ill-pre­pared.

“He did not present a well thought out pol­i­cy but rather an­oth­er ad hoc idea, with­out con­sul­ta­tion or con­sid­er­a­tions of the pos­si­ble im­pli­ca­tions. It is too late in the day to be pre­sent­ing a pos­si­ble op­tion. What is need­ed is a de­ci­sive plan of ac­tion,” Charles said.

He said the Unit­ed Na­tions es­ti­mate that the num­ber of Venezue­lans cur­rent­ly in T&T to be over 40,000.

“With­out knowl­edge of the ac­tu­al fig­ures, how can a pol­i­cy be de­vel­oped to pro­vide jobs for them? We have no ac­cu­rate da­ta of num­bers, age groups, ed­u­ca­tion or health needs of these refugees to be­gin to form the ba­sis of any as­sis­tance need­ed. With the un­em­ploy­ment rate of T&T na­tion­als in­creas­ing, how does this clue­less, in­com­pe­tent Gov­ern­ment hope to pro­vide jobs for 40,000 refugees for an en­tire year?” Charles asked.

He said the un­em­ploy­ment rate in Na­pari­ma stands around 25 per cent.

“Min­is­ter Young is in no po­si­tion to tell us whether this pol­i­cy will in­cen­tivise Venezue­lans to seek refuge here and there­fore over­whelm our health fa­cil­i­ties, our schools and our hous­ing sit­u­a­tion. What would be the long term plan?” he asked.