The UN Refugee Agency will per­ma­nent­ly close its na­tion­al of­fice in Trinidad and To­ba­go on 31 Au­gust 2025 due to glob­al fund­ing short­falls. The Port of Spain of­fice will stop serv­ing the pub­lic from 25 Ju­ly. All op­er­a­tions will be man­aged re­mote­ly by the UN­HCR’s Mul­ti-Coun­try Of­fice in Pana­ma, sup­port­ed by a min­i­mal staff pres­ence lo­cal­ly.

“This de­ci­sion was not tak­en light­ly,” UN­HCR said in a pub­lic no­tice. “Re­cent glob­al events have deeply im­pact­ed fund­ing for hu­man­i­tar­i­an and de­vel­op­ment or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­clud­ing UN­HCR and our part­ners. Al­though needs re­main high, fi­nan­cial re­sources have de­clined, forc­ing bud­get re­stric­tions glob­al­ly, re­gion­al­ly, and lo­cal­ly.”

To re­duce mis­in­for­ma­tion and re­spond to grow­ing con­cerns, the agency has cre­at­ed a Q&A sec­tion on its Trinidad and To­ba­go web­site, of­fer­ing ver­i­fied up­dates and prac­ti­cal in­for­ma­tion for refugees and asy­lum seek­ers.

How refugees can seek help af­ter the clo­sure

Af­ter 31 Au­gust, per­sons of con­cern can email ttopo@un­hcr.org, a mail­box mon­i­tored by the Pana­ma of­fice. Refugees and asy­lum seek­ers may al­so turn to UN­HCR’s lo­cal part­ners for as­sis­tance: La Ca­sita His­pan­ic Cul­tur­al Cen­tre and the Caribbean Cen­tre for Hu­man Rights (CCHR). These or­gan­i­sa­tions pro­vide ser­vices free of charge.

La Ca­sita sup­ports sur­vivors of gen­der-based vi­o­lence, of­fers coun­selling, and runs lim­it­ed day­care and ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes. CCHR de­liv­ers le­gal aid, in­clud­ing help with de­por­ta­tion or­ders, cus­tody cas­es, and rep­re­sen­ta­tion in cas­es of de­ten­tion or risk of re­foule­ment.

UN­HCR said it would con­tin­ue to share in­for­ma­tion about pub­lic ser­vices avail­able to all per­sons in Trinidad and To­ba­go, in­clud­ing ac­cess to pri­ma­ry and emer­gency health­care and pro­tec­tion against labour ex­ploita­tion.

Le­gal rights and con­tin­ued ad­vo­ca­cy

De­spite the of­fice clo­sure, UN­HCR reaf­firmed that pro­tec­tion un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law re­mains un­changed. Trinidad and To­ba­go, as a sig­na­to­ry to the 1951 Refugee Con­ven­tion, is ex­pect­ed to up­hold the rights of refugees, in­clud­ing pro­tec­tion from re­foule­ment and de­ten­tion.

“UN­HCR and its part­ners con­tin­ue to work to en­sure refugees are treat­ed fair­ly and their rights re­spect­ed,” the agency said. It added that CCHR re­mains avail­able for free le­gal sup­port in cas­es of de­ten­tion or threats of forced re­turn.

UN­HCR al­so con­firmed it would keep ad­vo­cat­ing for a na­tion­al asy­lum sys­tem and for refugee rights in Trinidad and To­ba­go. While the struc­ture of that ad­vo­ca­cy will shift with the clo­sure of the na­tion­al of­fice, over­sight and en­gage­ment will con­tin­ue through the Mul­ti-Coun­try Of­fice in Pana­ma and in­ter­na­tion­al chan­nels.