JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Venezuelan drops case challenging T&T law

State retains right to deport asylum seekers

by

403 days ago
20240607
Justice Mark Mohammed

Justice Mark Mohammed

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

An ap­peal over whether a Unit­ed Na­tions con­ven­tion which ad­vis­es against de­port­ing asy­lum seek­ers and refugees is ap­plic­a­ble in T&T, has been with­drawn.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that late last month, Ap­pel­late Judge Mark Mo­hammed grant­ed leave to with­draw the ap­peal to lawyers rep­re­sent­ing a Venezue­lan refugee, who sought to re­ly on the Unit­ed Na­tions’ 1951 Con­ven­tion Re­lat­ing to the Sta­tus of Refugees in a law­suit to stop his de­por­ta­tion last year.

In the ap­peal, the man was claim­ing that High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad was wrong to dis­miss his law­suit against Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds and the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al on Ju­ly 4 last year.

The pre­ma­ture out­come of the ap­peal means that Jus­tice Seep­er­sad’s rul­ing on the ap­plic­a­bil­i­ty of the con­ven­tion will re­main the set­tled law un­less the le­gal is­sue is con­sid­ered by the Ap­peal Court in an­oth­er case.

It will af­fect nu­mer­ous im­mi­gra­tion cas­es cur­rent­ly be­fore the court, as be­fore the rul­ing the con­ven­tion was fre­quent­ly cit­ed by at­tor­neys seek­ing to chal­lenge their clients’ pro­posed de­por­ta­tions.

Ac­cord­ing to the ev­i­dence in the case, in April 2022, the man was grant­ed refugee sta­tus by the Unit­ed Na­tions High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees (UN­HCR). Sev­er­al months lat­er, he was ar­rest­ed while trav­el­ling in a taxi in Fyz­abad and charged with en­ter­ing the coun­try il­le­gal­ly.

The 33-year-old fa­ther of four plead­ed guilty to the of­fence and was fined $2,000. He was then placed on an or­der of su­per­vi­sion by the di­vi­sion af­ter pro­vid­ing a $2,100 bond. In March last year, the di­vi­sion de­tained him and is­sued him with a de­por­ta­tion or­der.

In the law­suit, he claimed his pro­posed de­por­ta­tion was il­le­gal based on this coun­try’s in­ter­na­tion­al oblig­a­tions to refugees. His lawyers point­ed to the con­ven­tion, which this coun­try signed on to in No­vem­ber 2000 and which ad­vo­cates against re­turn­ing refugees to a coun­try where they would prob­a­bly face per­se­cu­tion (non-re­foule­ment).

The man, who ad­mit­ted he is ul­ti­mate­ly seek­ing to be re­set­tled in Spain or Cana­da, is al­so claim­ing his le­git­i­mate ex­pec­ta­tion as a reg­is­tered asy­lum seek­er with the UN­HCR was frus­trat­ed.

The man was ini­tial­ly seek­ing an in­junc­tion bar­ring his de­por­ta­tion pend­ing the de­ter­mi­na­tion of his law­suit. How­ev­er, the in­junc­tion ap­pli­ca­tion was not con­sid­ered by Jus­tice Seep­er­sad, as the di­vi­sion agreed to grant him con­di­tion­al re­lease on a su­per­vi­sion or­der.

In its re­sponse to the ap­pli­ca­tion, the di­vi­sion de­nied any wrong­do­ing. It claimed that it was fol­low­ing stan­dard op­er­at­ing pro­ce­dures de­vel­oped by the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in 2017, pend­ing the pas­sage of leg­is­la­tion to in­cor­po­rate the pro­vi­sions of the UN Con­ven­tion and the en­act­ment of the Na­tion­al Draft Pol­i­cy to Ad­dress Refugees and Asy­lum Mat­ters in T&T of 2014.

In his judg­ment, Jus­tice Seep­er­sad not­ed that the con­ven­tion could not ap­ply as its terms were not in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to lo­cal im­mi­gra­tion laws.

“In­ter­na­tion­al treaty oblig­a­tions can­not al­ter do­mes­tic law in this Re­pub­lic and there is a need for do­mes­tic in­cor­po­ra­tion of treaty oblig­a­tions,” Jus­tice Seep­er­sad said.

“There are oblig­a­tions with­in the 1951 Refugee Con­ven­tion which are in­con­sis­tent with the pro­vi­sions of the Im­mi­gra­tion Act and as a sov­er­eign de­mo­c­ra­t­ic State, the Par­lia­ment of T&T has the sole and ab­solute right to make laws for the good gov­er­nance of this twin-is­land na­tion,” he added.

He not­ed that the court could not usurp the Gov­ern­ment’s au­thor­i­ty to for­mu­late its macro-eco­nom­ic and so­cio-pol­i­cy po­si­tions, as he point­ed out that 2014 pol­i­cy did not sug­gest that T&T un­equiv­o­cal­ly agreed to ac­cept refugees and asy­lum seek­ers.

“As a con­se­quence, no le­git­i­mate ex­pec­ta­tion could have arisen from the 2014 doc­u­ment,” he said.

The man was rep­re­sent­ed by John Heath, SC, Shali­ni Sankar and An­nesia Gun­ness. The di­vi­sion’s le­gal team in­clud­ed Sasha Sukhram, Jayan­ti Teeluck­d­har­ry and Vin­cent Jar­dine.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Shastri Boodan

Shastri Boodan

Apsara inspires youth through culture

10 hours ago
Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne: Global Hero of Hope supports cancer survivors

Yesterday
During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

Standing on business, not pity: My fight begins–Part 2

Yesterday
Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza’s American culinary journey springs from T&T roots

Yesterday