RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Venezue­lan Am­bas­sador to Trinidad and To­ba­go, Al­varo Sanchez-Cordero, says his team is fac­ing a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge as it works to process thou­sands of con­sular reg­is­tra­tions re­quired by Venezue­lan na­tion­als seek­ing to reg­u­larise their sta­tus un­der the Gov­ern­ment’s Mi­grant Reg­is­tra­tion Frame­work (MRF).

Sanchez-Cordero ex­plained that the em­bassy’s small staff is work­ing to meet the de­mand for the doc­u­men­ta­tion nec­es­sary for mi­grants, in­clud­ing mem­bers of the in­dige­nous Warao com­mu­ni­ty.

“Our chal­lenge is to be able to process thou­sands of con­sular reg­is­tra­tions with our lim­it­ed per­son­nel,” he said.

“The Em­bassy of the Bo­li­var­i­an Re­pub­lic of Venezuela to Trinidad and To­ba­go has been pro­vid­ing Venezue­lan na­tion­als with their con­sular reg­is­tra­tion, which is one of the re­quire­ments need­ed to ap­ply for the MRF.”

He said the em­bassy has al­so been col­lab­o­rat­ing with lo­cal agen­cies and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions to as­sist vul­ner­a­ble groups, par­tic­u­lar­ly Warao mi­grants liv­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Re­lat­ed to this, the Venezue­lan Em­bassy has been work­ing with lo­cal agen­cies and or­gan­i­sa­tions to pro­vide the con­sular reg­is­tra­tion to the Venezue­lan First Na­tion Warao com­mu­ni­ty,” he said.

First Peo­ples Sov­er­eign Na­tions Chief Er­ic Lewis told Guardian Me­dia that sev­er­al or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­clud­ing the Venezue­lan Em­bassy, have been co­or­di­nat­ing ef­forts to help Warao mi­grants nav­i­gate the reg­is­tra­tion process.

He said ap­prox­i­mate­ly 200 adults and chil­dren from the Warao com­mu­ni­ty have com­plet­ed the on­line reg­is­tra­tion com­po­nent, with most re­ceiv­ing ap­point­ments to at­tend in­ter­views with im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials. How­ev­er, on­ly about 50 in­di­vid­u­als have so far com­plet­ed all re­quired steps.

Lewis re­count­ed as­sist­ing fam­i­lies dur­ing in­ter­views at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, com­mend­ing the reg­is­tra­tion booth staff for their pro­fes­sion­al­ism and cour­tesy. He said com­mu­ni­ca­tion bar­ri­ers and un­fa­mil­iar­i­ty with for­mal ad­min­is­tra­tive sys­tems made the process dif­fi­cult for many mi­grants.

“These peo­ple can’t read or write, and many of them have nev­er been in a build­ing like that be­fore,” he ex­plained. “Every­thing is for­eign to them, and they were fright­ened. I stayed there to trans­late and help them un­der­stand the process.”

Vol­un­teer­ing as a trans­la­tor in both Span­ish and the Warao lan­guage, Lewis said of­fi­cials at the venue yes­ter­day were pa­tient and co­op­er­a­tive. He not­ed that trans­porta­tion and doc­u­men­ta­tion re­main ma­jor hur­dles for fam­i­lies, par­tic­u­lar­ly those liv­ing in re­mote com­mu­ni­ties in Moru­ga and Ica­cos, where many Warao mi­grants re­side in forest­ed ar­eas.

Lewis al­so high­light­ed the em­bassy’s sup­port for vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies, not­ing that cer­tain fees were waived for the Warao com­mu­ni­ty fol­low­ing his re­quest on their be­half.

“The Venezue­lan Em­bassy has been able to waive the fees for the in­dige­nous peo­ple un­der this chief­tain­cy be­cause they un­der­stand this is a very vul­ner­a­ble group that can­not af­ford it,” he said.

He al­so cred­it­ed hu­man­i­tar­i­an or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­clud­ing the Liv­ing Wa­ter Com­mu­ni­ty, Catholic Re­lief Ser­vices and the La Ca­sita Or­gan­i­sa­tion, for pro­vid­ing food and oth­er sup­port to fam­i­lies at­tend­ing in­ter­views.

While progress is be­ing made for the Warao com­mu­ni­ty, de­lays have raised con­cerns among oth­er mi­grant groups. LARMS co­or­di­na­tor Ang­ie Ram­nar­ine said she as­sist­ed sev­er­al Cuban na­tion­als with the on­line reg­is­tra­tion process, but on­ly one has re­ceived an in­ter­view ap­point­ment so far, cre­at­ing anx­i­ety among the com­mu­ni­ty.

Ram­nar­ine said she con­tin­ues to work close­ly with im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cials to co­or­di­nate ap­point­ments and en­sure vul­ner­a­ble fam­i­lies, in­clud­ing in­dige­nous mi­grants, re­ceive the sup­port need­ed to com­plete the reg­is­tra­tion process.