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THE Movement for Justice (MSJ) on Sunday declared its full support for the Government's position on Venezuelan migrants.
The party also condemned efforts locally and externally to encourage TT to open its borders to Venezuelan refugees or asylum seekers. At a news conference at the MSJ's San Fernando office, the party's leader David Abdulah said, "We maintain and support the Government's position. That these persons (Venezuelan nationals) are migrants. essentially migrant workers. They come in here for economic benefit, to work."
He said some Venezuelans who have entered TT legally or illegally to work, "Are now trying to bring their families in." After saying this is understandable, Abdulah added, "We strongly disagree with any suggestions that these are refugees or that they are asylum seekers."
He also said "there is a lot of mischief afoot" inside and outside of TT, to portray Venezuelans coming here as refugees or asylum seekers. "There is a fundamental difference between a migrant worker and a refugee or someone coming from asylum."
Abdulah observed that anyone designated as a refugee or asylum seeker could access all of the rights of the citizens of a country. He said it is unacceptable for Venezuelans coming to TT as migrant workers, to be given the same status as TT citizens and short-circuiting the normal process of someone who enters TT and applies for citizenship.
"There are NGOs engaged in mischief and we disagree with them. Some of the NGOs here are linked to people in Venezuela and there are people in Venezuela who are encouraging that nonsense," Abdulah said. He added that Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido was part of that yet Guaido does not command the support of the entire Venezuelan opposition, which consists of several parties.
Abdulah welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement last week that Venezuelan nationals who were registered last year have been given a six-month extension. Saying this will give them the opportunity to work in TT and send money back to their families in Venezuela, Abdulah opined, "That to me is a positive step by Government."
He condemned Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Luis Almagro for trying to urge member states to open their borders to Venezuelan refugees and asylum seekers. He claimed Almagro was nothing but "a tool of US imperialism."
As a sovereign nation, Abdulah continued, TT alone has the right to determine who enters its borders and who does not. He also said, "We are opposed to illegal trafficking, particularly of humans. That's horrendous. People are never to be exploited because of their circumstances."
According to Abdulah, human trafficking out of Venezuela includes situations where people are forced to pay unscrupulous people large sums of money to bring them or their relatives to TT and Venezuelans being forced to live in exploitative circumstances once they arrive here.
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