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A Venezuelan mother of three can now make a judicial review claim against National Security Minister Stuart Young, who issued an order for her to be repatriated while there is an injunction in place against it.
On November 29, Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams granted a temporary injunction preventing the woman’s deportation until the court had decided on legal challenge.
The woman was part of the group of mainly Venezuelan women and children who returned to Trinidad in November after they were escorted out of Trinidad and Tobago’s territorial waters. She and her children are being detained at the State’s quarantine facility for migrants at the Chaguaramas heliport.
On January 14, Young signed a deportation order for the woman’s repatriation.
Her leave application alleged that his failure to obey the court’s order amounted to a denial of the rule of law and if a minister acted in breach of an injunction, the legality of that act was open to challenge in court.
It added that the deportation order was a deliberate attempt to evade the court’s jurisdiction and to act in a manner contrary to law to prevent her from seeking her release with an application for a writ of habeas corpus.
“This amounts to the most flagrant abuse of power,” the application said.
On Tuesday, Justice Margaret Mohammed granted the woman permission to apply for judicial review to seek declarations that the minister’s decision to issue a deportation order while there was an injunction in existence was irrational, unreasonable and illegal; a breach of the rule of law; and a breach of Quinlan-Williams’s order.
The matter is expected to come up for hearing on March 22.
In October, the woman told relatives in Trinidad she had decided to come to Trinidad with her children to seek asylum.
The woman’s sister-in-law said the four boarded a boat leaving Venezuela on November 15, and they arrived two days later. But they were immediately arrested and taken to the Erin police station, then put on a boat on November 22 and escorted out of TT’s territorial waters.
Two days later the boat returned. The group was again detained and housed at the heliport.
The courts have made several orders preventing the deportation of this group, who are represented by attorneys Gerald Ramdeen, Dayadai Harripaul, Umesh Maharaj, and Nerisa Bala.
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