Attorney Farid Scoon, who represents several African nationals detained at the National Detention Centre, Arima, claimed yesterday Guyanese and Syrian mirgrants were being given preferential treatment by the immigration authorities. To support his view, he produced a 2004 internal circular, issued by the Chief Immigration Officer, which, he said, ordered that the cases of African nationals seeking extensions to stay in the country have to be escalated to Immigration senior officers.
Scoon said the processes for other nationalities were different. "Before an immigration officer can grant an extension, even if you have a work permit, he has to go to the assistant chief," Scoon said.
That circular used to included migrants from the Middle East and Far East but in recent times the convention between Trinidad and India has changed, he said, and he did not know why there was that disparity in treatment between the races. "I cannot say but there is a discriminatory policy enshrined in the immigration policy where they treat African nationals differently from how they treat other nationals," he said. He also said he had evidence of the disparity in treatment of African migrants as opposed to Syrian migrants.
Scoon confirmed that according to local laws, once someone is married to a T&T national, they automatically qualify for naturalisation. He said he was aware of cases where conglomerates in Trinidad hired consultants to source and retain Guyanese workers to work in restaurants. "On the one hand you are saying undocumented immigrants are taking away from our jobs, and on the other hand you are allowing certain persons in the society to bring in migrants by the hundreds to have jobs in T&T," he added. He said they receive work permits because of the influence of restaurant owners. Scoon also raised questions on whether there was a pact between the Syrian community and the government to allow nationals into the country because of the crisis in Syria. “Why is not the same courtesy being extended to Africans?" Scoon asked. The T&T Guardian tried to contact Griffith but was unsuccessful.
Kambon: Smear campaign against Africans
Emancipation Committee chairman Khafra Kambon is accusing Minister of National Security, Gary Griffith, of using "smear campaigns" to discredit the horrors endured by the African men held at the National Detention Centre. "We are seeing two trends in the conversation coming, especially from the Minister of National Security, who keeps linking undocumented migrants with crime and fake marriages. “We think we can discuss a major issue of concern without smears against persons who are victims," Kambon said yesterday.
He was speaking at a media conference at the committee's office, Bergerac Road, Maraval. He said the treatment meted out to the detainees who entered the country illegally was a violation of human rights. "Human rights conventions actually recommend that not be treated as a criminal act, even though it is against the law of the country," he said. There was a sentiment the Emancipation Committee was recommending that all African detainees should be released, but that was not so, he said, and there had been correspondence between the committee and the Ministry of National Security in which it recommended sending migrants back home rather than keeping them locked up indefinitely. "We feel there should be equality of treatment for everyone. We can say, without any fear of contradiction, because the evidence is there and we dare anyone to say otherwise. “The reality is that there is particular discrimination in the treatment of the migrants that come here from the continent," he said.
Kambon countered Griffith's statement that migrants cases would be studied to regularise their individual cases, saying there were 23 African detainees at the centre but that had since increased to 27 and he had evidence that the State was planning to send them back to Africa. "The State is seeking to charter a plane to take these migrants home. It is discriminatory to have an open door to other people, where they can come in and have their cases heard, and at the same time shut the door on those who are already in detention," he added.
Griffith dismisses allegations
National Security Minister Gary Griffith yesterday dismissed all allegations made by Emancipation Committee chairman Khafra Kambon and lawyer Farid Scoon. In a telephone interview yesterday, Griffith said Kambon and Scoon were misleading the public as he had the statistics to show that of the 640 people repatriated “a handful” were Africans. “The majority is from the region,” he said.
He said the two men also were misleading the public by saying African men were being profiled or treated worse among the detainees.
Griffith did admit that there had been allegations of mistreatment at the centre and said both his junior Security Minister Embau Moheni and the Chief Immigration Officer were investigating and compiling a report for him. “We will put things in place to ensure there is no recurrence of that but again, this is not treatment specific to the African detainees. These were reports across the board,” he said.