Despite mounting a last-ditch legal challenge against their deportations, a group of illegal immigrants were yesterday sent back to West Africa aboard a Caribbean Airlines charter flight. The 11 men from Ghana, many of whom had been living in T&T for over ten years after arriving here illegally, were accompanied by immigration officials on the flight which left the Piarco International Airport around 7 am yesterday.
The mass deportation procedure was performed by the Immigration Division less than an hour after both High Court Judge Ricky Rahim and Appellate Judge Gregory Smith dismissed a series of lawsuits challenging the move, in an emergency marathon sitting of the High and Appeal Courts on Saturday night.
Rahim first began hearing the individual applications for judicial review of the immigrants’ deportation orders around 7 pm. The lawsuits were consecutively rejected by Rahim and then again on appeal before Smith, who eventually completed all the cases around 5.45 am. The men were represented by Farid Scoon and Richard Issac, while Gerald Ramdeen and Neil Byam represented the State.
According to the documents filed in support of their cases, the immigrants-Abdullah Techie, Abdul Suleiman, Olatunji Adams, Richard Appiah and Seidu Abdulai, who are all married to Trinidadian women, claimed they were in the process of regularising their immigration status when they were detained by immigration officials.
They claimed they were held despite having written approval from the Ministry of National Security authorising them to go to a neighbouring island in order to re-enter Trinidad legally to commence their application for residency.
The two others—Henry Mensah and Ernest Aglago—were held last year after they failed to obtain refugee status due to the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The group’s plight was recently highlighted after their families enlisted the support of the Emancipation Support Committee, whose leader Kafra Kambon has strongly condemned the move by immigration officials and the conditions at the Immigration Detention Centre in Aripo.
In his evidence in the case, acting Chief Immigration Officer Gerry Downes explained that his division planned to deport several other West Africans with Ibrahim in order to maximise on the hefty cost. Ibrahim was eventually released last month, after the division had repeatedly failed to receive Government funding for the flight within the time frame set by Kokaram.
The T&T Guardian understands that since his release on November 13, immigration officials have not seen or heard from Ibrahim. However, they could not cancel the flight as it had already been paid for.
Immigrant’s wife speaks
In a interview at her Barataria home yesterday, Appiah’s wife of two years, Kelly, said she was shocked and disappointed over the procedure used by immigration officials to detain and deport her husband. An emotional Kelly explained that last Friday, Appiah was on his way to the Immigration Division’s Port-of-Spain offices to enquire about his application when he was “nabbed” by police and immigration officers and taken to the detention centre.
She said she was prevented from visiting him several times between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, and decided file the lawsuit when she received information of the planned mass deportation of African immigrants. “They could have done it in a better way and at least tell his family what was going on,” a pregnant Kelly, who refused to allow photographs, said. “We shared the bills and rent. I don’t know what I will do now.”
A former illegal immigrant from Ghana who has successfully obtained residency through marriage also spoke about the situation affecting his countrymen attempting to immigrate to T&T. “The whole issue is whenever you are married here you’re entitled to file your papers for your residency. I don’t know what the problem is now, because I know so many of them who went through the same process,” the man, who only agreed to speak under the condition of anonymity, said.
The man, who spoke with a heavy West African accent occasionally punctuated by Trinidadian dialect, claimed the Immigration Division recently began changing it policies without informing immigrants. “They are not extending your stay like usual anymore. Certain things are very fishy, but I can’t say too much,” he said. He said despite being a legal resident, he and others like him still face many challenges.
“Things are really hard. Even though I have my ID card I cannot work like a normal citizen. When you go to a place to work you are still a foreigner, so they chase and cuss you,” the man said.