Trinidad and Tobago to take stricter actions on illegal entry

Trinidad Tobago announced on Thursday it would impose stricter sentences on those trafficking transients from neighbouring Venezuela, days after a Venezuelan boat headed to the Caribbean twin-island nation sank, shooting at least 28 people.

A humanitarian crisis in Venezuela has spurred the bulk migration of millions, including of many to Trinidad and Tobago, where at least 40,000 Venezuelans now live, while dozens have also gone absent since vessels they left to get there sunk.

Prime Minister Keith Rowley said it had many fleeing Venezuelans than any other nation “per capita and per square kilometres” and there would be “new and stronger laws for persons who support illegal trade and stiffer penalties for human trafficking”.

His ruling came the same day Venezuela’s Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab said two people had been held about the loss last weekend off the eastern Venezuelan coast: the owners of the ship and the resources from which it embarked.

Arrest warrants are issued for seven national guard officers who had extorted the equivalent of $4,500 from the of the boat in exchange for viewing his trafficking industry, Saab said in televised comments.

Authorities renewed the death toll from the boat sinking to at least 28 from an initial 14, he said.

Rowley said there would be no mass removal of Venezuelans early next year. His government planned to renew the legal registration of over 16,500 for another six periods when it stops at the end of the year, he said.