1,415 illegal Venezuelans between January and May

It is the largest number of any national group staying illegally over that period as Venezuelans grapple with food shortages.

Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dennis Moses told the House of Representatives yesterday in response to a question that the Ministry of National Security has on record a total of 15,042 illegal immigrants.

Among them for the January 1 to May 31 period are 183 Chinese nationals, 326 Colombians, 39 Nigerians, 65 Guyanese, 217 Dominicans and 20 Jamaicans.

“As of May of this year, there were 30,200 people who were granted permanent resident status by the Ministry of National Security,” Moses said.

“There are those,” he said, “who would have entered Trinidad and Tobago through illegal ports of entry, and whose presence is detected through reports and exercises undertaken by the Ministry of National Security.” Information in relation to people who would have been granted permanent status and details of those in the country illegally as a result of the expiration of their landed certificate, he said, is not readily available.