A one-year-old baby died Saturday in his mother’s arms during an interception of a boat carrying illegal immigrants from the port of Trinidad and Tobago, which he acknowledged his men opened fire on the boat in a statement issued to the public. yesterday Sunday.
According to the text, the TTS Scarborough, the port vessel, was trying to stop a vessel that had entered the country’s territorial waters illegally from Venezuela “on Saturday shortly before midnight”.
Despite the warning fire in the air and the megaphone commands, “the boat continued to try to escape”, then “continued the aggressive maneuvers (…) trying to inject Scarborough”, the press release continues.
The port authorities, “fearing for their lives and in legal defense, shot the engines to try to stop the voyage”.
According to the text, the port authorities found that illegal immigrants were being transported after boarding the boat. “An illegal immigrant holding a baby said she was bleeding (…). He was taken to a medical center. “Unfortunately, the baby was no longer responding.”
The port “expresses its sincere condolences to the family”, it is also mentioned in the press release, which emphasizes that it will “continue” the operations with which it “guarantees the safety of Trinidad and Tobago”.
The boat with the migrants had departed on Saturday night from the eastern state of Venezuela’s Delta Amacuro, from where it is estimated that from six to ten boats with migrants depart daily, the human rights defender Orlando Moreno told the French Agency.
“We saw this coming, because (the port authorities) shoot at the engines of the vessels to stop them. In this case, the protocol escaped them “, continued Mr. Moreno, who is in contact with relatives of the little boy who was killed.
Since 2018, more than a hundred people have lost their lives in shipwrecks in this zone. In December 2020, about thirty people went missing when a boat that had departed from Guiria sank.
Several boats are operating illegally between the two countries, which are about a hundred kilometers apart, transporting mainly migrants who want to settle in Trinidad and Tobago due to the economic crisis in Venezuela.
It is not uncommon for boats to be overloaded and there are many accidents.
The Scarborough is one of two vessels delivered in November to Trinidad and Tobago from Australia to combat illegal fishing, smuggling and illegal immigration.
In recent months, authorities in Trinidad and Tobago have stepped up their policy against Venezuelan immigrants, deporting them, claiming that the archipelago’s citizens are being “attacked” by illegal immigrants.
According to UN estimates, some 5 million Venezuelans have fled the country of 30 million since 2015. About 25,000 have chosen Trinidad and Tobago, a country of 1.3 million, where authorities say they have registered the arrival of 16,000 Venezuelan citizens.
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