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FLASHBACK: A Venezuelan family arrives at the port in Cedros. Many Venezuelans are still unable to send their children to local schools, although they have been granted legal status by the TT Government. FILE PHOTO –
MORE than three years after the country’s government granted legal protection to Venezuelan migrants fleeing political oppression and economic hardship in their country, there is still a major challenge in getting immigrant children into the local school system.
On June 6, 2019, in a post-cabinet press conference, the Prime Minister said that the government cannot prevent Catholic schools from educating the children of Venezuelan immigrants.
Since then, more than 1,500 Venezuelan children have studied under the Equal Place program – a joint effort by the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, UNICEF, the Living Water Community and TTVSOLNET (TT Venezuela Solidarity Network).
In December of that year, speaking at a press conference, Archbishop Jayson Gordon said that among the church’s top priorities was enrolling immigrant children in schools.
Then he said: “The Ministers of Education, National Security and I have met and worked to make this happen. The Prime Minister has said that the Catholic Church will educate immigrant children and we have been struggling with very little time and resources to achieve this.
According to data from the Equal Place online platform, until June 30, 1177 children were enrolled in the primary education program and 485 in the secondary education program. However, many immigrant children are still not placed in TT schools.
Among asylum seekers and refugees registered with UNHCR, there are 4,000 children between the ages of five and 17 or 18 percent of the 19,648 Venezuelans seeking refuge or asylum in TT, as of July 31.
According to R4V – a regional coordination platform created in response to the situation in Venezuela, there are approximately 6,900 children in TT who need educational support as part of the Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP).
Data managed by R4V report 2,900 more than the 4,000 reported by UNHCR, as it includes numbers managed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has called for migrant children to be given places in state schools. She said that every child has the right to education.
She said that TT citizens who immigrate expect their children to be enrolled in schools in the countries they go to and the same courtesy should be shown to immigrant children, especially those who came here from Venezuela.
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“You accepted them, you gave them a residence permit in TT”, she told the prime minister.
Yermaris Almeida told Newsday that he agreed with Persad-Bissessar’s position, but asked that the plight of immigrant children not be politicized.
“Venezuelan immigrants are not here by choice, but by force. Our children are human beings who deserve respect and the same opportunities for education, food and health as any other child in the world,” she said.
Almeida said many Venezuelan families here are being separated due to the lack of schools for their children.
Venezuelan families here are making the decision to send mothers with their children home so they can study. The fathers remain in TT to continue working in order to send money to their loved ones in Venezuela.
“All I know is that the Equal Place program was to prepare our children to enter Catholic schools here, but three years have passed and we have no news and no hope,” Almeida added.
