According to this text, the TTS Scarborough, a coast guard boat, tried to intercept a boat that had entered territorial waters illegally from Venezuela. Saturday shortly before midnight
.
Despite warning shots in the air and loudspeaker warnings, the boat kept trying to get away
, then a continued its aggressive maneuvers […] tempting to stamp
the Scarborough, according to the text.
Officers feared for their lives and in self-defense fired into the engines in an attempt to stop the boat
, from the same source.
The coast guard say they discovered the presence of illegal migrants once on board. Illegal immigrant woman holding baby says she was bleeding […] She was transferred to a medical center. Unfortunately the baby was unresponsive.
, according to the same source.
The Coast Guard send their heartfelt condolences to the family
, concludes the text which emphasizes that the coast guard will continue
their operations to keep Trinidad and Tobago safe
.
Boats depart daily
The migrant boat had left on Saturday evening from the Venezuelan state of Delta Amacuro (east), where it is estimated that between six and ten boats leave daily with migrants, said theAFP human rights activist Orlando Moreno.
We saw it coming because they [garde-côtes] fire at the boat’s engines to stop them. In this case, the protocol escaped them
, continued Mr. Moreno, who has been in contact with relatives of the deceased baby.
Since 2018, more than a hundred people have lost their lives in shipwrecks in this area. In December 2020, around 30 people died in the sinking of a boat that had left Güiria illegally.
Many boats make clandestine shuttles between the two countries, a hundred kilometers apart, transporting in particular illegal migrants wanting to reach Trinidad and Tobago to flee the crisis in Venezuela, in the midst of an economic slump.
It is not uncommon for boats to be overloaded and accidents abound.
The Scarborough is one of the two boats delivered in November to Trinidad and Tobago by Australia, and which should help fight against fishing, smuggling and illegal immigration.
In recent months, Trinidad and Tobago has tightened its policy of deporting Venezuelan migrants, ensuring that its people are assaulted
by illegal immigrants.
According to’UN, some 5 million Venezuelans have fled the country of 30 million people since 2015, with 25,000 choosing as their destination Trinidad and Tobago, a country of 1.3 million people, which says it has recorded the arrival of 16 000 Venezuelans.
