Nearly 3,000 migrants collect registration permits

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­[email protected]

Al­most 3,000 mi­grants have col­lect­ed doc­u­ments un­der the Mi­grant Reg­is­tra­tion Frame­work (MRF) in the past week, fol­low­ing the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to open the process to ap­proved ap­pli­cants of all na­tion­al­i­ties.

Oth­er ap­proved ap­pli­cants have un­til De­cem­ber to col­lect their doc­u­ments.

The per­mits al­low el­i­gi­ble mi­grants to live and work legal­ly in Trinidad and To­ba­go for one year, but they can­not trav­el out­side the coun­try dur­ing that pe­ri­od.

The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty said that, ef­fec­tive Fri­day, No­vem­ber 6, all ap­pli­cants with ap­proved ap­pli­ca­tions—re­gard­less of na­tion­al­i­ty—could pay the re­quired $710 fee at any Na­tion­al Lot­ter­ies Con­trol Board (NL­CB) booth na­tion­wide be­fore col­lect­ing their Min­is­ter’s Per­mits at the MRF Col­lec­tion Cen­tre at the sta­di­um.

Fig­ures for the ex­er­cise show that $1,839,610 was col­lect­ed from 2,592 trans­ac­tions be­tween No­vem­ber 1 and 4.

The high­est col­lec­tion was record­ed on No­vem­ber 3, when 1,532 trans­ac­tions gen­er­at­ed $1,087,010. A fur­ther 952 trans­ac­tions on No­vem­ber 4 brought in $675,920.

The ex­er­cise be­gan on No­vem­ber 1 with 106 trans­ac­tions amount­ing to $75,260. On­ly two trans­ac­tions, to­talling $1,420, were record­ed on No­vem­ber 2 be­cause of tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties with the pay­ment sys­tem.

A to­tal of 29,276 mi­grants from 60 coun­tries ap­plied for reg­is­tra­tion. Fol­low­ing vet­ting, 20,242 were ap­proved.

Ang­ie Ram­nar­ine, co­or­di­na­tor of the La Ro­maine Mi­grant Sup­port Group, said some mi­grants were still try­ing to find the mon­ey to com­plete the process, while oth­ers were pleased to learn their ap­pli­ca­tions had been ap­proved.

How­ev­er, she said some peo­ple who reg­is­tered to­geth­er re­ceived dif­fer­ent de­ci­sions. She cit­ed a hus­band and wife who reg­is­tered at the same time, but on­ly the wife’s ap­pli­ca­tion was ap­proved.

Ram­nar­ine said the hus­band had re­ceived an email about his ap­pli­ca­tion and would need to seek clar­i­fi­ca­tion through the des­ig­nat­ed chan­nels.

She re­mind­ed mi­grants to have proof of pay­ment be­fore go­ing to the col­lec­tion cen­tre.

Al­though the min­istry has not an­nounced a fi­nal col­lec­tion dead­line, Ram­nar­ine en­cour­aged mi­grants to com­plete the process be­fore De­cem­ber. She said she hoped the ex­er­cise would pro­ceed smooth­ly and urged mem­bers of the mi­grant com­mu­ni­ty to be dis­ci­plined and com­plete the re­quire­ments on time.

Some mi­grants who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said they were dis­ap­point­ed they would not be al­lowed to leave Trinidad and To­ba­go dur­ing the one-year per­mit pe­ri­od.

“Some of us were plan­ning to spend Christ­mas in our home coun­try, but we would have to re­con­sid­er this now that we are ap­proved,” one mi­grant said.

Ac­cord­ing to the min­istry’s re­lease, the col­lec­tion cen­tre will be open Mon­day to Fri­day, from 8 am to 4 pm, ex­cept on pub­lic hol­i­days and des­ig­nat­ed non-op­er­a­tional dates.

The cen­tre will be closed on No­vem­ber 18, 20, 24 and 27, and De­cem­ber 1, 4 and 8.

Ap­pli­cants must present the same iden­ti­fi­ca­tion doc­u­ment used dur­ing reg­is­tra­tion, even if it has since ex­pired, along with proof of pay­ment.

The min­istry said ap­pli­cants would al­so be pho­tographed for of­fi­cial records. It ad­vised them to wear coloured cloth­ing and avoid white tops or shirts.

On­ly ap­pli­cants whose sta­tus is marked “Ap­proved” are el­i­gi­ble to pay and col­lect their per­mits.

For as­sis­tance, ap­pli­cants can con­tact the MRF Help Desk at [email protected] or 613-1505.