KAY-MARIE FLETCHER
Senior Reporter
kay-marie.fletcher@guardian.co.tt
Trinidad and Tobago nationals with booked trips to the United Kingdom but no Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) remain frustrated as to their next move, and the travel plans for others are now in limbo over a new visa policy and fees.
However, one activist believes the UK’s decision to impose visas on T&T citizens will gravely affect those seeking refuge from persecution.
LGBTQI+ activist Jason Jones—whose lawsuit challenging Trinidad and Tobago’s buggery laws caused changes to the Sexual Offences Act—said yesterday that hundreds of local queer people apply for asylum in the UK every year because their lives are in danger, not because they want to misuse the system.
“Now we’re being scapegoated for this visa requirement. They’re saying oh well the gays were running up there to claim asylum which is absolute rubbish. The asylum cases that are coming to Europe and North America are people who are in danger. The vast majority of them have been made homeless by their families, have lost jobs.
“Let’s face facts, we in Trinidad and Tobago hate gay people and what we need to do and what the British government needs to do is fight that endemic homophobia,” Jones said.
Attorney Criston Williams agreed. He said the new visa requirement could force more people to use illegal means to leave T&T.
Williams said he believes the majority of local asylum seekers are people who feel their lives are threatened by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).
He said others are convinced the TTPS cannot protect them from gang violence. He said these people are often labelled as community leaders and gang leaders.
“Personally, I do not like it. I am very upset by it, but it may be a reasonable position to adapt when England needs to protect their security issues... I would say that 95 per cent of the people seeking asylum have claimed it is because they want to ensure their right to life. From the cases that we have and have knowledge of, it is not because they can’t get jobs or anything like that. It is because they are saying they’re being persecuted in their own country and who is doing the persecution?
“In some instances, I am aware that persons have said the TTPS is always threatening them, so they want to ensure they don’t get killed by the TTPS. In the second instance also, they may be persons who fear gang violence and the inability of the State to protect their life in Trinidad and Tobago. There are one or two instances where I know it’s because of sexual preference but 90 to 95 per cent of the cases are simply because they wish to protect their right to live and not be killed and there isn’t any safety mechanism in Trinidad and Tobago that can protect their life.”