Minister in the Ministry of Housing Anil Roberts is insisting that all undocumented migrants must be properly registered in Trinidad and Tobago, mainly for security, accountability, and social protection.
This comes as he continued to defend the Government’s move to commence the Migrant Registration process, warning that failure to do so could have serious implications for the future of this country.
Speaking on Talk City 91.1FM on Tuesday, he said the move is not just administrative but essential for the protection of citizens and for safeguarding vulnerable migrant families.
He noted that the country is only now confronting the consequences of what he called years of extremely weak border control.
“They left our borders porous. I used to go out fishing twice a month and so on and do videos and show all your Doubles and Coffee Dougla Politics that not a vessel was patrolling, the radar wasn’t working the the Air Guard didn’t have no plane, the radar on the two plane was not functioning.”
He argued that criminal groups took advantage of these gaps, blending in with legitimate migrants escaping economic collapse.
“So there are also many who came across who are gang members, members of Tren De Aragua. We saw, we started to see things about man head getting chopped off, man digging up body and burning it and thing. That is not a Trini gang.”
The Minister said he believes migrant registration is the only way to bring order, identifying who is here legally.
“So we need to register those who are here so that they can be. We know what who is here, what skills they have. They could be taxed. They could pay the NIS. Children could go to school and so on. But the PNM left it so unmanaged and mismanaged and totally irresponsible that our country was reeling, not only with increased crime and murder and criminal gangs and drugs and guns, but with just illegality, wildness.”
Minister Roberts reminded that the consequences for choosing not to register will be serious.
“We have to be strict. We have to be right. We have to make people pay their fair due. But we have to be humane. And that is Kamla Persad-Bissessar, brilliant, strong, and she rules and governs with her heart. So we want them to register. Those who don’t register, well, they’ll be in the hands of the police and deportation and all of that. So they will not be able to cry. They will have to go back. And that’s how it is.