MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
I. INTRODUCTION The Venezuelan population flows in Latin America and the Caribbean TABLE OF CONTENT have shown a significant increase in the last two years. Due to its I. INTRODUCTION geographical closeness with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, II. METHODOLOGY Trinidad and Tobago is one of the countries that has seen this III. PROFILES increase on a larger scale. Although Venezuelan foreigners in Trinidad IV. WORK STATUS and Tobago are not new, the highly unusual increase in numbers V. DEPENDENTS within a short time span have attracted the local authorities' VI. ROUTES attention. VII. NEEDS VIII. SUMMARY Traditionally, Venezuelans were not known as a population aiming to stay permanently outside Venezuela in massive number, however, a conglomerate of internal events has recently changed this reality in all countries sharing borders with Venezuela, and many others far beyond. This new reality is of special interest for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), whose mandate is to promote the benefits of an orderly and safe migration based on the respect of the immigrants' rights.
The study was geared towards monitoring Venezuelans citizens' presence in Trinidad and Tobago, to know a profile which would aid in developing a better understanding of their needs, vulnerabilities, working and health status, and the challenges they have faced in the routes they follow to get to Trinidad and Tobago. During the data collection exercise, 548 Venezuelans were interviewed along the territory, with the following distribution:
Map 1: Number of Surveys per Regional Corporation
17
54 29 16 96 134 1
65
15
24 58
21 14 1 3
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT I
MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
II. METHODOLOGY Graph 2: Distribution per Sex
A bilingual team of Spanish and English speakers, was trained as enumerators to gather data from the Venezuelans, as well as trained to identify and refer protection cases. A snowball methodology was adopted whereby key informants were first interviewed by the group of enumerators, then these female informants garnered other Venezuelan citizens to be 36% interviewed. This process continued until the end of the exercise which resulted in a sample of Venezuelan male citizens located in all 14 regional corporations being 64% interviewed. All 548 Venezuelans participated voluntarily.
Considering how the sample was constructed, the results are only indicative of the characteristics of the surveyed population. It is not possible to establish a probabilistic generalization for all Venezuelan citizens Nationality in the country. More than 99 per cent had Venezuela as their first It is understandable that while visiting this way, when nationality, and a small 3 per cent had a second getting to a house where a Venezuelan family was nationality, where in half of the cases the second residing, the interviewer got to speak only with the nationality was Trinidad and Tobago. father of the family, which is what happened in around When asked how long they had been in the country, a third of the cases, and that lead to men being over- one third of the responses received, indicated that represented among the interviewees. they had been in Trinidad and Tobago for more than III. PROFILES a year.
The main findings led to the profile described in the Graph 3: Time in Trinidad and Tobago following charts, where one may see that the amount of men is almost twice the number of women. Graph 1: Distribution per Sex and Age
90 80 70 60 95per cent of respondents indicated that the local 50 authorities had never asked them for any money 40 unless it was because of an official fee or charge. Over 30 90 per cent considered Trinidad and Tobago a safe 20 place. At the same time, one third of respondents 10 expressed fear of the authorities due to their
0 migratory status.
male male male male
male The migratory status of most cases interviewed was
female female female female female 40 years or 25 to 29 30 to 34 35 to 39 Less than Irregular, and over 80 per cent were making efforts to more years years years 25 years become asylum-seekers in Trinidad and Tobago.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT II
MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Graph 4: Marital Status Graph 6: Global Education Level Distribution of the Interviewees
Widowed Divorced <1% None 2% 1%
Primary 6%
Married 28% Secondary 36% 2% Technical 47% Single 62% 16% Licensed / Engineer
Master 6.63 per cent of the women were pregnant when they were interviewed, and a third of the pregnant women were single with an average of 2.4 dependents. IV. WORK STATUS
Graph 5: Education per Age Range When comparing "BEFORE" - the work status in Venezuela before migrating, and "AFTER" - the work status in Trinidad and Tobago, the following chart 100% Master shows that most students stopped studying, some 90% employees became unemployed and most independent workers remained as such. 80% Licensed / Engineer 70% Graph 7: Work Status Comparison
60% Technical Employee Student Independent 50% Unemployed Others 40% Secondary 7% 1% 30%
Primary 20% BEFORE 64% 9% 20% 10%
0% None 24 25 to 30 to 35 to 40 or years or 29 34 39 more AFTER 57% 7% 32% less years years years years
1% 3%
46 per cent of the interviewed individuals had Although more than 90 per cent of the individuals obtained professional degrees and, considering only assessed did mention that they were working in the those without any professional degree, 87 per cent of informal sector, close to a third did not specify the them had completed their secondary education. actual work sector they were working in, before or
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT III
MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
after migrating. So, among the other two thirds, only paid or not paid entirely for a job done, more than half the most relevant sectors were considered for the of these incidents took place in the construction following chart. sector, and around a quarter in commerce. Graph 8: Work Sector Comparison V. DEPENDENTS
Public Commerce Education student Graph 9: Dependents' Location
Construction Health Industry 9% 7%
BEFORE 25% 22% 12% 12% 12% No dependents 10% Both 28%
AFTER 22% 66% Only in Only in TT Venezuela 2% 60% 5% 1% 1% 2% 4% In terms of salaries, 27 per cent of surveyed individuals were earning at least one Trinidad and Tobago's mandated minimum wage, either rated hourly or 2 per cent of the interviewed had dependents only in monthly, while 47 per cent said that they were Trinidad and Tobago, while 88 per cent of the underpaid, with a salary lower than the minimum, interviewees claimed that they had on average more and 26 per cent refused to answer. than four dependents that at that moment were 20 per cent said that they had received a job offer in living in Venezuela. For those traveling with Trinidad and Tobago, most of those offers were dependents, meaning, close to 30 per cent of the received upon arrival. A quarter of the offers included interviewed, an average of only little bit more than a debt, meaning that the contractor was going to cover two dependents per interviewed was registered. expenses that were going to be repaid by the hired Not much less than 80 per cent were sending or had Venezuelan. In regards of the sectors, 55 per cent of sent resources to Venezuela. 95 per cent of the cases the offers were evenly distributed among over a dozen directly sending money, but over 20 per cent had also sectors, while 10 per cent were in commerce and 35 sent food, and 18 per cent medicine. per cent in construction. Graph 10: Means to send resources 14 per cent complained about the way they were treated in their jobs. A clear majority of 92 per cent of the complaints were based on verbal aggressions received because of the migratory status. Informal Through While outside their jobs, the migratory status had transferences acquaintances been a bigger problem, because 53 per cent of them 37% 33% complained about being discriminated due to their nationality, in 8 per cent of the cases affirming to have suffered physical violence. Formal Others transferences 6% Although most of them said that they have never had 24% to work or perform any activity against their will, 23 per cent of them did state that they were either not
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT IV
MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Family Groups In regards of their education, considering only those who were no longer within school ages, the level of As previously stated, approximately one third of completed education increases with age. respondents did not migrate alone and, above 90 per cent of their companions were family. Of this, 90 per Graph 13: Education Level of Family Members cent of the family was born in Venezuela, and 3 per by Age Range cent in Trinidad and Tobago. Only a small difference in 100% the amount per sex. Master 90% Graph 11: Sex Distribution of the Family 80% Licensed / 70% Members Engineer 60% Technical 50% 53% 40% Secondary 47% 30% 20% Primary 10% None 0% 18 to 24 25 to 29 30 to 34 35 to 39 40 or years years years years more years
Male Female Over 90% had a non-regular legal status, 1.24 per cent
had student visas, and, over 6 per cent were residents, Graph 12: Ages per Sex of the Family Members half due to their parent’s nationality. VI. ROUTES 13% 40 or more years 15% The following map presents the percentage of interviewed Venezuelan citizens per state they were 11% 8% 35 to 39 years 5% born, after showing that 13 per cent were born in 12% 30 to 34 years Distrito Capital and 6 per cent in Cojedes, it shows 17% that, counting the 8 per cent that came from Sucre, 57 13% 25 to 29 years per cent of them came from the eastern states of Venezuela. 18% 22% 18 to 24 years Map 2: State of Origin Distribution 5% 9% 12 to 17 years 14% 10% 5 to 11 years 13% 8% 5% 13% 13% 6% 17% 4 or less years 6% 21% MALE FEMALE
5% But, other than highlighting that more than half of the family members were minors (less than 18 years old), it is necessary to mention that 2.65 per cent of the women inside the family groups were pregnant. Notable, in 20 per cent of the pregnancy cases, the women were minors.
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT V
MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
40 per cent of respondents did share details about the Graph 15: Trip Cost routes they took. More than 95 per cent of the travels made internally in Venezuela were made by land, and 55 per cent declared that they used passenger boats to travel out of Venezuela.
For those using boats, approximately 80 per cent started the Boat Trip in Tucupita, through the river and then the sea, while close to a 20 per cent started in Güiria. Both cases with the same destination, meaning, both main fluvial routes had their final destinations at 73 per cent of the interviewed individuals entered the most southern coasts of Trinidad. Trinidad and Tobago through an official point of access Map 3: Routes and claimed to have sealed their passports. For the remaining 27 per cent, most of them did not use a passport nor used an official point to enter the country.
87 per cent of assessed persons did not complain about any difficulties encountered during the trip. The difficulties most mentioned by the remaining 13 per cent are listed below.
Graph 16: Main Difficulties in Trip
Graph 14: Transportation Type by Age of Not having a place to sleep Respondent 4%
Health issues 4%
0 TO 20 YEARS Air 20% Boat 80% Lack of information 5%
Arrests / Detentions 5% 20 TO 40 YEARS Air 41% Boat 59%
Deportations 6%
40 TO 60 YEARS Air 50% Boat 50% Lack of means of transportation 8%
Lack of food or water 60 TO 80 YEARS Air 100% 12%
Documentation problems 13%
Based on the responses that did specify a cost range, Insecurity / Robbery 17% 85 per cent of the times, the cost of the trip was above 100 US Dollars, and in 5 per cent of the cases above Lack of economic resources 25% 500. These percentages did not vary much between those who traveled by boat and those who traveled by airplane. Almost 60 per cent said that they were not Moreover, 39 per cent of the respondents were advising their routes to others, and only around 17 per unsure of how long they will stay in Trinidad and cent had made the trip more than once. Tobago, even though they indicated they did not
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT VI
MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
intended to stay indefinitely, those respondents had While assessing the living situation of Venezuelans in no plans of leaving the islands either. 44 per cent of Trinidad and Tobago, 91 per cent of them were living the responses received did mention that they planned in rented accommodations, where over 40 per cent of to stay for good. 11 per cent said that they were going those with dependents in Trinidad and Tobago were to stay between 6 and 12 months, and a six per cent renting only a room, including a room in a hotel or said that they were going to stay for less than 6 Boarding Houses' rooms. Over 70 per cent of them said months. that they did not have privacy at their accommodations. Among the final destinations mentioned by those who did have plans of leaving Trinidad and Tobago, the VII. NEEDS following graph shows the destinations that were mentioned. Graph 19: Top Needed Assistances for each Priority Level Graph 17: Final Destinations
1st priority
2nd priority
3rd priority
Graph 18: Accommodation 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Income generation or employment
Legal assistance (Migration Status and Refugee Status)
Medical care WITHOUT DEPENDENTS 50% 41% Food
Assistance with documents
WITH DEPENDENTS 39% 53% Secure shelter or accomodation
Education and training Without With dependents Family reunion dependents Rented room 39,05% 50,40% NFIs, clothes and personal care Rented house or 52,66% 41,16% apartment Safety and security Hosted by friends 2,37% 4,22% Others Hosted by family 2,37% 1,32% Hotel / Hostal / 1,78% 1,58% None Boarding House
Work place 0,59% 1,06% Others 1,18% 0,26% 47 per cent of assessed individuals indicated that they had not tried to access health services because they
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT VII
MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
had not had the need thus far. So, considering only the Graph 21: Children’s Access to School per Time responses from those who had tried to access health in the Country services, 35 per cent assured that they did not have access and described the issues they have faced as Have access Don't have access seen in the following chart.
Graph 20: Main Issues when seeking for Health Services
76% 85% Don't know where to go 94% 32% 100%
Fear 19%
Attendance was denied 13% 6% 0% 24% 15%
Mistreatment (Health Staff) 8% L E S S T H A N F R O M A M O R E T H A N N O A N S W E R A M O N T H M O N T H T O A Y E A R ( 2 6 . 2 8 % ) A Y E A R Cost of attention or moving 8% Amongst the respondents with school aged children,
Not having health Insurance 7% more than 75 per cent of the children that had been in Trinidad and Tobago for more than a year still didn't had access to formal education. Language 6% When asking if the children were properly following
Look for private assistance 5% their vaccination schedule, for a third of the children with less than five years the answer was no.
Distance to health center 3% Graph 22: Was the Vaccination Schedule Being Followed?
80 per cent expressed that they did not have any No Yes chronic medical condition, 20 per cent mentioned suffering from chronic conditions like: back pain, 0-4 YEARS allergies, asthma, visual deficiencies and 36% 64% gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, more than 20 per cent declared that they were eating less than three 5-11 YEARS 14% 86% times a day.
92 per cent said that they had not received any institutional support. VIII. SUMMARY
93 per cent did have safe access to water, electricity Based on the data gathered from this study, it can be and sanitarian services. All comments gathered from suggested that Trinidad and Tobago was not just a the remaining 7 per cent were related to having water Transit Country for the Venezuelan flows. for everything except drinking, to have drinking water Approximately 83 per cent of Venezuelans they had to buy it separately. interviewed had intended to stay within the country
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT VIII
MONITORING VENEZUELAN CITIZENS PRESENCE: Round I September 2018 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
indefinitely. Of the remaining 17 per cent, the majority privacy at their accommodations by the time of the planned on returning to Venezuela. interview. 80 per cent of the cases school-aged children did not have access to formal education, and Over 80 per cent were less than 40 years old. Two in more than 50 per cent of the cases had complaints thirds of the interviewed were men and 35 per cent about being discriminated. married. ______46 per cent surveyed persons had obtained at least a technical certification, and most of the others had The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout the report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the completed secondary education. Assessed individuals part of IOM concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or were mostly traveling with their family, where again area, or of its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.
over 80 per cent of the companions were less than 40 IOM is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration years old, and when they were older than 25 years old, benefits migrants and society. As an intergovernmental organization, IOM over 40 per cent of the companions were at least acts with its partners in the international community to: assist in the meeting of operational challenges of migration; advance understanding of technicians as well. Also, the significant number of migration issues; encourage social and economic development through more than four dependents back in the country of migration; and uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants.
origin was mentioned. When quoting, paraphrasing or in any way using the information mentioned in this report, the source needs to be stated appropriately as Construction was the most mentioned source of follows: “Source: International Organization for Migration (IOM). employment, over two thirds, while Commerce took Monitoring Venezuelan Citizens Presence: Trinidad and Tobago. September 2018”. the secondary position with a fifth. A half with a salary lower than the minimum in the country. The legal International Organization for Migration (IOM) Temple Court 2, 50-62 Abercromby Street status was Irregular in most cases, and over 80 per Ministry of National Security, Port of Spain, cent were making efforts to become asylum seekers in Trinidad and Tobago Tel: +868 627 69 69 Trinidad and Tobago. Fax: +868 625 50 09 E-mail: [email protected] Passenger boats were the main transport means for a Website: www.iom.int/countries/trinidad-and-tobago flow where 70 per cent of the people were not having
This activity was financed by:
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION WWW.IOM.INT IX