How a tiny island nation deals – or doesn’t – with 40,000 Venezuelans
“González, Rodríguez, Ospina!” Staff call out names at Trinidad’s main airport, as Venezuelans shuffle through to pick up tickets to the neighboring island of Tobago. But they’re not going for the beaches. They’re hoping to register for a special permit that will allow them to work legally here, and finally take them out of a high-stakes limbo.
A Caribbean nation of just 1.4 million, Trinidad and Tobago has struggled to deal with the influx of people from Venezuela, whose coast is just a few miles away. Some 40,000 have entered the country, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) – a drop in the bucket of the 4 million Venezuelans who have left in recent years.
Most have fled to nearby countries that have condemned Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s increasingly authoritarian regime.
Window of opportunityCracks in the systemMore stable future?
