Grenada sent 15 Haitians who arrived on the island last weekend back to Trinidad and Tobago. Immigration officials said they were not deported to the oil-rich Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
After being turned away from the Spice Island, the Haitians went back home on Monday night.
“They weren’t allowed on the island, but they weren’t sent away, so they were sent back to Trinidad on Monday night. Trinidad is the starting point for getting to Grenada, so that’s why they were sent back there,” said Superintendent Leroy Joseph, who is in charge of the Immigration Department.
Because of this, Port of Spain will now be in charge of their next steps.
Joseph said that the group, which was made up of seven women and eight men between the ages of 20 and 40, came here as tourists and did not ask for political asylum or refugee status.
At a news conference on Monday, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said that Immigration officers were able to find out that the Haitians would have been a burden on the public budget if they had been allowed to enter the state.
He said that because Haiti is a member of CARICOM, there are only a few reasons why a CARICOM citizen can’t get into the country.
“One is a cost to the public purse, and the other will be, in broad terms, a risk to national security,” he said. “In this case, it was only because of the cost to the public purse.”
“If you are not a citizen of Grenada and you come to Grenada, you can only stay at a hotel for at least one night unless you have a friend or family there. If you don’t have friends or family, you have to be able to afford a hotel for at least one night.”
