POLICE in Trinidad yesterday apprehended 20 undocumented Guyanese during a sting operation in the Macoya community.

However, immigration authorities in the capital, Port of Spain, to whom the illegal immigrants were turned over, have given them a grace period to wind up their affairs, said an official at the Guyana Consulate on the island.

According to him, the Trinidad immigration officials took into consideration that the majority of those held have roots, in some cases children, in that country.

“They will not be allowed to stay but were given time to sell their belongings and purchase their travel documents to leave by a stated time,” he said.

Action by Police and Immigration to rid Trinidad of persons living there illegally is not new but the approach seems to be more structured than what is being reported in the other CARICOM State of Barbados.

Following Prime Minister David Thompson’s announcement, that illegal immigrants have six months, since June 1, to have themselves regularised, there have been reports of Guyanese being aroused from sleep and, when found with documents not in order, are being detained and deported.

Some deportees have complained that they are forced to pay their own air fares, so as to avoid being kept in detention for a long time, until the authorities can find a flight for them.

The issue is expected to be high on the agenda when CARICOM Heads of Government meet in Georgetown next week for their 13th summit.

Meanwhile, Trinidadian Police are still hunting three more suspects in the kidnap/murder of Guyanese nationals Narad Sukhu, 28 and Vinod Doobay, 22.

The two men who hailed from Canje, Berbice, had lived in St. Augustine and worked at a construction site not far from their home.

They were forcibly removed from their workplace on the afternoon of May 16 last, in full view of other employees, by heavily armed men and their bloated bodies, bearing gunshot wounds to the back of the heads, were discovered the following morning submerged in a river at an abandoned landfill in Felicity, Chaguanas.

Subsequently, two men, Govind Dhanesar, 23, a security consultant and Adesh Maharaj, 35, a salesman, were arrested and charged with the unlawful killings and remanded to prison.(WENDELLA DAVIDSON)