By Kamilah Morain │ OBMICA Research Associate
Since 2013, Trinidad and Tobago has experienced an increase in migrants from Venezuela owing to the social, political and economic instability which ensued following the death of Hugo Chavez. In response to these arrivals, international and local organisations began responding to migrant needs, providing humanitarian assistance, facilitating migrant integration as well as legal protection services. Largely overlooked was the area of statelessness with respect to children born to Venezuelan migrants in Trinidad and Tobago, or to mixed couples particularly where the mother is a Venezuelan national.
What follows is based on exchanges with affected families and Civil Registry personnel.
Nationality, Citizenship and Statelessness in Trinidad and Tobago.
In Trinidad and Tobago one can acquire nationality through one of three channels: by birth, by descent or by naturalisation. However, many Venezuelan couples encounter significant barriers when attempting to register the birth of their child and obtain birth certificates, thus significantly increasing the risk of statelessness.
In Trinidad and Tobago, it is technically impossible to be born stateless, since only the children born to diplomats while in the exercise of their duties in Trinidad and Tobago are not given nationality at birth. Nonetheless, practices, while not resulting in the legal deprivation of nationality under the law for these children, bar them from accessing rights and services due to them as nationals. If non-nationals continue to be impeded from registering the birth and obtaining birth certificates for their children born in the country, these practices over time may evolve into systemic discrimination against a particular group of children resulting in de facto statelessness.
The Birth Registration Process in Trinidad and Tobago
In Trinidad and Tobago, the successful completion of the birth registration process which results in the attribution of a birth certificate for the child is a straight-forward procedure.
When the child is born, the parents’ information is collected and housed in the hospital records along with all other pertinent information concerning the new-born. The parents are then required to present themselves at the Registrar’s office with valid national ID within the first 3 months of the child’s birth in order complete the birth registration process. If the child is born to foreign nationals, the foreign national must present a valid passport.
Upon presentation of these documents and verification of the information, the child is issued a birth certificate. If the child’s parents do not present within the 3-month limit, then their birth is automatically registered by the Registrar’s office based on birth records received from the hospital in its district, but the issuance of the birth certificate is only done once the parents or the mother present themselves at the Registrar’s office with their national ID document.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the child’s father can receive the birth certificate upon proof of marriage to the mother as well as his national ID document. Unmarried couples must present together to register the birth of their child if the father’s name is to appear on the document.
If birth registration is conducted outside of the 3-month window following the birth of the child, the parents must present affidavits and penalties apply. If the birth is registered within 3-12 months after the birth, then the parents must pay a 75 TTD penalty. Beyond one year the penalty rises to 100 TTD. These penalties apply only if the birth is not registered by either the hospital or the parent(s).
Challenges Faced by Venezuelan Migrant Families
One major challenge facing Venezuelan migrant families is the lack of valid national identification documents. Trinidad and Tobago is the only country, host to Venezuelan migrants that has not made special provisions to recognise the expired national ID documents of Venezuelan migrants. The registration card which was given to migrants during the regularisation process in June 2019 is not considered to be a form of national ID and therefore cannot be used for the purpose of birth registration nor to obtain a birth certificate.
In order to facilitate the registration of children born to Venezuelan migrants with expired documents, the Registrar’s office accepts the “reconocido de identidad” a document issued by the Venezuelan Consulate in Trinidad and Tobago which attests to the legal identity of the holder. This document comes at a cost of 50 USD per person and it represents a significant sum for most families wanting to register a child’s birth, particularly during the covid-19 pandemic where migrants have suffered immense job and revenue losses. Moreover, for individuals in the asylum process, contacting their embassy can put their claims for refugee status in jeopardy and expose them and members of their family to acts of state repression.
In the event where parents have a valid national ID document from Venezuela, this must be translated and the cost for translation reported by women vary from 50-200 TTD depending on the service provider.
The language barrier is another significant hurdle for most Venezuelan parents wanting to register the birth of their child as most do not have a good command of English. Many are therefore unaware of the procedure for registering the birth of their child and quite a few mothers had received misinformation about how the process is conducted. Covid-19 public health restrictions have also impacted the registration process and many parents and prospective parents were unaware of these changes which require parents to make appointments and pay for the delivery of birth certificates as well as other auxiliary services online.
Access to internet and the cost of remaining connected is quite substantial for many migrant families trying to get by. Many migrants live day-to-day, are unable to open bank accounts much less gain access to credit cards required for online payments. This means that for many the service remains out of reach.
Some reported paying up to 2000 TTD to “facilitators” who accompanied them through the process of registering the child’s birth, obtaining the birth certificate and the passport for the new-born. Others reported paying fees to “officials” within the Registrar’s Office even when the birth registration took place within 3 months of the child’s birth.
The Authentication of Documents for recognition by Venezuelan Authorities:
Once the birth certificate is issued, for it to be recognised by the Venezuelan authorities the documents must be authenticated. The documents must receive the apostil from the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs. However, the process of how to obtain the apostil is not always clearly understood by migrant families. Covid-19 public health regulations have meant that some of these services are only available by appointment which is obtained online thereby adding another layer of complexity for non-native English speakers and persons with lower levels of digital literacy.
The birth certificate and the apostil must then be translated by a public translator. Once this is completed, the documents must then be taken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive another apostil which will ensure that the document is deemed valid outside of Trinidad and Tobago and CARICOM. This apostil from the MFA also authenticates the translation before it is presented to the Venezuelan Embassy where it receives still another apostil. The latter according to parents is required in order for the child to be recognised as a Venezuelan national.
While the Ministries in Trinidad do not charge any fees for the apostil, the transportation costs are often cited by families as a barrier since many requiring the service live outside of Port-of-Spain where these seals are obtained. Whether a cost is attached to receiving the apostillo from the Venezuelan Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago remains unclear.
Why is birth registration and the issuance of the birth certificate so important?
Birth registration is extremely important, and Trinidad and Tobago has taken the steps necessary to ensure that all children born within its jurisdiction are registered within 3 months of being born. If the parents do not do it themselves then it is done automatically when the hospitals send through all information about births occurring in their facilities every quarter. This is vital because birth registration is the first step in providing a child with a legal identity.
Where things become tricky in Trinidad is that this first step is usually followed by the issuance of a birth certificate, but many Venezuelan parents are unable to obtain this document for their children who are born in Trinidad and Tobago. The birth certificate provides a form of legal recognition for the child and allows the child to access services, rights and protections guaranteed by the state of their birth.
Without the birth certificate children are unable to access school, they may have difficulty accessing health care and key social services. This represents a significant barrier for the child’s integration into the country of their birth and sets the stage for this group of children to be marginalised as gaps in procedures progressively transform into systemic discriminatory practices which then have detrimental effects on the lives of children.
Recommendations
- To address the risk of statelessness for this population, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago should make provisions allowing for the use of other forms of ID such as an expired passport or the migrant registration card to register a child’s birth. This approach has been adopted by numerous countries currently hosting large populations of Venezuelan migrants and has resulted in reduced risk of statelessness for children.
- Information about the birth registration process must be made widely available in Spanish and procedures for birth registration reviewed in order to eliminate barriers that adversely impact the birth registration process for Venezuelan migrant parents. Parents should be encouraged to register the births of their children regardless of their immigration status and guarantees should be given to ensure that the birth registration process isn’t used as a means to detain or deport those parents with an irregular immigration status.
Finally, it remains unclear as to why the Venezuelan Embassy does not automatically recognise the children born to Venezuelan parents as its nationals once it has been alerted of the birth and has certified the nationality and identity of the child’s parents as Venezuelan citizens. The absence of this immediate recognition puts the child at a greater risk of statelessness.