Saturday, January 26 2008

SIX nationals of Vietnam staying illegally in the country have been held by police attached to the Immigration Offices in San Fernando.

Immigration authorities described as highly unusual, the presence of Vietnamese in the country.

Last week Tuesday three Vietnamese were held at a house in Princes Town.

A police report stated that at about 9 am, Cpl Michael Marshall and WPC Hazel Lucien, confronted three men doing construction work at a house.

Investigations revealed that they did not return to their vessel which berthed at National Fisheries, Port-of-Spain. The men who are from Vietnam, were identified as: “Hoeng Van Thai, 31; Heong Van Toung, 32, Ngu Yen, 26.

The police officers journeyed to Cooper Street, where they arrested three others identified as: Le Qung Dung, 25, Nguy Ben Hoengu, 27, Le Quang Kein, 25. According to the report, they also came off a boat at National Fisheries. Immigration authorities in San Fernando were called in, but officers were hard-pressed to find anyone in the country who speaks the Vietnamese language.

While the men were kept in custody, personnel at the University of the West Indies and NEHERST were contacted, but no one who speaks the language could be found.

Immigration authorities checked its data to determine whether there were Vietnamese living in Trinidad, but to no avail.

Contacted yesterday, Acting Assistant Chief Immigration officer, Lennox de Leon, said that Trinidad and Tobago was not a destination for Vietnamese and there presence was highly unusual. The men, he added, would be repatriated back to Vietnam.