IN what is possibly the largest single award of damages ordered by a court, the State has been ordered to pay a Venezuelan boy a whopping $2.4 million for its “shocking and appalling conduct" in keeping him at the heliport in Chaguaramas for 456 days.
He was physically and psychologically harmed by the illegal detention, the court found.
Justice Margaret Mohammed made the order on March 22 in a stinging rebuke of the State’s actions both in its continued detention of the boy and its actions after his attorneys challenged it in various applications to the court, which eventually went to the Privy Council and back.
Mohammed, in ruling against the State, ordered the release of the boy and his mother. The two were part of a larger group which entered TT illegally in November 2020. They were escorted out of TT by the Coast Guard but returned days later. They were held again and detained in quarantine and then on deportation orders.
The boy was 13 when he was detained and 15 by the time he was eventually released.
The judgment detailed the "horrors" endured by the child while at the heliport, which was used as a detention centre for illegal migrants at the start of the covid19 pandemic.
In her ruling, Mohammed was critical of the State’s actions, calling them “egregious, shocking and appalling.”
She also said the State had two chances to release him from detention in his best interest, but chose not to do so, in “further proof that the defendants did not care" about his suffering. She said the boy could have been released to his father, and not doing so caused significant harm to their relationship.
In her 114-page decision on damages, the judge added, “The overwhelming evidence was that the treatment of the claimant became worse as his detention continued...
“Further, the claimant’s exposure to explicit sexual acts during his detention at the heliport also violated his innocence as a minor and corrupted his adolescence.”
She also referred to assessments that the boy became depressed and was not given proper meals or adequate drinking water while he was detained.
“The overcrowding of the quarantine and dormitory areas exacerbated the poor conditions in which the claimant was kept.
“The claimant’s life was put at risk on a daily basis…"
She pointed out that he did not violate any laws, as he had not decided to enter TT illegally and had not been charged with or convicted of any offence, but was treated as a criminal and his reputation significantly damaged.
Referring to various reports, she said the State knew the heliport was not suitable to detain any minor, having been told so on several occasions, over two years.
“Yet they intentionally and deliberately chose to disregard any of the recommendations made…”
She said the State “systematically ignored” any recommendation to improve the conditions at the heliport for the boy.
The effect, she said was “to cause the most suffering and harm on the claimant as he was a migrant child.”
State concealed evidence
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