Venezuelans repatriated from Trinidad and Tobago

More than 700 Venezuelans returned to their homeland on Sunday after being repatriated from Trinidad and Tobago.

At the eastern coast of Venezuela, on the port of Guanta, some 330 km east from Caracas, a Venezuelan commercial ferry transported hundreds of Venezuelans who left Trinidad & Tobago for lack of employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I didn't have the capacity to take care of my son," said Valentina Itriago, a repatriated Venezuelan who worked cleaning houses in Trinidad and Tobago. "I had already been out of work for 3 months, rents were super expensive. It was time to go back."

The Venezuelan government began a repatriation plan called "Return to the Fatherland" in 2018 and since then, more than 25,000 Venezuelans have been repatriated from other countries in the region such as Peru, Ecuador and Chile.

This return of Venezuelans from Trinidad and Tobago is the first voluntary repatriation to be done by sea.