As Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa takes aim at Ja­maica, the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs says it has been work­ing with the Min­istry of Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing and Caribbean Air­lines to co­or­di­nate ef­forts to as­sist na­tion­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly stu­dents, seek­ing to re­turn home. It al­so says the arrange­ment en­sures that those wish­ing to leave are giv­en pri­or­i­ty on the na­tion­al car­ri­er.

The state­ment came amid con­cerns raised by some par­ents and calls by the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) for Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to take im­me­di­ate ac­tion to as­sist Trinidad and To­ba­go stu­dents in Ja­maica as Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa ap­proach­es.

On Sat­ur­day, the PNM said stu­dents were fear­ful and un­cer­tain about their safe­ty, and it called on the Gov­ern­ment to en­sure con­tin­u­ous con­tact with uni­ver­si­ty ad­min­is­tra­tions and stu­dent rep­re­sen­ta­tives. The Op­po­si­tion al­so crit­i­cised the Gov­ern­ment’s re­sponse and said the wel­fare of na­tion­als abroad must be treat­ed as a na­tion­al pri­or­i­ty.

In its state­ment, the Gov­ern­ment said it was mon­i­tor­ing the progress of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa as it moved through the Caribbean Sea. It al­so as­sured that the safe­ty of na­tion­als re­mains its high­est pri­or­i­ty.

Ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cial fig­ures, there are cur­rent­ly 268 T&T stu­dents in Ja­maica un­der the Schol­ar­ship and Ad­vanced Train­ing Di­vi­sion (SATD) and Gov­ern­ment As­sis­tance for Tu­ition Ex­pens­es (GATE) pro­grammes. Of these, 69 are bur­sary re­cip­i­ents, five are pur­su­ing CAPE stud­ies, 179 are un­der GATE, and 15 are at­tend­ing UTECH.

In a state­ment is­sued on Sat­ur­day evening, the for­eign min­istry said a mes­sage was sent last Thurs­day invit­ing stu­dents to in­di­cate whether they wished to re­turn home be­fore the storm. Sev­en­ty-two stu­dents re­spond­ed in the af­fir­ma­tive, 13 in­di­cat­ed they would re­main in Ja­maica, and 183 did not re­spond. Those choos­ing to stay re­port­ed be­ing safe in res­i­den­tial homes or on-cam­pus halls at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies.

The min­istry al­so re­vealed that Caribbean Air­lines op­er­at­ed two spe­cial non-stop flights from Kingston to Trinidad on Fri­day. Flight BW415 de­part­ed at 11:25 am with 38 open seats, while BW405 de­part­ed at 10:30 am with 121 open seats.

On Sat­ur­day, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the T&T High Com­mis­sion vis­it­ed the UWI Mona cam­pus to dis­trib­ute food items to stu­dents in all halls of res­i­dence. The Charge d’Af­faires and the pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Stu­dents As­so­ci­a­tion over­saw de­liv­er­ies us­ing a list com­piled by the stu­dent body. A de­liv­ery was al­so made to a stu­dent of Ed­na Man­ley Col­lege, a state­ment from the min­istry added.

It fur­ther re­vealed that the Gov­ern­ment of Bar­ba­dos re­quest­ed that Bar­ba­di­an na­tion­als be ac­com­mo­dat­ed on T&T’s car­ri­er, and that the re­quest was fa­cil­i­tat­ed.

The min­istry has urged all na­tion­als in Ja­maica to fol­low of­fi­cial ad­vi­sories and re­main alert to up­dates from the Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice of Ja­maica and the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Emer­gency Man­age­ment. Na­tion­als have been re­mind­ed to pri­ori­tise per­son­al safe­ty, avoid coastal ar­eas, pre­pare emer­gency sup­plies, and main­tain com­mu­ni­ca­tion with fam­i­ly and of­fi­cials.

For fur­ther as­sis­tance, na­tion­als can con­tact the High Com­mis­sion in Kingston or the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs in Port-of-Spain.