BO­BIE-LEE DIXON

(bo­bie-lee.dixon@guardian.co.tt)

Dis­ap­point­ment, frus­tra­tion, and fear are the emo­tions be­ing felt by the 109-mem­ber group of T&T na­tion­als strand­ed in the US.

They have been de­nied en­try in­to their home­land, de­spite meet­ing all re­quire­ments for ex­emp­tion.

Dr Alana Bel­con, vis­it­ing pro­fes­sor and co­or­di­na­tor of the group told Guardian Me­dia, the group’s lawyer was cur­rent­ly in the process of draft­ing a re­sponse to Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young.

This ac­tion fol­lows the de­nial of a re­sub­mit­ted ex­emp­tion pack­age by the group on Thurs­day to the T&T Gov­ern­ment, even though all re­quire­ments were met and some in the group was even will­ing to pay for their COVID-19 manda­to­ry quar­an­tine, up­on re­turn—a move by the Gov­ern­ment to be in­duct­ed for re­turn­ing na­tion­als who were con­tract­ed to work abroad.

On Wednes­day dur­ing the Min­istry of Health’s COVID-19 up­date me­dia brief­ing, Health Min­is­ter Ter­rance Deyals­ingh sig­nalled, the Gov­ern­ment was con­sid­er­ing the move Ja­maica took —pay­ing a small fee for the coun­try's manda­to­ry quar­an­tine.

In a sub­se­quent state­ment from the Min­istry, it said in a re­lease, the Gov­ern­ment will seek pay­ment for quar­an­tine pro­vi­sions from com­pa­nies that have hired T&T na­tion­als who have com­plet­ed their con­trac­tu­al oblig­a­tions.

Bel­con said in the group’s let­ter its flight char­ter in­for­ma­tion as well as quotes from ho­tels in Trinidad will­ing to quar­an­tine the group were all stip­u­lat­ed.

She not­ed how­ev­er, there were some in the group who could not af­ford to pay for quar­an­tine, but they were in the mi­nor­i­ty.

“Ac­tu­al­ly 80 per cent of our mem­bers said they would find the mon­ey to pay for quar­an­tine if that is what it would take for them to be able to come home,” Bel­con said.

The pro­fes­sor re­mains puz­zled as she re­it­er­at­ed all the nec­es­sary in­for­ma­tion was pre­sent­ed to the Min­is­ter and the group was still de­nied. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, with no giv­en rea­son for the re­jec­tion of the group’s ex­emp­tion re­quest, this has left them more con­fused.

Bel­con ex­plained, “Orig­i­nal­ly we were think­ing, based on the press con­fer­ences we were of the opin­ion that the Gov­ern­ment is re­al­ly try­ing to man­age the num­ber of quar­an­tine spaces, that is why we came up with a pack­age that would al­low us to use a ho­tel for quar­an­tine so we would not be tak­ing away from the state quar­an­tine spaces. But we were still told no.”

She said at this junc­ture it was now not un­der­stood what re­al­ly was the cri­te­ria that the Gov­ern­ment was us­ing to give ap­provals or re­jec­tions be­cause all re­quire­ments were cov­ered.

Minister of National Security, Stuart Young

She said the group’s lawyer was al­so draft­ing a re­sponse in which some of the ur­gent cas­es were be­ing high­light­ed of the T&T na­tion­als who are strand­ed in the US.

“We have a stu­dent who has ten more days be­fore she has to va­cate her dorm and then she would be on the streets. So we are just try­ing to high­light some of the ur­gent cas­es and ask the Min­is­ter to please give us ex­emp­tion. And if an ex­emp­tion can­not be giv­en, could help be giv­en to these in­di­vid­u­als?”

Bel­con said one of the group’s mem­bers re­cent­ly spoke with the New York Em­bassy and was told there were 15 T&T na­tion­als strand­ed in the US who were now liv­ing in home­less shel­ters be­cause they have no al­ter­na­tive ac­com­mo­da­tion.

Asked what was the plan in the event their plea goes un­heard, Bel­con said there were lim­it­ed op­tions. “We have no rights in the US…we are not cit­i­zens of the US.”

She re­vealed, so des­per­ate were some mem­bers to re­turn home, they have even thought of go­ing to oth­er Caribbean is­lands that were open­ing up their bor­ders like Saint Lu­cia and An­tigua, search­ing their friends and fam­i­ly lists, to find a pos­si­ble out or even if they could get ho­tel ac­com­mo­da­tion there, as it would be more eco­nom­ic for them to be in the Caribbean than the US. But she said, there was fear to even make such a move, as it is not known when T&T’s bor­ders would re­open to those is­lands.

With the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in the US, Bel­con said it was even a more fright­en­ing time to re­main strand­ed. She said for the coun­try to un­der­stand ex­act­ly what T&T na­tion­als were fac­ing a Face­book group—Everyttc­i­t­i­zen­mat­ters— was formed by a mem­ber of the group who is spear­head­ing it, to high­light one sto­ry a day of a per­son who is stuck abroad. But she said all this would be in vain if they still do not get to go home.

A returning national from the Carnival Fantasy Cruise Ship proudly displays a natinal flag while leaving the Port of Port-of-Spain to be taken to the National Racquet Centre in Tacarigua Thursday.

KERWIN PIERRE

The group al­so sub­mit­ted an­oth­er ex­emp­tion yes­ter­day for an ad­di­tion­al 51 T&T na­tion­als who con­tact­ed Bel­con.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed Young on the mat­ter who in a What­sApp re­sponse said, the Gov­ern­ment had been very care­ful­ly man­ag­ing the bor­ders and the re­turn of na­tion­als to T&T. He said the Gov­ern­ment had thou­sands of ap­pli­ca­tions for ex­emp­tions to en­ter T&T.

“We are sym­pa­thet­ic to every sin­gle na­tion­al who wish­es to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go and the var­i­ous cir­cum­stances that many face. It is not an easy sit­u­a­tion. We are con­stant­ly work­ing to ac­com­mo­date the re­turn of our thou­sands of na­tion­als in a safe and con­trolled man­ner,” said Young.

He re­it­er­at­ed the bor­ders re­main closed as per the ad­vice of the Gov­ern­ment’s med­ical pub­lic health ex­perts.

“We are, and have been, man­ag­ing the re­turn of our na­tion­als. This ex­er­cise re­quires a care­ful bal­anc­ing of the num­bers that can be quar­an­tined by the state to en­sure that any pos­si­ble re-im­por­ta­tion of COVID-19 does not over­whelm our pub­lic health sys­tem des­ig­nat­ed for COVID cas­es. We are cur­rent­ly man­ag­ing the re­turn of na­tion­als from Guyana, Venezuela, cruise ships, oil­rigs, and our stu­dents in Ja­maica and Bar­ba­dos.” Young said.

He not­ed, there were hun­dreds of na­tion­als in those cat­e­gories that the Gov­ern­ment was cur­rent­ly re­turn­ing and en­sur­ing they were all state quar­an­tined and un­der state quar­an­tine su­per­vi­sion.

“The care­ful man­age­ment of the re­turn of our na­tion­als, all of whom will re­turn, is crit­i­cal to pro­tect the pop­u­la­tion in Trinidad and To­ba­go, as well as those who have re­turned and are in state quar­an­tine,” Young con­clud­ed.