A to­tal of 170 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als flocked to the St Vin­cent and the Grenadines Cruise Ship Com­plex yes­ter­day hop­ing to be repa­tri­at­ed back to Trinidad.

They were hop­ing to board the MV Galleons Pas­sage, which docked in St Vin­cent on Tues­day and was ex­pect­ed to leave the is­land around mid­night on Wednes­day.

The ves­sel took re­lief sup­plies and a con­tin­gent of of­fi­cers from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to St Vin­cent on Tues­day.

Yes­ter­day, as they stood in line at the Cruise Ship Com­plex, the T&T na­tion­als seemed ready to make the jour­ney, with their bags al­ready packed.

One se­nior Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer said the repa­tri­a­tion ex­er­cise would not de­pend on who were grant­ed ex­emp­tions but on a first-come, first-serve ba­sis, once a valid T&T pass­port is pre­sent­ed.

The ex­er­cise be­gan at 2 pm and by 3.30 pm, 48 na­tion­als had been screened and ap­proved to re­turn to Trinidad.

There were dozen more, in­clud­ing young chil­dren still wait­ing in line and more na­tion­als com­ing in­to the com­plex as word of the repa­tri­a­tion ex­er­cise spread. The Galleons Pas­sage has a 400 pas­sen­ger ca­pac­i­ty but with COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions in place, in­ter-is­land fer­ries have been op­er­at­ing at 75 per cent ca­pac­i­ty.

How­ev­er, be­cause of the large num­ber of peo­ple, there was dif­fi­cul­ty en­sur­ing ef­fec­tive so­cial dis­tanc­ing as the ves­sel left for Trinidad.

Al­so re­turn­ing home on the ves­sel were three jour­nal­ists, sev­er­al im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers and an undis­closed num­ber of the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty con­tin­gent of of­fi­cers.

But while most were pre­pared to leave when giv­en the chance, some were not.

Trinida­di­an Matal­in Weekes was one of them. She told Guardian Me­dia she lived in the Red Zone since vis­it­ing the is­land in De­cem­ber 2019 and had to flee her home when La Soufriere be­gan to erupt ex­plo­sive­ly last Fri­day.

“I was scared be­cause I nev­er know any­thing about vol­ca­noes and all that, and I cried to hear the ex­plo­sion. In the night where I am in the camp it was very scary for me,” Weekes said.

She said she was stay­ing in a shel­ter with her hus­band and her in-laws.

Weekes lived in Sandy Bay and she said when the ex­plo­sive erup­tions be­gan last Fri­day, she left her home with noth­ing but the clothes she was wear­ing and her im­por­tant doc­u­ments.

“All I have is what I have on, all my clothes is up in Sandy Bay. The house was not de­stroyed but one of the bridges lead­ing back to Sandy Bay col­lapsed.”

Weekes said she want­ed to re­turn home be­cause she has been strand­ed in St Vin­cent since T&T’s bor­ders closed in March 2020.

But yes­ter­day she said she on­ly found out about the repa­tri­a­tion process a few hours be­fore it was sched­uled to start.

She left the camp and rushed to Kingstown, St Vin­cent’s cap­i­tal.

She brought her pass­port and id cards with her but with no cloth­ing, she was hop­ing she would be told an­oth­er ves­sel would re­turn to pick up those who could not make the first trip.

She said she hoped to re­turn to her home in Sandy Bay to re­trieve some of her be­long­ings be­fore leav­ing the is­land.