RYAN BA­CHOO

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Sen­a­tor Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh "has fall­en hook, line and sinker" for the Op­po­si­tion’s “re­ac­tionary” in­put in­to the na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion sur­round­ing the repa­tri­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als in Syr­ia and Iraq.

Sen­a­tor Deyals­ingh wrote in a T&T Guardian op-ed on Fri­day:

“This hur­ried move [by the gov­ern­ment] might be viewed as an at­tempt to nul­li­fy the an­nounce­ment of Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who, one day be­fore, said she would repa­tri­ate strand­ed Mus­lims in the Mid­dle East.”

It fol­lows a meet­ing be­tween the Prime Min­is­ter and Nizam Mo­hammed, for­mer Amir Kwe­si At­i­ba and diplo­mat for­mer Am­bas­sador Patrick Ed­wards, on Mon­day 27 March 2023. The trio will func­tion as a Com­mit­tee ap­point­ed by the state’s Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil as a con­tact and Ad­vi­so­ry group to as­sist.

Dr Row­ley re­spond­ed via his Face­book page on Sat­ur­day morn­ing, stat­ing:

"Did you not see, read or hear the Con­ven­er/Chair­man Speak­er Mo­hammed, state very clear­ly that they had been at work and had been meet­ing with the af­fect­ed fam­i­lies and much of the lead­er­ship of the Mus­lim com­mu­ni­ty and many po­si­tions had al­ready emerged? Did you not see ref­er­ence to the fact that this group had al­ready been in con­tact with lo­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Turkey and Syr­ia, the main coun­tries where this is­sue re­sides?"

Dr Row­ley added: "Frankly, it takes more than a few hours to find and get the agree­ment of qual­i­ty per­sons to car­ry out as­sign­ments like this."

It was agreed at Mon­day's meet­ing that T&T’s na­tion­als will be repa­tri­at­ed from Syr­ia and Iraq.