Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has lament­ed the wors­en­ing brain drain in Trinidad and To­ba­go, dri­ven by crime and oth­er fac­tors, as she pledged to strength­en en­gage­ment with na­tion­als liv­ing abroad.

Speak­ing at a Re­pub­lic Day cel­e­bra­tion host­ed by the Per­ma­nent Mis­sion to the Unit­ed Na­tions and the Con­sulate Gen­er­al of Trinidad and To­ba­go at the Bor­ough of Man­hat­tan Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege on Sat­ur­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar es­ti­mat­ed that up to 700,000 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als re­side in New York alone.

“Aside from the im­me­di­ate so­cial im­pact of crim­i­nal­i­ty on our pop­u­la­tion, the eco­nom­ic im­pact and loss of our na­tion­als who have mi­grat­ed abroad be­cause of fear, is equal­ly un­de­sir­able, as we have lost some of our bright­est sons and daugh­ters who have cho­sen to live abroad,” she said.

The Prime Min­is­ter as­sured na­tion­als in the US that her gov­ern­ment is work­ing to make Trinidad and To­ba­go safer.

“We have com­mit­ted our­selves to pro­tect­ing every cit­i­zen while ad­dress­ing the root caus­es of crime. The Gov­ern­ment’s plans in­clude com­pre­hen­sive po­lice re­form, bet­ter train­ing, and mod­ern crime-fight­ing tools to re­store pub­lic trust in law en­force­ment. To­geth­er, we are build­ing a na­tion where every fam­i­ly can feel more safe and se­cure, and we are al­ready see­ing some pos­i­tive re­sults.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar promised to strength­en con­sular ser­vices for na­tion­als in the US. “We will fur­ther stream­line pass­port and doc­u­men­ta­tion re­new­al process­es, es­tab­lish le­gal aid part­ner­ships to pro­vide crit­i­cal sup­port dur­ing un­fore­seen crises, and work with our Con­sulates to broad­en our reach in cities with grow­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go com­mu­ni­ties,” she said to ap­plause.

High­light­ing the sever­i­ty of the brain drain, the Prime Min­is­ter not­ed that Trinidad and To­ba­go los­es tens of thou­sands of skilled cit­i­zens, re­sult­ing in hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars in po­ten­tial re­mit­tances and in­vest­ments.

She al­so high­light­ed the gov­ern­ment’s re­cent pas­sage of the Con­sti­tu­tion (Amend­ment) Bill, which al­lows in­di­vid­u­als to ac­quire cit­i­zen­ship through their grand­par­ents. “The new grand­par­ent rule opens doors for their de­scen­dants to re­turn with in­ter­na­tion­al ex­per­tise, cap­i­tal and com­mit­ment, coun­ter­ing our loss­es and con­tribut­ing to eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al re­new­al. Un­like trans­ac­tion­al cit­i­zen­ship pro­grammes, this amend­ment will forge stronger last­ing ties, turn­ing brain drain in­to brain gain, and an­chor­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s fu­ture on a foun­da­tion of gen­uine con­nec­tion and shared des­tiny.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­fend­ed her gov­ern­ment’s part­ner­ship with the Unit­ed States in tack­ling crim­i­nal gangs and nar­co-traf­fick­ers, ref­er­enc­ing her ad­dress at the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly.

“The fact re­mains that the Unit­ed States is the largest mil­i­tary pow­er in the world, and there­fore the avail­abil­i­ty of their mil­i­tary as­sets to ad­vance our coun­try’s na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in­ter­ests is wel­comed. Yes­ter­day, in my speech be­fore the Unit­ed Na­tions, I re­it­er­at­ed that while Trinidad and To­ba­go is firm­ly com­mit­ted to the tenets of mul­ti­lat­er­al­ism.”

The event was al­so held in con­junc­tion with Jaipur Foot USA and Bruhud New York Se­niors. An Ar­ti­fi­cial Limb Fit­ment Camp, or­gan­ised by Jaipur Foot USA, is sched­uled to take place in Trinidad and To­ba­go start­ing around Oc­to­ber 2, 2025, and will run for ap­prox­i­mate­ly 50 days.