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Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Transparent exemption policy needed

by

1688 days ago
20201229

Since the coun­try's bor­ders closed on March 22, the ex­emp­tion pol­i­cy im­ple­ment­ed by the Gov­ern­ment for cit­i­zens seek­ing to re­turn has been a con­tro­ver­sial and con­tentious one.

Many na­tion­als abroad have been clam­our­ing to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go - some for ur­gent rea­sons and oth­ers who just want­ed to be back in the safe­ty of their home­land.

The move by Gov­ern­ment to close the bor­ders was un­der­stand­able, as it sought to mit­i­gate against the spread of COVID-19 and the save the lives of those with­in the coun­try.

As coro­n­avirus cas­es be­gan to climb lo­cal­ly and the coun­try was placed on lock­down, ex­emp­tion re­quests be­ing grant­ed were hard to come by with good rea­son.

In an at­tempt to bring re­lief to those abroad, the Gov­ern­ment sent care pack­ages to stu­dents over­seas and re­ferred oth­ers to em­bassies or con­sulates in for­eign coun­tries for any as­sis­tance re­quired.

How­ev­er, many na­tion­als have been re­lat­ing har­row­ing sto­ries of be­ing strand­ed abroad with no mon­ey, no place to stay and ac­cord­ing to them, no re­sponse from of­fi­cials in their home­land to their re­quests to re­turn.

With news that the Prime Min­is­ter's youngest daugh­ter and now the son of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al were both grant­ed ex­emp­tions in­to T&T, it has opened up a Pan­do­ra's Box for oth­ers who are now ques­tion­ing how fair the ex­emp­tion process tru­ly is and why some re­quests are be­ing grant­ed quick­er than oth­ers.

In to­day's news­pa­per, both Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young in­sist the process is fair and ex­plained that it is not one of "first come, first serve" but in­stead based on a "case by case ba­sis."

Ac­cord­ing to Min­is­ter Young, close to 10,000 ex­emp­tions have been grant­ed and the pol­i­cy has al­so been mod­i­fied to re­quire na­tion­als to sub­mit a PCR test as part of the con­di­tions for the re-en­try to T&T.

Be that as it may, it could very well be time for more trans­paren­cy when it comes to these ex­emp­tion re­quests. For the thou­sands ap­ply­ing for ex­emp­tions, it is crit­i­cal that ap­pli­cants know the sta­tus of their ap­pli­ca­tions at all times and on what grounds their ap­pli­ca­tions have been grant­ed, de­layed, or de­nied at the point in time.

In ad­di­tion, the need for greater com­mu­ni­ca­tion is para­mount. In too many in­stances, na­tion­als abroad have com­plained bit­ter­ly about the lack of re­sponse from of­fi­cials to their pe­ti­tions. It is clear much of the furore sur­round­ing ex­emp­tions could be en­tire­ly avoid­ed if prop­er and com­pas­sion­ate com­mu­ni­ca­tion was in place to deal with the vol­ume of re­quests and queries, as cit­i­zens ea­ger­ly seek to re­turn to this coun­try.

It is no longer good enough to quote sta­tis­tics about ap­pli­ca­tions and ap­provals. In­stead, the time has come for a clear un­der­stand­ing of a process that is im­pact­ing the lives of cit­i­zens of this coun­try and their loved ones who are long­ing for their re­turn.


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