T&T students stuck for now

Any hope Trinidadian students stuck in Barbados at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) had of returning home during the COVID-19 pandemic is fading fast.

Their country’s National Security minister Stuart Young has advised that they should “shelter in place” as the twin-island republic had no intention of going back on a decision to keep its borders closed at this time. However, he has promised the dejected students who are running out of money, that they will be provided with care packages from as early as next week.

However, the stranded students in Barbados said while they laud the Keith Rowley government for protecting nationals already home, they felt as though their request has already been blown off.

The development comes a day after the 13 students in Bridgetown told Barbados TODAY they have been crying out for assistance from their government to get them home but they have not been getting any response.

During a media conference on Wednesday morning, Young said like the students in Bridgetown, there were hundreds more Trinidad and Tobago nationals from other countries and cruise ships who have been requesting exemptions to return to the twin-island republic. There are more than 330,000 Trinidad and Tobago nationals overseas at this time, he said.

Port of Spain closed its borders to non-nationals on March 17, and on March 23 the border was closed to everyone.

“This was not an easy decision or a decision we wanted to take but it was a very carefully thought through measure based on the medical advice and it has worked to protect the citizens,” said Young, indicating that the situation had been “weighing heavily” on him.

“Our position remains [for] the nationals outside to shelter in place. We understand it is going to be an inconvenience, difficult and painful in instances. Our measures with respect to exemptions are continuing in the strictest of ways. On a daily basis I receive a lot of requests for exemptions and each is carefully considered and dealt with in a very strict and procedural manner. We cannot open our borders,” he said.

Adding that almost everyone in Trinidad had a family member outside the country including him and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, Young said he was encouraging family members and those who could, to continue to assist those stranded or stuck in other countries.

However, insisting that he was reviewing each request on a case-by-case basis, Young stopped short of flatly dismissing the students’ pleas to return home, saying no number of lawyers could persuade him.

“I am happy to say that the Prime Minister has taken a decision and we have discussed it this morning; we started discussing it actually a couple days ago, with respect to our students at UWI at the various campuses. The prime minister has instructed the minister of finance to work along with the minister of education for us by Monday, to get care packages to either the various campuses in UWI – Mona and Cave Hill – or to embassies or high commissions, consulates or missions abroad, for us to be able to provide some level of relief to our students who are outside.

“The truth is that at this stage as much as you think it is inconvenient and we do have empathy, the best thing to do is to shelter in place and that continues to be our position,” Young explained.

“I will continue to look at your requests for special exemptions and no number of lawyers lawyering up and sending it to me is going to change anything. Every single one is looked at in a certain process and procedure.”

Insisting that the borders were closed to protect those already at home Young said “Any breaking of our border at this time has the potential to start the importation of the virus into our environment. And it won’t only put our frontline workers, but has the potential to put all of us at risk.”

Using Barbados as an example, Young made it clear that he would not allow other countries to use their space as a “springboard” for Trinidad and Tobago nationals to return home.

“We cannot allow other countries that have less restrictive points to infiltrate our border. It can’t be an entry point if you go to Barbados that you can then leave from Barbados and just jump on a plane and come across to Trinidad or put that pressure on us, because it will defeat all that we are doing here,” he added.

Without naming the country, Young said Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Dennis Mosses had sent a letter to one “CARICOM neighbour” advising them against allowing people to use their space to enter Port of Spain.

Reading the letter in part, Young said: “Please be advised that our borders currently remain closed to both our nationals and non-nationals and this measure should not be compromised. With the greatest of respect, we cannot have our decision to keep our borders closed compromised by nationals or non-nationals of Trinidad and Tobago using ‘this particular CARICOM country’ as a jumping point. We respect your decision to keep your borders open but as explained above, ours are closed.

“In the circumstances we request that you kindly respect our decision and not allow your offices to be used by those who may wish to compromise our current border measures,” it added.

In response, final year law student Shantal Seecharan told Barbados TODAY she understood the position being taken by Young and his government and the students welcomed any help they could get at this point, but they are somewhat disappointed.

She said some students were still concerned about being evicted from the apartments they were renting because the landlords depended on those rents to feed their own families.

“We lost hope for a second, but we are grateful that he has the intention of sending care packages for us. We are grateful for any help we can receive,” said Seecharan.

“We feel that we might have been dismissed to some degree because we are applying for a special exemption and we do look forward to him making contact with us as soon as possible . . . When he said we need to ‘shelter in place’ it is clear that he isn’t reading the circumstances in our applications and it is really hurtful that he doesn’t understand that some of us cannot pay our rent. Yes, we do appreciate the care packages, but we are concerned that we may not have a place to stay soon,” she said.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb