Raffoul: I am concerned about Venezuela, China deals

INDEPENDENT Senator Jennifer Raffoul says she is concerned about this country's deals with Venezuela and China.

She made the comment while contributing to the budget debate in the Senate yesterday.

She spoke about the energy deal between TT and Venezuela, and noted Venezuela has been accused of major humanitarian crimes against its population.

"As a citizen, I feel quite concerned about that. Us in TT, we have been so lucky to have been welcomed by TT. None of us have a right to be here. None of us were Arawak or Carib. None of us are indigenous. We all came here by some stroke of luck and we built something and we had equal opportunity.

"So for us to send Venezuelan asylum seekers back to Venezuela for the sake of us doing an energy deal with their government, that just makes me feel hurt that we don't have values as a nation and that we are willing to compromise human rights of others and especially asylum seekers and to not have a justification for doing that other than an energy deal and being able to gain their gas resources. To me we really need to reassess our ideals as a country and what do we stand for when it comes to protection of international human rights."

Raffoul also said China has received multiple accusations of not operating in the best manner. She said a private sector individual said he would have been happy to build the La Brea port but were never approach.

She expressed concern some business people would concern migrating if the China deal went through because of the implications for this country's financial stability.