US NO BETTER THAN US

The Prime Minister has asked whether the country which gave TT an “F” grade in the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report if they had handled their own migrant situation better than TT. A clearly annoyed Dr Rowley also asked whether TT would have received a higher grade if he had converted this country into a refugee camp.According to a US State Department report, TT remains a Tier 2 country as it did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas and had not yet secured any convictions under its 2011 anti-trafficking law.A Tier 2 country is one whose government does not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards. The report, however, said TT was making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with those standards.Addressing the official opening of phase 1 of the Chaguanas Traffic alleviation project, Narsaloo Ramaya Marg Road, Chaguanas, yesterday, Rowley wondered about the grade he would have given the US as “their own people” have compared their treatment of migrants to dogs and cattle.“I pick up the paper this morning and TT has been given an F by a US agency that manages or accesses or researches the whole question of the handling of migration in our country. We got an F they say.

“Well if I was marking their paper what would I give them? They have the same problem we have – thousands of migrants rushing your border wanting to come into your country because they see a greener grass on your side than on their side. That is the number one political issue in America.”

Rowley continued, “Children are dying on the border, some of them in cages, hundreds of people in a room that is built for ten, the temperature is 41 degrees and, of course, they have a bigger military, they have a bigger security system, they have an army, a navy, an air force and they got a bigger treasury than TT."How have they handled their situation better than ours?”He said TT had maintained an open border with Venezuela until last Monday when the country initiated its registration programme with 15,000 Venezuelans registered under the programme.“A little Caribbean nation like TT, we have 15,000 Venezuelans authorised now to be in our borders and we treat them like human beings within TT.”Rowley wondered how TT could improve its grade.“We get an F. Well God alone knows what we have to do to get an A, maybe we will have to put a placard in the middle of Caracas saying come to TT, land of milk and honey, we will take care of all of you in TT to get an A.”“Maybe if we had converted our little country, our little paradise, into a refugee camp, as we are being encouraged to do for a few dollars more we might have gotten a grade higher than an F.“We ladies and gentlemen, we mark our own papers and we make sure that TT do not become the football of those who believe that because we are small, because we are in the Caribbean, because we are in some difficulty, because the pressure if the Venezuelan situation was upon us that we would have been directed according to their analysis.”

This is not the first occasion the Prime Minister has taken a US government official/ agency to task as earlier in the year he criticised the US Ambassador to TT for describing TT’s relationship to the Nicolas Maduro administration as “deeply concerning.”The US has recognised Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s Interim President while TT, together with most Caricom states, have reaffirmed its commitment to non-interference and non-intervention in the affairs of sovereign states.Rowley also touched on defunct oil company Petrotrin saying Cabinet, at a meeting last Tuesday, had to appoint a team of “specialist people” to review the top ten proposals for use of the oil refinery.And citing the warm sunshine and gentle breezes at the site, he encouraged the audience to “enjoy the sunlight and enjoy the good day” and not and not “behave as though you live in a hell hole.“Trinidad and Tobago is a beautiful country and we are doing well in very difficult circumstances.”