Ramadhar helping 30 more to return to TT

ATTORNEY Prakash Ramadhar is helping about 30 more nationals to returning to Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking to Newsday by phone, he said he is guiding nationals who are in India, United Kingdom, the US and several Caribbean countries onhow to apply for exemptions to TT's border closure.

He is working with attorneys-at-law Michael Rooplal and Diana Singh.

"We are also looking after their interests and the possibility in relation to exercising certain other rights."

He said that every day more nationals abroad reach out to him for help.

Ramadhar represented 33 people who arrived in Barbados and seeking to return to TT after the borders on March 22. The group returned on April 21, were placed in 14-day quarantine at the National Racquet Centre, Tacarigua and were discharged on May 5.

Asked if he was still representing the Barbados group Ramadhar said they are back and safe and have not indicated any willingness to pursue any legal claim.

He also spoke of the Barbados group in a release on Tuesday and said when the Barbados government arranged for a Condor flight coming to Tobago to bring the citizens home free of charge, permission was refused.

"Then again when those 33 had to spend US$25,000 to charter two flights back with a capacity of 60-odd seats, they came in with 33. They had offered to bring home,free of charge, the students in Barbados, and another couple who had gone there on a four-day budget under a loan for medical treatment, and are still there, facing the chilling winds of no resource and a country that does not wish them to return. Missed opportunities to show who we are."

He recalled on Monday, while the country observed the Eid holiday,when the Disney Fantasy Cruise Liner delivered some citizens onto TT's shores, "There was a moment of human anguish that was relayed to me, and I thank the Attorney General for his last-ditch efforts to assist."

He said the mother and father of a seven-year-old and three-year old arrived as crew members of the Disney Fantasy. While the mother was allowed to disembark, he said, the father, a Jamaican who had filed his papers to obtain residency here, was not allowed to leave the cruise ship with his lawfully-married wife to return to his home, his family and to his children.

"Turning a Disney Dream into a TT nightmare. It appears that what God has put together, our authorities have put asunder. Who will look into the tear-filled eyes of these young children and explain to them the policy of our Government and the decision not to allow their daddy to come home? The pain and hurt caused by something as simple as an acknowledgement of his entitlement to be here with his family marks us as to who we are in times of crisis."

He said, however, that this situation is not singular. He noted the return of businessman Derek Chin, who at his own expense diverted a private flight to The Bahamas to bring with him "a sister in distress," Ramadhar said there were people in Miami, in similar circumstances, including Tobago businessman Jeffery Azar, who was willing to pay for himself and his wife to come to Trinidad, but was refused permission.

"That plane came with two passengers, with a capacity for eight, with tremendous expenditure of foreign exchange. I could only imagine the pain and hurt that the Azars and many others like them would have felt."

He noted that the British High Commissioner has said flights will be coming into Trinidad in the next several days to retrieve citizens of the UK.

Ramadhar said he and his fellow attorneys are willing to help co-ordinate with citizens throughout the world.

"Could we not have our authorities co-ordinate now, so that these flights do not come in empty, but assist our citizens, who would have great financial and logistical difficulties in obtaining flights on their own? What is the big problem here? Why can’t we do these simple things to help co-ordinate and bring our citizens home?"