Seek help to get our people home

THE EDITOR: I had every intention of waiting until Saturday's Prime Minister-led press conference (by my count we're due for one on that day) because I am still hopeful to hear certain things announced. But this could not wait.

The repatriation system, whatever it may be, being used for our nationals is simply not working. I read of an elderly man dying abroad while waiting for months to be allowed home. I also read a post on Twitter that showed, with evidence, a young woman being finally granted permission after seven months and, to her unimaginable horror, only to receive an e-mail rescinding that permission.

Inexplicably, irrationally and miraculously, I have also read the "harrowing tale" of a young chef being allowed to leave the country to assume duties on a yacht in Spain during the border closure, only to apply to return last month and, somehow, having the good fortune to do so ahead of those waiting for months – those who missed burials, birthdays and time with their families.

Others have yet to even receive a response or acknowledgement of their application, far less knowing their fate.

A dear friend, a Trini immigration attorney in Atlanta, shared with me that although he has been waiving his fees to stranded nationals, the cost of the application for a visa extension is a staggering US$455, which most of the people who come to him simply cannot afford.

He spoke of nationals sleeping in pavilions and other outdoor spaces because they have, so many months later, run out of money to stay anywhere else or to get to family or friends in other places in the US. A reminder that winter is coming.

This is not working. This is not right.

While I can only trust that the Government wants to do right by their citizens, part of that doing right is the acknowledgement that the current system is broken.

I truly believe the issue here is capacity. The Ministry of National Security is not a dedicated logistics agency, which is exactly the expertise needed to move the number of people scattered all over the world back home, in shortest order, while giving enough time and space for quarantine facilities to process them and get ready for other incoming nationals.

A logistics company can work with the national carrier (and others) to get this done. This is simply, and some seven months later, demonstrably not able to be done by public servants properly. Truthfully, that's OK. Who knew this would ever become part of their job description....on top of their day-to-day ministry work? But it's time to change this.

I appeal to the Government, please, for the sake of nationals and their families, award an urgent tender to the logistical experts in the country. We have the know-how and ability, particularly in the energy sector where this exact thing is done daily.

Let's get our people home.

NYSSA PIERRE

via e-mail

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"Seek help to get our people home"

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