Bring our stranded citizens home, please

THE EDITOR: I urge the National Security Minister and all government representatives to expeditiously bring our stranded citizens home.

TT’s borders were closed since March and many citizens found themselves on the wrong side. Simultaneously, the Government justified its decision as needing to contain the spread of covid19 and to prevent the overburdening of the health system. While the decision was justifiable at the time, much has changed since then.

With our borders closed, we moved into community spread, and we also adjusted our parallel health system into home quarantine. There is simply no reason why our citizens, equal to any other citizen within the borders at this time, should continue to be left outside.

With all their savings gone, the many accounts we read in the newspapers and on social media tell of broken people who have been reduced to poverty as their life savings go towards surviving another day in a foreign land. How can we continue to justify this? Are we punishing our citizens for being out of the country when travelling was a necessity in a then globalised world and not always a luxury?

I applaud the Foreign Affairs Minister's pronouncement of the many millions sent to citizens abroad. However, I must point out, in a time when judicious financing is essential to our nation, this expense be reduced and avoided by urgently implementing protocols and sending repatriation flights for our citizens.

Let us not delay this critical duty. Our citizens need us.

VEDAVID MANICK

via e-mail