Young must apologise to deported children

THE EDITOR: For the fifth time in the last five years, I am totally ashamed to be a citizen of TT. It matters not that I reside in England.

When I read about the treatment of several Venezuelan children – one just four months old – I felt sick. I couldn’t have cared less if they were immigrants, asylum seekers or illegal.

You don’t treat people so. You do not treat helpless children in that way – throw them on a fishing boat and set them out on rough seas. I mean, who was jumping out to save the four-month-old if s/he fell into the sea? This is pure nonsense! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I viewed photographs of a man holding the four-month-old up coming off the fishing boat in high water.

The children were treated in a cruel, inhumane and unusual way. It is utterly ridiculous for National Security Minister Stuart Young to pull some verbal sleight of hand, arguing that they were “escorted” and not “deported.” He is a lawyer, so what? Does the law and politics rob him of his ability to feel shame? I have to wonder.

In England we saw a similar legal sleight of hand by Dominic Cummings (the Prime Minister’s chief adviser) trying to justify breaking covid19 restrictions, arguing that when his eyesight was failing he had to take a drive to a castle to test out his eyesight. The whole of the UK was totally flabbergasted at the audacity of such an idiotic explanation, and soon the memes told of the outrage of the UK.

The Venezuelan children – whether illegal or not, whether citizens or not – have several rights protected by the TT Constitution and several treaties to which TT has signed up to. So how can Young pull some argument to justify what happened? He can’t and his confused brain is ill-becoming a Minister of National Security with the overall responsibility for this matter. The buck stops with him. He would be making a bigger fool of himself if he continues along his chosen line. But he doesn’t seem to care. He must have skin like a crapaud.

The State has to take responsibility for the prima facie breach of the Venezuelan children’s rights. Young, take my advice: do the honourable thing; apologise to these children now and cough up some generous compensation along with a commitment to respect their rights. No delay.

DR RUSSELL D LUTCHMAN

consultant forensic

psychiatrist, UK