How I left Tobago in July 2020

THE EDITOR: I read the August 24 letter by Anthony White – headed “Imprisoned in Tobago since March 2020" – with interest but I am of the opinion that this person has not made much of an effort to leave. I was also stuck in Tobago after arriving in January 2020 and due to leave in April.

I eventually left at the end of July 2020 on a charter flight from Piarco to Amsterdam. This is a charter which was running once a month at the time and may still be running today and was designed to take out oil workers. I was made aware of this flight by the British High Commission.

In addition, the high commission organised a flight in June 2020 which I declined to take because of the way it was organised. The June flight was from Piarco to Barbados, where they collected other individuals from the islands before departing to London. I felt the covid19 risk might be higher

Not much can be done about the need to quarantine on arrival from a red-listed country. However, this is a relatively new development and I believe a lot of opportunity was available to leave prior to Trinidad being listed in the red zone.

EUGENE BOISSIERE

via e-mail