Trinidad and Tobago may repatriate its students in Jamaica, but after the Hurricane. Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Sean Sobers says discussions to this end are ongoing, as he criticised so-called mischief-makers for spreading misinformation about the government's efforts. Rynessa Cutting has more.
00:00The vast majority of Trinidad and Tobago students who are still in Jamaica may be repatriated free of charge after all, but not before the hurricane makes landfall.
00:11There is a discussion right now, based upon whatever the aftermath, God, we hope, we pray to God that the aftermath is not bad, that in terms of an extraction, that the plane that will be sent to extract all of those who would be minded to leave at that point in time, there is a discussion surrounding comping that flight.
00:33I can't say if that is going to be the absolute position. I will wait until I get directions from the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, and once we liaise with the Chairman of Carlin, that issue.
00:44This comes following criticism from TNT students in Jamaica, who expressed hurt and outrage over the fact that their peers from other islands had been repatriated by their countries, while they were asked to pay for their flights home.
01:00Paying or comping for the flights for the students, yes, it was in fact something that was considered.
01:09Unfortunately, at this juncture, when we looked at, in terms of the response, the blast email that would have been sent out to these 268 students, when we only received, essentially, 72 plus 13, which is 85 students, leaving a balance of 183, who did not respond.
01:29At that juncture, we were of the opinion, listen, let's just get the planes out there, to say that we would send the planes for free, just like that, and we don't know if it would serve a greater number of persons.
01:44At that stage, we thought that it might not have been in the best interest to do it at that stage.
01:50But Soba sought to make it clear that the flights were discounted for the students, and he says this was communicated to them.
01:58Now, you would just say, what was the cost of the flights?
02:01No, I don't have the exact figure with respect to the cost of the flights, but I would admit that there was a cost associated with the flights.
02:11There was some degree of fee waivers to accommodate the students for the flights, so the flights would have been discounted, as far as my information is, from Caribbean Airlines.
02:25Minister Soba stressed that the government has been doing its part through the High Commission in Jamaica.
02:32Funds would have been sent to the High Commission in Jamaica, so that food supplies and provisions would have been purchased for the remaining students in Jamaica.
02:41Once they contacted the head of chancery, those foodstuffs would have been given to them, those provisions would have been provided to them.
02:49That exercise has been ongoing since Friday.
02:54There was also contact made with the campus registry for Mona, who also indicated clearly, listen, if there are students who, for whatever reason, would not have been minded,
03:06for whatever reason, would not have been minded to avail themselves of the flights, the campus is an extremely safe place to shelter in.
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