Although T&T has agreed to offer more assistance to Haiti, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said caution was raised against visiting the earthquake-devastated country. Manning estimated about US$2 billion would be required each year to rehabilitate and reconstruct Haiti. He said the Caribbean Community (Caricom) determined it would best engaged aid to Haiti through the construction of a field hospital in Haiti with "all that was required to man it." Manning was speaking at a news conference last night at the South Terminal of the Piarco International Airport on his return from a meeting of world leaders in the Dominican Republic earlier in the day. He said T&T would contribute to the materialisation of the hospital in Haiti after proposals for the institution were brought forward.
He added T&T would make another financial contribution to Haiti through a development fund proposed for the impoverished country at the closing session of the Fifth Summit of the Americas last year in Port-of-Spain. According to Manning, the fund was modified yesterday to invite all countries, as well as international agencies, to make donations. He said: "We were all committed to making whatever effort was necessary to rehabilitate Haiti. "In these circumstances, it is Haiti today. It could have been Trinidad and Tobago or it might be Trinidad and Tobago tomorrow... in circumstances such as these we have to be our brothers' keeper."
He said the deployment of Haitian refugees to other Caribbean countries would be avoided and that the two major concerns were the need for co-ordination of the international effort for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Haiti and the need to co-ordinate relief and rescue efforts on the ground in Haiti. Manning said: "Steps are being taken to put it in place but they were discouraging people going to Haiti and in the event that you did that, and you were able to get into Haiti, it was clearly suggested that you be self-sufficient: that is to say that you bring everything that you require: food, water, transportation; everything that you require, you have to bring.
"If you do not, then you are making a call on scarce resources that were identified for the benefit of the people of Haiti. "That is the reason why initially I did not leave Trinidad and Tobago. I did not attempt to go anywhere. I understood that situation very well. It is not the first time I have seen natural disasters around the world." Manning stressed that discussions among yesterday's meeting of leaders noted that Haitians had to spearhead the benefits that were being given to them. "Nobody was going to Haiti to impose anything on the Haitian Government and/or the Haitian people but the Haitian Government and the Haitian people must be intimately involved in all that is designed for their benefit," Manning said. He added that T&T proposed that debt-forgiveness was an idea taken up and included in the Santo Domingo declaration, which was the outcome of yesterday's meeting.