Over 139 for­eign­ers, who are cur­rent­ly re­mand­ed in T&T’s pris­ons and are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the cur­rent hunger strike, are now plead­ing with the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to al­low them to speak with of­fi­cials from their re­spec­tive Em­bassies.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that 96 of them are re­mand­ed pris­on­ers, while 43 of them are con­vict­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to a prison source, “The for­eign­ers are more se­ri­ous than lo­cals when com­ing to pass­ing di­ets and these things. They are all fed up of the con­di­tions in the pris­ons and want to high­light their is­sues with of­fi­cials from their em­bassies who they be­lieve will help them.”

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment dis­clos­ing the pro­posed hunger strike that was re­leased last week Wednes­day via the so­cial me­dia plat­form, the pris­on­ers are call­ing for speedy tri­als for those ac­cused of mur­ders; rea­son­able bail for pet­ty of­fend­ers; the im­me­di­ate re­lease of all re­mand­ed in­mates from Build­ing 13 at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison (MSP); cloth­ing and med­ica­tion re­quests from their re­spec­tive fam­i­ly mem­bers and a full-scale in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the al­leged gov­ern­ment in­volve­ment in ob­tain­ing and tor­tur­ing re­mand­ed pris­on­ers housed at build­ing 13 (MSP).

“ The im­me­di­ate re­lease of all re­mand­ed in­mates from Build­ing 13 who are fac­ing hu­mil­i­a­tion and a high lev­el of op­pres­sion by the same po­lice of­fi­cers who charged and ac­cused these in­di­vid­u­als for crimes they did not com­mit…they are in­no­cent un­til proven guilty. We are well aware that some of the po­lice of­fi­cers and prison of­fi­cers who are present­ly as­signed by the com­mis­sion­er of po­lice are in­fect­ed by the Covid-19 and are cur­rent­ly jeop­ar­diz­ing the lives of these in­no­cent ac­cused in­di­vid­u­als at Build­ing13,” it added.

The state­ment, which was be­lieved to have been pre­pared by a group of in­mates, claimed that Build­ing 13 is an “in­hu­mane en­closed en­vi­ron­ment per­fect for the breed­ing of the Covid-19.”

Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons, Den­nis Pul­chan when con­tact­ed con­firmed that some Venezue­lan re­fused to et their meals.

He added that any em­bassy of­fi­cial will­ing to come in and vis­it can feel free to do so as the TT Prison Ser­vice has “noth­ing to hide.”