Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

Ot­to.car­ring­ton@guardian.co.tt

As ten­sions in­ten­si­fy across the Mid­dle East fol­low­ing mil­i­tary strikes in­volv­ing the Unit­ed States, Is­rael and Iran, at­tor­ney Nafeesa Mo­hammed is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to ur­gent­ly as­sist Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als seek­ing to leave the re­gion.

Mo­hammed said the es­ca­lat­ing con­flict has height­ened the risks for cit­i­zens liv­ing and work­ing across the Gulf and warned that au­thor­i­ties must act de­ci­sive­ly to en­sure na­tion­als can re­turn home safe­ly.

Her com­ments come as Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sean Sobers con­firmed that the Gov­ern­ment has al­ready as­sist­ed sev­er­al na­tion­als at­tempt­ing to leave ar­eas af­fect­ed by the con­flict.

Min­is­ter Sobers said on­ly a small num­ber of cit­i­zens have re­quired di­rect evac­u­a­tion sup­port so far.

“I think to date, we’ve fa­cil­i­tat­ed maybe about two or three per­sons,” Sobers said. “It’s not a large amount, be­cause the ma­jor­i­ty of them ac­tu­al­ly live and work in the re­gion. They just re­al­ly want­ed to know that Trinidad and To­ba­go was there… this ad­min­is­tra­tion was there for them, and we are.”

The con­flict in­ten­si­fied af­ter co­or­di­nat­ed Unit­ed States and Is­raeli strikes on Iran­ian tar­gets in late Feb­ru­ary, prompt­ing re­tal­ia­to­ry mis­sile and drone at­tacks across the re­gion and wide­spread dis­rup­tion to air trav­el and civil­ian move­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to Sobers, the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs has been main­tain­ing con­stant com­mu­ni­ca­tion with na­tion­als across the Gulf, large­ly through mes­sag­ing plat­forms.

He said em­bassy of­fi­cials have joined sev­er­al What­sApp groups used by T&T na­tion­als liv­ing and work­ing in the re­gion to pro­vide up­dates and guid­ance.

The Gov­ern­ment is al­so work­ing with in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners to es­tab­lish safe evac­u­a­tion routes should con­di­tions wors­en.

While wel­com­ing those mea­sures, Mo­hammed said the Gov­ern­ment should take a broad­er ap­proach to pro­tect­ing na­tion­als abroad.

“I am glad to hear the min­is­ter an­nounc­ing that per­sons can con­tact the Lon­don High Com­mis­sion,” she said. “But we must move quick­ly to en­sure that all na­tion­als who want to leave the re­gion can do so safe­ly.”

Mo­hammed al­so used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­new her call for au­thor­i­ties to repa­tri­ate 72 Trinidad and To­ba­go chil­dren and 25 women who re­main in de­ten­tion camps in north­east Syr­ia.

She said with in­ter­na­tion­al mil­i­tary forces still op­er­at­ing in parts of the re­gion, there may be an op­por­tu­ni­ty to work with part­ners to fa­cil­i­tate their re­turn.

“To me, you have to beat the iron while it’s hot,” Mo­hammed said. “Now is the time for the Gov­ern­ment to act to pro­tect all our na­tion­als.”