Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Re­porter

gail.alexan­der@guardian.co.tt

Fa­cil­i­ties have been es­tab­lished to as­sist the 324 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als re­sid­ing in the Mid­dle East in com­mu­ni­cat­ing with the Gov­ern­ment.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie pro­vid­ed the up­date in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day while re­spond­ing to Op­po­si­tion leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les’ query on ef­forts to ex­tract or evac­u­ate T&T cit­i­zens amid the es­ca­lat­ing con­flict in the re­gion and re­ports of dis­tress among na­tion­als.

Je­re­mie, act­ing as For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter in the ab­sence of Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, who is at­tend­ing the Shield of the Amer­i­c­as sum­mit in Mi­a­mi, said the min­istry’s fo­cus has been on es­tab­lish­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions, co­or­di­nat­ing lo­gis­tics, and ar­rang­ing safe pas­sage in emer­gen­cies.

He not­ed that be­tween March 2 and 5, the min­istry re­ceived ten calls and 80 emails from na­tion­als in the Mid­dle East.

As part of its Cri­sis Re­sponse Pro­gramme, the min­istry has im­ple­ment­ed mul­ti­ple con­tact mech­a­nisms, in­clud­ing an emer­gency hot­line, email ad­dress­es, and a What­sApp emer­gency num­ber—18684994927—all avail­able on the min­istry’s web­site and so­cial me­dia plat­forms.

The min­istry has al­so up­dat­ed the Reg­is­tra­tion Sys­tem for Na­tion­als Abroad, en­abling cit­i­zens to reg­is­ter their pres­ence in the re­gion and re­ceive time­ly up­dates. T&T’s High Com­mis­sions in the Unit­ed King­dom and In­dia have been en­gaged to as­sist with com­mu­ni­ca­tions and sup­port for na­tion­als in the Mid­dle East.

Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als in the Mid­dle East

Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates 169

Qatar 108

Sau­di Ara­bia 42

Bahrain 5

Kuwait No record