SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

The moth­er of a 13-year-old Trinida­di­an na­tion­al who was de­nied pas­sage on the Galleons Pas­sage from St Vin­cent and the Grenadines to Trinidad last week is call­ing for the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter to in­ves­ti­gate.

Natasha James said her 13-year-old daugh­ter was ini­tial­ly cleared to board the ves­sel in St Vin­cent on April 14.

But the girl, along with two oth­er chil­dren, were soon made to dis­em­bark the ves­sel when it was found they were trav­el­ing alone. A to­tal of 75 na­tion­als were repa­tri­at­ed af­ter the ves­sel de­liv­ered aid to the vol­cano rav­age is­land on April 13.

For­mer Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young had said the Gov­ern­ment could not al­low mi­nors who had no su­per­vi­sion to board the ves­sel. He said fur­ther, no arrange­ments were in place in Trinidad for those three mi­nors to be re­ceived by ei­ther par­ents or guardians.

But James said that was not her daugh­ter's case.

“Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers had checked in my daugh­ter, she had re­ceived a stamp from SVG im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers and when the boat about to leave SVG she was board­ed on the ves­sel and the Im­mi­gra­tion called me and it was like min­utes to 11, telling me that the child have to come off the ves­sel," James told Guardian Me­dia.

She said she had made arrange­ments in Trinidad for her daugh­ter to be tak­en care of by her ma­ter­nal grand­moth­er.

But she said once the child board­ed, a woman who agreed to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for her on the jour­ney re­neged and the child was put off the ves­sel.

"It had one la­dy on the ves­sel she had agreed to be re­spon­si­ble for the chil­dren in quar­an­tine, she had signed some doc­u­ments I un­der­stand and all of that changed so they took her off the ves­sel."

Even so, James be­lieves her daugh­ter's health should be fac­tored in.

She said the teen has sick­le cell ane­mia and was be­ing ad­verse­ly af­fect­ed by the ash from the ex­plo­sive erup­tions of the La Soufriere vol­cano.

'She has full blown to sick­le cells, she can­not be ex­posed too much dust that is one of the rea­sons I was send­ing her for my moth­er. She was not feel­ing well at that time when she was about to go Trinidad. The dust was ir­ri­tat­ing her eyes, she had run­ny eyes, short­ness of breath, that is what I told the Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cer, out of all the chil­dren on the ves­sel, my child was ill so I didn't like what hap­pened," James said.

She said she be­lieves in the event of a nat­ur­al dis­as­ter like the ex­plo­sive erup­tions of La Soufriere, sick chil­dren should be giv­en pri­or­i­ty.

“She is a Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­al and I find it was dis­re­spect­ful and I find in the event of any­thing, the first per­son sup­posed to be board­ing a ship like that is the chil­dren, they leave all the big peo­ple on the ship and take off the child. I didn't like that sit­u­a­tion...I am ask­ing Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to look in­to this thing ,” James said.