FORMER minister of foreign affairs Suruj Rambachan said yesterday the imposition of visa restrictions on Trinidad and Tobago nationals by the United Kingdom government was a “very unfortunate development”.
“Especially since the two countries share such friendly relations and cultural ties,” he said.
Rambachan said this visa requirement is going to impose a lot of problems for people who travel to India and the Middle East via London.
He said more than 4,000 people go to India for medical and other purposes.
Many Muslims also go on pilgrimages to the Middle East.
He told the Express he hoped that Amsterdam, which has now become an alternative route, does not follow suit.
Rambachan said he was “astonished” to learn that over 426 people from T&T applied for asylum last year.
“That should have raised a red flag in the Government. Was there an exchange of information between the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the UK government or its High Commission? What kind of discussions are conducted on a regular basis between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the High Commission? This brings into question how we are managing our foreign affairs,” Rambachan stated.
He said the Government should now engage in a detailed discussion with the UK on a case-by-case basis to find out who are these individuals seeking asylum and on what grounds are they basing their requests.
He said he would like to know to what extent the applications were legitimate and whether the UK government went about trying to find out from the authorities in Trinidad and Tobago whether the history of these people justified their request for asylum before it took the decision to impose the visa requirement.
“I would think that the UK should research with the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago which is where the asylum seeker is from, before determining whether this is a justifiable case,” he said in a phone interview.
PROTECTIONISM: Mervyn Assam
Former minister of foreign affairs and high commissioner to the UK, Mervyn Assam, noting yesterday that the UK policy was triggered by asylum requests, recalled that a similar situation existed in the late 1980s when a particular group of Trinidadians went to Canada claiming asylum. This led to the Canadian government imposing a visa requirement on Trinidad and Tobago, he recalled.
Assam, however, said he believed that this kind of action (of imposing restrictions on the entry of foreign persons) would happen increasingly worldwide because “there is so much confusion and turmoil in the world”. He said because of all the terrorist activities, the world was becoming increasingly more “protectionist” with respect to the screening of visitors, especially those claiming to be fleeing from persecution and other problems.
He said the populations in some of the large countries were also becoming more anti-immigrant as more “alpha right-wing” elements rise and as the economic situation in many countries tightened.
For small economies like Caricom, people will be seeking to leave to try a carve a future in the larger countries and “they are going to manufacture all kinds of excuses,” he said.
“There are hard times. We are living in a very difficult situation and you can’t predict because things are changing daily. Look at what is happening in the US as a result of the erratic policies of the new administration,” Assam said.
