Still stuck in T&T after exemption
Anna Ramdass (Express).While there are thousands of Trinidad and Tobago citizens stranded in foreign lands who have been sharing their pain and want to return home, there are also foreigners stuck here who are desperate to get out.
Alain Dejeans is a Canadian national who has an official exemption letter to leave Trinidad from the National Security Ministry but this document is currently useless as there are no commercial flights with borders closed and no word on more repatriation flights.
Dejeans said he is not alone and there are about 40 other Canadians who want to return to their homeland.
He is appealing to the Canadian government to help them.
“I have already received the exemption to leave Trinidad, but without a flight to Canada, I do not see how,” he told the Express yesterday via WhatsApp.
He noted that there are private charter flights to the neighbouring islands which are offered at astronomical costs but many cannot afford this.
“In addition to being obliged to go through a laboratory for the Covid test, which often does not deliver the results before your departure, these tests are expensive and do not guarantee your acceptance on your arrival, that’s why that I put all my efforts in order to request the Canadian government to charter a (flight of) direct repatriation. There are a lot of people waiting to come back to Canada!” he said.
Confinement and restrictions
Dejeans said for three years he spent an average of six months in Trinidad via his sail boat.
“I arrive on my sail boat stored at the Coral Cove Marina in Chaguaramas at the end of November and leave it in mid-April. My return period was called into question following the closure of the Trinidadian borders, I can even say that my stay took on a completely different appearance, confinement, restrictions of all kinds,” he said.
Dejeans said he immediately started the procedures with the Canadian High Commission in Trinidad which included registration on the list of Canadians abroad, request for an exemption to leave the island and contact with all the foreign community living on their boats in neighbouring marinas.
He said the process has been difficult.
Dejeans said according to the High Commission, there are six repatriation flights and it was very difficult for the Canadian Government to negotiate return flights to Canada with the Trinidadian Government.
“I was surprised to learn such a thing because I thought that between these two countries there was an unfailing tranquillity...still it is that of these six flights I was informed of the last two, one the day before flight and the second two days before,” he said.
“I live on my sail boat and it is on the water, when I return to Canada I cannot leave it on the water for safety reasons and I have to take it out and store it on the Coral Cove lot where it is then in perfect safety, this operation takes four working days, so impossible for me to board the flights offered at the last minute ... for months I have been going around in circles,” he said.
Going public
He claimed the Commission has indicated it will no longer organise repatriation flights.
“Subsequently, I registered on a private forum, opened a survey and collected more than 40 names of Canadians still here and who want to return to Canada, then I addressed myself through a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada to explain my situation, mentioned that there were several dozen Canadian nationals living the same thing and finding a quick solution so that all could return to the country. Today my letter remains unanswered,” he said.
Dejeans said he also contacted the US Embassy in Trinidad to ask if he could benefit from one of their repatriation flights but “they kindly answered no”.
Dejeans said he hopes going public with his story will trigger some intervention because he and his fellow Canadians want to leave Trinidad.
The Express tried to contact the Canadian High Commission however their system is automated and directed callers seeking information on immigration and repatriation questions to a website: travel.gc.ca for Covid-19 travel updates and information.
‘Going around in circles’: Canadian national Alain Dejeans
