(Trinidad Express) As Covid-19-positive cases continue to rise daily by the dozen, homesick Trinidad and Tobago students enrolled in foreign universities are concerned about the availability of departing flights as borders are closed.
Students who are required to arrive in their respective institutions to begin the academic year continue to await departing flights from Trinidad and Tobago.
Some students told the Express that despite having applied via a Caribbean Airlines form issued earlier this year, they have been excluded from scheduled lists for departure.
The form, which collected the names and information of those who wished to leave the country, expired on the evening of July 28. One flight has since left the country on August 8, on which selected students were allowed to depart.
At a news conference in Port of Spain last Saturday, National Security Minister Stuart Young assured students that additional flights would be scheduled through Caribbean Airlines.
“To those students who want to leave—because there are anxious parents messaging me— we are going to put on some flights for them to leave for them to get to points of transportation, either in the United States, maybe even to Barbados.
Of course, flights are now probably going to have to return empty at this stage until we can manage to take people into our quarantine facilities. Everyone who wants to leave is going to be permitted to leave,” he said.
No notice
However, according to student Ainsworth Grant, to date no notice has been given to the remaining students about when these indicated flights would be available.
Grant, who is a student on scholarship at a university in the United States, said all processes of applying to leave were followed.
He was granted an exemption by the ministry to leave the country and applied through Caribbean Airlines to be on a departing flight.
However, having already missed a significant chunk of his athletic training, he is worried his status will be affected by his absence.
“My school semester will be starting on the 31st of August. My pre-season has already started. With the last student flight there was a list, but my name was not on that list.
“There are many of us because there are at least 20 that I know of right now. Apparently, there was a list that you needed to be on to get on that August 8 flight, but none of us was on it,” he said.
“I went through the whole process of getting the exemption. I was given the exemption to leave and then I had to find flights to get out.
There was one JetBlue flight through the US Embassy, but at a cost of US$1,000. This was too expensive and it was to land in Miami, from which I would have to source other flights to my university in Wisconsin,” he said.
In search of more information, he said he repeatedly contacted the offices of Caribbean Airlines and the Ministry of National Security. However, no response has been received.
What process?
Earlier in August, a student in a similar situation, who did not want to be named, contacted the Express.
Having been omitted from the list of students scheduled to have left on August 8, the student told the Express there are approximately 200 similar cases awaiting word from Caribbean Airlines and the Ministry of National Security.
The student said upon enquiry from Caribbean Airlines, she was told the ministry had chosen from the pool of names gathered by CAL when the initial form was released. These names were prioritised and scheduled to depart.
“I reached out to Caribbean Airlines to find out why. They issued a form a while back to get an idea of how many students there were who needed to go back. I had put the date I needed to return as 12th of August as I thought I would have time to quarantine and get tested before I returned.
“I reached out to Caribbean Airlines and they told me that they gathered the information and gave the names to the Government. The ministry picked the names and scheduled them for that flight for the 8th of August and I am not on it,” the student said.
As a result, this student said they would face eviction and the potential loss of funding towards their degree.
“I’m in a situation where I would have to resign from my job, I would not be able to receive my scholarship anymore, I may have to lose housing. I am in a really bad situation now, seeing that I am not on the list.
“I find it hard to understand the verification process for deciding who must go and who gets first preference. Right now, I am in a group chat with 200 people and half of them are not on that flight’s list,” said the student.
The Express contacted Caribbean Airlines to gain insight on the process of selection and how many students were still in need of departing flights. We were told our questions would be answered, however, no immediate response was received.
The Express also contacted National Security Minister Stuart Young on two occasions to ask about the process behind selecting students for departure. On both occasions, no response was received.