(Trinidad Guardian) Those who are trying to enter this country illegally or bring in illegal arms and ammunition now run the risk of being intercepted by two brand new Cape Cross Coast Guard vessels.
The two vessels– TTS Port of Spain and TTS Scarborough– were built by Australian shipping company Austal and partly funded by the Australian Government as a part of a programme that assists islands with border security.
This was revealed yesterday by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who spoke during the launch of the vessels at T&T Coast Guard headquarters at Staubles Bay, Chaguaramas.
The Prime Minister said the two vessels are the latest investments in the protection of the country’s borders.
“This is not the first time we tried to address this problem because we knew from a long time ago that there is a need to address it in this way,” Rowley said.
He said there were several attempts in the past to secure vessels for the Coast Guard that can address the border security issues that T&T faces without success.
But he said these two vessels were built specifically to tackle the problem of porous borders.
The vessels are equipped to carry 27 Coast Guard officers and has capacity to carry 12 additional people. The vessels have a top speed of 20 knots and a 3,000 nautical mile range.
“Being able to stay out at sea for 28 days, it means that once we provision them here and set them out to sea, the oceans all around is their workplace for the next month, if they choose too. That gives us a flexibility and coverage that we’ve never had before in Trinidad and Tobago,” the Prime Minister said.
He said he will now sleep more comfortably knowing that the borders will be more secure. Rowley said areas of focus by the Coast Guard should be the Colombus Channel, the Western Peninsula and around Tobago.
“I am confident that if you organise these patrols in the way that you could, using the technology and the common sense the borders of Trinidad and Tobago will now be known to be more secure to all comers and that you enter illegally at your peril.”
He said the vessels now give the commanding officers of the Coast Guard the ability to rotate vessels that need to be repaired to ensure the country’s territorial waters are secure.
Rowley also urged those commanders to ensure the new vessels are well-maintained.
He said they represent a significant investment by taxpayers and should be treated as such.
“Without a proper maintenance programme, all our efforts will eventually end up in vain but with good maintenance, these vessels can be in service to us for a long, long time…We are looking for a complete turnaround in Coast Guard vessel availability and an increase in patrol hours,” he said.
The Prime Minister also revealed plans for a partnership with Austal to create a ship maintenance hub in T&T.
He said the Government is currently in control of a marine drydock.
“What we are aiming to do is to use the facility to be the maintenance centre for these and other vessels of the Coast Guard and to grow that service in such a way that we will have here in Chaguaramas the equipment and the personnel to provide a wider service, not just to the Coast Guard but to the private sector in Trinidad and Tobago and I daresay in the Caribbean,” he said.
Rowley said Austal will provide the training, equipment and “confidence” to run that business.
The venture will also see the creation of jobs and an avenue for diversifying the economy, the Prime Minister said.
“We will take into that arrangement, qualified and enthusiastic local people, men and women who are prepared to make marine engineering service and ship service a career in Trinidad and Tobago,” he added.
