Trini student still stranded in Abu Dhabi

To­ba­go stu­dent Ray­lon Tay­lor re­mains strand­ed in Abu Dhabi as mil­i­tary con­flict in the Mid­dle East has ground­ed thou­sands of flights.

The 19-year-old New York Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent left for the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates (UAE) cap­i­tal on Feb­ru­ary 23 to at­tend a school func­tion and was sched­uled to re­turn home on Sun­day. How­ev­er, war be­tween the US-Is­rael al­liance and Iran has af­fect­ed the en­tire re­gion, with bombs be­ing dropped on US bases and in­fra­struc­ture in neigh­bour­ing coun­tries.

Ac­cord­ing to in­ter­na­tion­al re­ports, the Abu Dhabi’s Za­yed In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port was hit by a drone, re­sult­ing in one per­son be­ing killed and sev­en oth­ers in­jured. Dubai, the most pop­u­lar city in the UAE and a haven for tourists, was hit with bal­lis­tic mis­siles and drones.

As­sem­bly­man Nigel Taitt, who is close to Tay­lor’s fam­i­ly, told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that he spoke with the teenag­er’s par­ents and was in­formed that he is safe and in good spir­its. He de­clined fur­ther com­ment.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine on Sun­day said Tay­lor was stay­ing at a ho­tel in Abu Dhabi and the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly will be li­ais­ing with the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs to en­sure he has shel­ter and food. He said im­me­di­ate ex­trac­tion would be dif­fi­cult giv­en the back­log at the air­ports.

A lim­it­ed num­ber of flights left Abu Dhabi yes­ter­day, but the sit­u­a­tion re­mains chaot­ic.

Guardian Me­dia con­tact­ed the boy’s fa­ther, Ryan Tay­lor, but he de­clined com­ment.

— Stephon Nicholas