Browne questions government response to nationals in Middle East

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne has raised con­cerns about the Gov­ern­ment’s re­sponse to na­tion­als in the Mid­dle East amid on­go­ing con­flict.

In a state­ment on his Face­book page, Browne said na­tion­als have been ask­ing why the Gov­ern­ment has not used its al­liances to arrange op­tions for their ex­trac­tion or evac­u­a­tion. He said peo­ple in af­fect­ed coun­tries are seek­ing as­sis­tance as the sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ues.

The for­mer Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs stat­ed that the Min­is­ter is­sued bul­letins sup­port­ing the war. He said Trinidad and To­ba­go has not tak­en such a po­si­tion un­der pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tions.

Browne said the Gov­ern­ment should fo­cus on pro­vid­ing sup­port to na­tion­als over­seas. He iden­ti­fied teach­ers, stu­dents, man­agers, cooks and petro-in­dus­try work­ers among those in af­fect­ed coun­tries.

The for­mer for­eign min­is­ter said na­tion­als are ask­ing for help and seek­ing in­for­ma­tion on op­tions avail­able to them. He added that no one knows how long the con­flict will con­tin­ue.

He called on the Gov­ern­ment to out­line what steps are be­ing tak­en to as­sist cit­i­zens and whether evac­u­a­tion arrange­ments are be­ing pur­sued through diplo­mat­ic chan­nels.