T&T nationals urged to remain indoors as Middle East conflict escalates

The first ma­jor ad­vi­so­ry from the Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs fol­low­ing rapid­ly es­ca­lat­ing con­flict in the Mid­dle East is a call for Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als in the re­gion to re­main in­doors and avoid all trav­el as hos­til­i­ties in­ten­si­fy.

In an ad­vi­so­ry is­sued to­day, the min­istry said it is close­ly mon­i­tor­ing de­vel­op­ments and urged cit­i­zens abroad to stay in se­cure lo­ca­tions, com­ply with di­rec­tives from lo­cal au­thor­i­ties and close­ly fol­low of­fi­cial up­dates.

Na­tion­als were al­so ad­vised to reg­is­ter with the Gov­ern­ment’s Reg­is­tra­tion Sys­tem for Na­tion­als Abroad, en­sure trav­el doc­u­ments are valid and iden­ti­fy the near­est emer­gency shel­ter should con­di­tions wors­en. The min­istry fur­ther en­cour­aged cit­i­zens to for­mu­late con­tin­gency plans for de­par­ture where per­son­al safe­ty may be at risk.

The ad­vi­so­ry comes af­ter the Unit­ed States and Is­rael launched a ma­jor at­tack on Iran on Sat­ur­day, trig­ger­ing re­tal­ia­to­ry mis­sile and drone strikes by Iran to­ward Is­rael and US mil­i­tary bases across the re­gion.

Ac­cord­ing to Iran­ian state me­dia, cit­ing the Red Cres­cent, at least 201 peo­ple were killed and more than 700 in­jured as ex­changes of fire con­tin­ued in­to the night.

Iran­ian For­eign Min­is­ter Ab­bas Araghchi de­scribed the at­tack as “un­pro­voked, il­le­gal and ab­solute­ly il­le­git­i­mate,” while telling NBC News that Supreme Leader Ay­a­tol­lah Ali Khamenei and Pres­i­dent Ma­soud Pezeshkian were alive “as far as I know.”

The min­istry al­so re­mind­ed na­tion­als that hold­ers of Trinidad and To­ba­go pass­ports re­quire a visa for tran­sit through or en­try in­to the Unit­ed King­dom and ad­vised that this re­quire­ment be con­sid­ered when mak­ing trav­el arrange­ments.

Cit­i­zens re­quir­ing emer­gency con­sular as­sis­tance can con­tact the min­istry via con­sular@for­eign.gov.tt, as the Gov­ern­ment reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to the safe­ty and well-be­ing of na­tion­als at home and abroad.