Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran says he is not worried about the impasse between T&T and Jamaica, maintaining that relations between the two countries remain on good terms. In a telephone interview yesterday, Dookeran said he was finalising arrangements to fly to Jamaica to hold discussions with various stakeholders in the wake of the furore after the deportation of 13 Jamaican nationals from Piarco last week.
“We are in the process of making final arrangements and perhaps by tomorrow (today) I should be going to Jamaica,” Dookeran said. Dookeran’s counterpart, Jamaica’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Arnold J Nicholson, invited him (Dookeran) to visit Jamaica before the end of the year for discussions on Jamaica-T&T relations in the context of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Saying he welcomed the discussion, Dookeran added: “I remain optimistic that talks would go well and I believe in no way has our relationship with Jamaica been affected.”
In a letter to Dookeran on the issue, Nicholson outlined several areas for discussion, including the perception of profiling of Jamaicans travelling to T&T; the right of nationals to contact their consular authorities upon being denied entry; the obligation of the immigration officials to facilitate that communication in accordance with Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on consular relations and mechanisms to exchange information between the immigration authorities on both sides.
The issue, however, still maintains prominence in Jamaica’s Gleaner newspaper. Two days after it was reported that Karl Samuda, Jamaica’s opposition spokesman on industry and commerce, supported the banning of T&T’s goods into that country, Jamaica’s Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Anthony Hylton was quoted in the Gleaner as saying while a boycott is practical, it is not desirable.
“Apart from worsening an already strained relationship between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, local stakeholders are at one that a boycott could have a severe impact on the livelihoods of many in the region, Trinidad in particular,” Hylton said.
After a Facebook campaign was launched urging Jamaicans not to buy T&T goods, Samuda was quoted as saying: "This action makes a mockery of the spirit of the Treaty of Chaguaramas and the Trinidadians must be roundly chastised for the attitude they have adopted with respect to Jamaica and Jamaicans in particular." In a press release yesterday, Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade said: “To date only a few (Jamaicans) have filed reports in relation to the recent incidents in Trinidad and Tobago.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade reiterates once again that whenever Jamaicans are detained or refused entry, they should on return to Jamaica immediately lodge a written report with the immigration authorities processing them or with the ministry of foreign affairs and foreign trade. “Anecdotal reports alone are not sufficient to allow the ministry to effectively represent the interests of Jamaicans who believe their rights have been infringed,” the release added.
