Chairman of the Emancipation Support Committee Khafra Kambon says racism is still being practised against African people in T&T. Kambon was speaking on Tuesday at a panel discussion on the topic, T&T’s International Obligations regarding Race Relations, Gun Violence and Human Rights—Assessing the Trayvon Martin Case, at the Noor Hassanali Auditorium, St Augustine Campus, University of the West Indies. Other panellists were Jasmine Rand, attorney for the family of Trayvon Martin, and dean of the Faculty of Law Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine. Martin was a 17-year-old African American of Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in Sanford, Florida, in 2012.
Dealing with the ban on citizens from some countries with Ebola cases, Kambon said that move was “irrational, hysterical and there is no scientific justification for that action.” He said people with Ebola were more likely to enter T&T by sea than by air and banning citizens from entering the country would not protect the country from Ebola. “It is rational behaviour based on science that is going to protect you,” he pointed out.
He criticised the Government for imposing a travel ban on Nigeria even after the WHO had said it was free of the virus. Kambon said: “Nigerians have been virtually banned from this country for a long time.” He was made aware of this ban last year after COPA Airlines said every time it brought Nigerians to T&T, they were being turned back and said he had to do a lot to get approval for some Nigerians to enter T&T.
There were only about 1,000 Nigerians in the country of an estimated 100,000 undocumented visitors, he said. “When it comes to Africans from the continent, they are the most abused immigrants,” he added. Kambon said 80 per cent of the immigrants at the detention centre were from Africa and spoke of acts of brutality against people being held there, including one who was brutally beaten on May 21 and might have suffered permanent damage. He said the man was released under former National Security Minister Jack Warner but re-arrested under the current minister, Gary Griffith.
Kambon also said citizens should be very concerned about the level of police killings in the country for the year to date, as it was “absolutely unacceptable, no matter what fears we have about crime.”
If it were anyone else being killed other than young African males from particular communities, public reaction would have been different, he argued. He said in many instances “there has been no justification for the execution of young African males in this society.” National Security Minister Gary Griffith said previously the move to deal with illegal immigrants was not a witch-hunt but intended to ensure the matter was properly addressed and the Government would seek to regularise the status of illegal immigrants where possible.
