BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOLLOWING the catastrophic damage left by Hurricane Irma in St. Maarten, an official request was made to the Team Unity Administration to accommodate a number of Indian nationals in the Federation on a transitory forward movement.
While a guest this morning (Sept. 11) on Sugar City’s programme ‘The People’s Voice’, Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris was asked by the host, Ambassador Michael Powell, to comment on some of the things he read on social media.
Powell told PM Harris that on social media he had seen posts coming out of St. Maarten indicating that nationals of St. Kitts and Nevis residing on that island are of the view that the Federal Government had chartered flights to bring them back to their homeland.
He also informed Dr. Harris that a flight was scheduled for today and another for tomorrow, and that some nationals had called him to find out if the Government was “responsible for that”.
In response, PM Harris declared that he would have to seek more information on the matter.
“I would have to get some fuller information on that, like you have seen what has been trending on the social media with respect to that. What I do know and do not delink, but again I do need further information an certainly after the Cabinet I will be in a better position and the Government will say whether this is an event in which it has gotten itself engaged.
“What we do know is that there have been a request by citizens of India in St. Maarten who said they were being looted. Some feared they were being targeted, that advantage had been taken of them, and we gathered that the official representation has been made to us to see whether we could accommodate some of them in transit to St. Kitts and then outward. And we as a responsible government has said yes we would accommodate them if they need to be here in a transitory situation forward movement.”
The Federation’s Political Leader noted that while a number of them had been targeted for such a mission, “it appears that there is the suggestion that they would accommodate other persons wanting to come”.
He however implied, “That is something we would have to collaborate and I would not be able to speak authoritatively with respect to that without consultation with one or two officials of the Government who had engaged me on that matter and to see what is the extent and nature of the Government’s involvement in a matter like this one.”
From video footage that surfaced after Hurricane Irma had created havoc in St. Maarten, one could have seen individuals engaged in widespread looting, and the Indian merchants who control a large portion of the trade with their Chinese counterparts, were appealing for help on social media from India’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
