The Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion for Fem­i­nist Re­search and Ac­tion, Trinidad and To­ba­go (CAFRA TT) has ex­pressed con­cern over the ar­rest of ac­tivist Alyssa Phillip dur­ing Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions in Fyz­abad, de­scrib­ing the in­ci­dent as a trou­bling de­vel­op­ment for free­dom of ex­pres­sion and as­sem­bly.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued on Sat­ur­day, CAFRA TT said it was “deeply alarmed” by events that un­fold­ed dur­ing this year’s Labour Day ac­tiv­i­ties—a day it de­scribed as one tra­di­tion­al­ly ded­i­cat­ed to ho­n­our­ing work­ers’ strug­gles for dig­ni­ty, fair work­ing con­di­tions and recog­ni­tion of their con­tri­bu­tions to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion said Labour Day has his­tor­i­cal­ly pro­vid­ed a plat­form for cit­i­zens to protest, as­sem­ble pub­licly and call for ac­count­abil­i­ty from the State.