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Head of the Repa­tri­a­tion Com­mit­tee, Nizam Mo­hammed, has ac­cused gov­ern­ment min­is­ters of sab­o­tag­ing ef­forts to repa­tri­ate 80 na­tion­als from war-torn coun­tries, al­leg­ing that his team is be­ing treat­ed as “in­ter­lop­ers” and de­lib­er­ate­ly ob­struct­ed in their mis­sion to bring cit­i­zens back to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Mo­hammed, an at­tor­ney and for­mer Speak­er of the House, leads a three-mem­ber com­mit­tee ap­point­ed by for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley in April 2023. The com­mit­tee, which in­cludes for­mer diplo­mat Patrick Ed­wards and for­mer Amir Kwe­si At­i­ba, ini­tial­ly op­er­at­ed un­der the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter but was re­as­signed to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in Jan­u­ary 2024, ac­cord­ing to Mo­hammed.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Mo­hammed ex­pressed frus­tra­tion that the com­mit­tee has been un­able to ful­fil its man­date due to what he claimed was a lack of gov­ern­ment sup­port. He al­leged that var­i­ous gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials have shown a clear dis­re­gard for the com­mit­tee’s work.