Mary Isaac. Photo credit: The Voice Newspaper (St. Lucia).
United Workers Party (UWP) Senator Mary Isaac has said she is deeply concerned about the well-being of the students stranded here as a result of the Lambirds Academy scandal and is urging government to take care of their needs.
Isaac, who along with UWP Party Leader Allen Chastanet and Opposition Leader Dr Gale Rigobert visited and held discussions with these students most recently, said it is troubling to see the condition under which they are living and how they are being treated.
The UWP senator strongly believes that something ought to be done to ensure that the students are not left to suffer any longer.
She also raised concerns about a pregnant female who is expected to deliver a baby on June 25.
“I am very concerned about the implications this may have for both countries,” she told St. Lucia News Online (SNO).
Isaac said one have to question if the child is born in Saint Lucia, whether he/she would require immigration documents to travel back home with the parent, or would the parent be able to take the child back.
The senator said she is opposed to having the pregnant student returned home soon, especially since her pregnancy is in an advanced stage.
“Are we taking a risk here and risking a human life?” she questioned.
Sources have said the government was allegedly attempting the send the pregnant student in the batch that was expected to return home today.
This was to avoid her having the baby on Saint Lucian soil, which will in fact complicate the matter, given that the student is a foreign national.
Meanwhile, Isaac pointed to scenarios where some of the students would have to wait on people to assist them with washing their clothes.
In other cases, some of them do not have any money and only have a few pieces of clothing that they brought with them.
Isaac said while the students are not objecting to returning home, they prefer to have their money first.
“I believe it is unfair for government to have frozen Shams (the CEO) assets whereas something can be put in place to make sure that the money goes to the students and that they can go back home,” she asserted.
The UWP senator said the students deserve to be treated fairly, because it could have been the other way around, where Saint Lucian students were in the same debacle, and no one would have wanted them to be treated in the same manner.