Cancer survivor stuck in NY after escaping from Brazil

SEAN Samad from Tacarigua is a cancer survivor and is also also pre-diabetic.

For the foreseeable future, he is in New York, where, since the start of the covid19 pandemic's spread in the US, over 400,000 cases have been recorded in the state.

Samad went to New York on May 24 from Brazil, the country with the second highest number of cases in the world – just shy of two million – trailing only the US.

Samad. 40, is a full-time PhD candidate in cultural studies and an adjunct lecturer in Brazilian studies at UWI, St Augustine.

He left TT for Brazil in early January as an academic tour director for a project organised by the institution called UWI Discovers.

"I stayed on in Salvador, Bahia (Brazil) to spend three months doing fieldwork and research for my PhD," Samad explained. "My planned date of return was end of April. My research expenses were 100 per cent funded by my savings and assistance from family members."

Samad said he got no official notice of the pending closure of TT's borders at midnight on March 22, though he heard some "stirrings" from friends at home, and tried to make last-minute plans to return to TT.

"When news got to me shortly before the borders'closure and I attempted to alter my flight with Copa Airlines via Panama, lines were constantly busy, and when I finally got on to reservations, all flights were booked. Shortly after that, Panama closed its airport also, ending all Copa flights.

"Nobody assumed it would take four-plus months to get home."

He contacted the TT embassy in Brasilia. Staff there said they had no information and suggested he stay where he was.

But as the covid19 situation in Brazil grew worse and the US administration was beginning to hint at a travel ban on all non-US nationals, his family in New York urged him to leave Brazil for the US.

"In the space of 24 hours, I left Brazil on May 24 and got the last flight to New York via Miami – a day before a travel ban was enforced."

He's still in a very difficult position, though.

"All my funds have been depleted, because of staying the extra month of May in Brazil, and travel to NY.

"I am dependent on my family here for room and board.

"I am unable to get diabetic medications and blood pressure medications here in the US without a prescription from the US, which is costly, and which affects my health. And as a cancer survivor, the stress of the situation is taxing and not healthy for me."

Being unable to return home has had another personal cost.

"I was locked out when my great-uncle William Aguiton passed and was buried and I was unable to attend his funeral. We had shared a bond because he also suffered and passed from cancer."

Aguiton, who died on June 12, was a photographer and a former manager of the Hilton Trinidad.

Samad said he made two requests for exemption to return home, one individually and again as part of a group at the start of June, from the US. They were not approved.

"Our proposal as a group had charter flight info. We were willing to pay for quarantine, but were denied."

He added, "I'd like to question why the issuing of exemptions is based on the individuals when the borders are closed. All citizens should automatically have permission to enter as in normal times.

He suggested, "Control of how many people come in can be handled by scheduling of repatriation flights and control of incoming vessels."

Apart from the issue of living expenses, stress and the cost of his medications, Samad needs to return to TT to find a new apartment and prepare for the new semester in September.

On the process of granting exemptions and the role of TT embassies, he said his experiences have left him disappointed.

"I've done a (postgraduate) diploma in international relations at UWI, so I understand how missions and embassies are supposed to work. And I find it highly disappointing that for whatever reason, our missions and embassies are not utilised in this process."

The way TT students outside the region have been dealt with, he said, "has been deplorable." There are many students in the US, Canada and elsewhere "and they have been neglected in this process," he says, describing the official perspective as "myopic."

And given the way the pandemic is raging through the US, he wants to know, "Why is the Ministy of National Security encouraging and facilitating students to depart for the US soon?

"Isn't the US the epicentre?"