‘It hurts really bad’ - Sick woman stuck in Trinidad as date for surgery in Jamaica nears

Nicole Adams says she has been waiting for two and a half years for an operation to remove a hernia. Her appointment date is August 8, but uncertainty looms as to whether she will be able to make it to the hospital for the surgery. Adams has been stuck in Trinidad and Tobago for months, and she has no idea when she will make it home.

"It is getting bigger and bigger and it hurts really bad, especially at nights. I really don't want to miss this appointment because if I do, I may have to wait another year or more, and this pain is getting almost unbearable," Adams told THE STAR.

The borders of the twin-island republic were closed in April as part of measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, and there is no indication when it will reopen.

"We have a long list of Jamaicans wanting to get home," Jamaica's High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Arthur Williams, told THE STAR. He noted that the country's border remains closed, so there are no flights leaving there.

For Adams and the other Jamaicans stuck there, a repatriation flight can't come soon enough. " I just want to go home because I also miss my family, including my two children, and I want to just get back my health on track. I need to leave by this month end because in addition to doing the surgery, I am going to be homeless," Adams said.

Last month, two repatriation flights arrived from the twin-island republic. At the time, the government of Trinidad and Tobago was sending a plane to Jamaica for their students, and facilitated the travel of some Jamaicans who were stranded there. Adams told THE STAR that she was unaware of the flight, and learnt about it after it had left Trinidad and Tobago. She described her situation, and that of many other Jamaicans in the twin-island republic, as dire.

"I am staying at a place in Tobago where I used to pay rent, but the landlord give me until this month end to leave, since I can no longer pay. I came to Trinidad with US$500 (approximately J$71,500) and I have ran out of cash right now. I have reached out to the relevant airlines more than once and they said there is nothing they can do because the borders are closed and they have to get approval from the Trinidad and Tobago government," she said.

Like other Jamaicans there, Adams said she had visited Trinidad for a short vacation in February, but had no idea that she would have been there for months more than she had originally planned.

"Someone, please help us to reach home because it's not easy over here," said another of the stranded Jamaicans. "We are just sleeping here, there and everywhere, and this is so uncomfortable. We have no food or money. There is a girl here who has her son with her and it's extremely rough on her, and all of us," the woman added.