Given the ongoing volcanic eruption in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), the Skerrit-led administration has finalized plans to accommodate thousands of evacuees in Dominica. The erupting La Soufriere Volcano which is causing massive earthquake and ash rain in almost all parts of SVG has necessitated urgent evacuation of people which are to be moved to neighbouring Caribbean countries.
According to PM Roosevelt Skerrit, the SVG evacuees will be housed at the Moroccan Hotel in Portsmouth and private homes for up to five months, and children of displaced families will be enrolled in schools in Dominica. Skerrit said his cabinet agreed that the people of SVG must be helped and accommodated sinc e the natural disaster the country is experiencing at the moment is very devastating.
He said he discussed with SVG PM Ralph Gonsalves who disclosed that more than 20,000 people have been evacuated from the volcano region, and that 12,000 will be accommodated in shelters at other parts of the country while 7,000 or more will be accommodated in other Caribbean nations. He said national leaders are coordinating with OECS and CARICOM to determine the numbers of evacuees each neighbouring country should accommodate.
“I believe we have a duty and obligation to extend empathy to the people of St Vincent,” Skerrit said. “In Dominica’s case, we met last night as a cabinet to discuss our acceptance and to start the preparation to receive evacuees from SVG. Today we will confirm the number of people that we will accommodate; certainly Dominica will be accommodating some people.”
A dedicated hotline and email address have been set up for use by private families who desire to accommodate SVG evacuees that come into the country. The hotline to use is 611- HOST (4678) and the email address is hostsvg@dominica.gov.dm . Skerrit said whatever anyone can do to help out should be done since this would go a long way to helping displaced folks from SVG.
“We are absolutely firm on receiving our friends from St. Vincent,” he said. “It’s just a matter of finalizing the logistics so that we can share the logistics with the government but Dominica stands in absolute solidarity with the people of St. Vincent.”
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