Alleged discrimination against persons of Indian origin in Trinidad

Friday, December 26, 2003

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad: Persons of Indian origin were being discriminated against in recruitment to security services in Trinidad and Tobago, a leading civil rights activist alleged Thursday, according to a report in the Hindu. 

"There is a clear and undeniable racial imbalance in our police service, prison service, army, coast guard and fire service," said civil rights attorney-at-law Anand Ramlogan. 

He alleged that Trinidad and Tobago's Protective Service, which recruits for police, fire, army, coast guard and prisons, never visited places where there was a predominance of Indo-Trinidadians. 

"Recruitment is done in Port-of-Spain and San Fernando where there is an overwhelming Afro-Trinidadian presence," Ramlogan claimed. 

Indo-Trinidadians were also discriminated against because they often do not have the minimum height to be eligible to enter the service, he said. 

The minimum height requirement is "an archaic, pre-colonial relic of a bygone era. It has long been revised both in England and the US to cater to the ethnic groups that are relatively shorter," Ramlogan added.

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