Opposition MP Jack Warner has written the secretariat of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) seeking to have the alleged mistreatment of Chinese workers in this country ’tabled for its deliberation’ when its 56 Heads of State gather in Port of Spain later this month.

Warner is also calling on the CHOGM to refer the matter to its Committee on Human Rights.

He did so in a letter he wrote on October 30 to Ambassador Luis Alberto Rodriguez, National Coordinator for CHOGM 2009, calling for an ’immediate intervention in the matter.’

’I invite you to not only table this matter for deliberation at the CHOGM in November, but to refer it to your Committee on Human Rights. I ask respectfully on the behalf of the people of Trinidad and Tobago that you initiate your own investigation into these reports,’ Warner wrote.

He said that he had copied the letter to the Human Rights Bureau in London.

Warner said he felt he had ’an obligation to bring to the attention of the Heads of Government, an issue which has been described in our local media as the exploitation and mistreatment of Chinese nationals by contractors in the construction industry in Trinidad and Tobago.’

’In September of 2009, a group of these workers, through their hired translator, brought their concerns to my Parliamentary office. I was told of the long hours at work without pay, unsafe working conditions and very squalid and filthy living accommodation. I was made aware of inhumane barrack styled rooms in which they were forced to live and of a life without basic necessities, which pushed them into the consumption of carcasses strewn on the nation’s roadways,’ Warner wrote in his letter.

He further wrote: ’In October 2009, hundreds of these workers who reside in my Constituency of Chaguanas West were driven into protest action in Port of Spain. Several of them were reportedly arrested by our local police force. Since then there has been a huge public outcry against the dehumanisation of these migrant workers.’

Last month, some 80 workers from the Beijing Liujian Construction Corporation protested what they claimed was their employer’s failure to honour its contract with them but did not identify the company by name.

Senior Labour Ministry officials have been conducting conciliation talks between Beijing Liujian and its disgruntled employees, some of whom have already returned to China.