01/23/2026
“No citizen will be left behind”: PM delivers $1M ex-gratia payments to Paria survivor, families
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Thursday formally delivered long-awaited ex gratia payments of TT$1 million to the sole survivor of the Paria diving disaster and to families of two of the deceased, describing the move as an act of compassion, accountability and justice long denied.
Speaking at the Diplomatic Centre, the Prime Minister confirmed that Christopher Boodram, the only diver to survive the 2022 Paria Fuel Trading pipeline tragedy, along with the surviving families of Rishi Nagessar and Fyzal Kurban, received the payments.
Persad-Bissessar stressed that no financial compensation could ever replace the lives lost or erase the trauma endured, but said the payments were intended to provide meaningful relief and long-overdue support to the survivor and bereaved families.
“For far too long, their suffering was ignored,” the Prime Minister said, criticising the former administration for spending millions of dollars in public funds on legal fees instead of offering direct assistance, care and compassion to those affected by the tragedy.
She described the Paria incident as one that should never have occurred and reaffirmed her Government’s commitment to accountability, humanity and the principle that no citizen would be abandoned by the State.
The Prime Minister also confirmed that Thursday’s payments mark the start of the ex gratia programme, with additional payments to the remaining families to be issued progressively once outstanding matters are completed.
The Paria disaster, which occurred during the Carnival period off Pointe-à-Pierre, claimed the lives of four divers and triggered national outrage, protests and a Commission of Inquiry that exposed serious failures in safety and oversight.
While legal proceedings regarding liability and negligence remain ongoing, the Government has maintained that the ex gratia payments are not an admission of fault but a humanitarian intervention.
