KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica government says it will take claims of by one of its nationals that she was sexually and verbally abused by Barbadian customs and immigration officials to the meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council meeting this week.
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Dr Ken Baugh, says the matter will be raised at the Council meeting, which is CARICOM’s second highest decision-making body.
“This is something that we have discussed … it is not necessarily Barbados but in the Caribbean. It’s a very topical issue at all our meetings at COTED (Council for Trade and Economic Development) as well as COFCOR (Council on Foreign and Community Relations) and I’m going to raise this at the Community Council meeting in Belize next week,” said Baugh.
National Security Minister, Dwight Nelson, on Friday wrote to Public Defender, Earl Witter, asking him to intervene in the issue after the woman, Shanquie Myrie, claimed she had been subjected to sexual and verbal abuse at the hands of the authorities at the Grantley Adams International airport earlier this week.
Nelson expressed outrage at the incident, noting that he was awaiting word from Dr Ken Baugh, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, about discussions he is seeking with his Barbadian counterpart.
But Parliamentary Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, Harry Husbands, who has responsibility for Immigration, is quoted in the Barbados Nation newspaper as saying that there was no record of Myrie being searched by either immigration or customs officers and that a full statement would be issued after more investigations.
The newspaper quotes Husbands as saying “Shanique Myrie, on arrival in Barbados, claimed she would have been staying with a female resident.
“But a closer investigation; however revealed she was actually staying with a Barbadian man, who actually facilitates the entry of non-nationals into the island,” the newspaper report added.
Myrie claimed she was subjected to a cavity search by the authorities when she arrived in Barbados. She also accused an Immigration officer of making discriminatory remarks about Jamaican
The Jamaica government said that it would also be investigating claims of Jamaicans being mistreated in Trinidad and Tobago.
Baugh said he is encouraging Jamaicans to inform the government of any unfair treatment they experience while overseas.
“People need to give us the information. They can call the ministry, write a report and send the information to us. I’ve asked my Permanent Secretary to document all the information so that when I go to the Community Council meeting next week I can give documentary reports,” Baugh added.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Minister is refuting reports that Marlon Gordon, the Jamaican Honorary Consul to Barbados, was removed because of his staunch defense of Jamaicans in Barbados.
A report in Friday’s Jamaica Observer newspaper, quoted Gordon as saying that he resigned in January because the Barbados government was not receptive to his complaints.
But Baugh, speaking on a radio programme said, “that story is not in harmony with what I understand.
“We appointed him to be our Honorary Council in Barbados and he was not approved and when we inquired, we learnt the reason why and there were other reasons which I will not go into. I read the article in the Observer and it had nothing to do with that at all, there were other reasons,” he said. (CMC)
