Yesterday, a young overseas-based Guyanese businessman related a humiliating experience he was subjected to over the weekend, at the hands of Barbados Immigration Officers.

The businessman who has been residing in the United States (US) for some seven years, said his unsuspecting nightmare began when he opted to spend a brief four-day vacation on the Island of the Flying Fish, while awaiting a consignment of goods to arrive here.

According to the young man, he purchased a return ticket at the local BWIA office on Friday last to travel to Barbados on Saturday 15 and return on February 19.

The flight, BWIA 342 departed Guyana 0540 hrs and upon arrival, said he enquired from an official at the Immigration Department about the Tourist Booth located at the airport, from where he had intended to book a hotel.

The young man said he was advised that the booth would have been open at 0800 hrs, but that he would have to sit and wait, as it is standard procedure that he would not be allowed on the island until he had an address where he would stay.

About 0900 hrs, the passenger said he was approached and beckoned into an office by a female immigration officer, who he later observed was the officer-in-charge of the shift.

The officer then proceeded to question as to why he choose to visit Barbados, checked his passport, US resident `Green’ card among other documents, before advising that he could go to the Tourist Booth and book a hotel.

`The booth was still not open and when I returned she (officer) had left her office and when she returned about 45 minutes later she said I should sit on the `bench’, (chairs) and wait,” the businessman said.

He recounted sitting there with about five other Guyanese included one also resident in the US.

After some time elapsed, he said another immigration officer came and told him to “get his bags’ and took him to Customs where his luggage was thoroughly searched.

The young man said he observed a senior officer approach the junior who was conducting the search, whispered sometime to him and left.

The officer who was attending to him, subsequently questioned the reason behind his going to Barbados, to which he said he calmly asked whether Barbados is not a tourist destination.

He was then taken into a room and body-searched by an officer, who he said carried out his duty in a professional manner, and on completion said “Thank You for your Cooperation’ before escorting him back to the bench.

This was after some four to five hours had elapsed, he said.

About 15 minutes later he and the others were rudely told “ put your bags in a corner, you all going to the cold room”, which to his dismay was a cell.

On enquiring from the female senior officer what was going on, he said he was told to his horror and dismay “ he should go as was told and she will talk to him later”.

According to the young man, “the concrete room was really a cold room, about 30 to 40 degrees, with two mattresses on the floor, a toilet and bath and a small opening on the door.”

The Guyanese visitor who said he was only wearing a tee shirt recalled how not long after he started to tremble and feel ill, and was forced to summon someone passing to call an Immigration Officer.

The young man said the officer who came not long after remarked, “you all must do the right thing when coming to this country” which prompted his asking what he meant and was told that he has a “forged or tampered” passport.

Despite maintaining that his document is genuine and reminding of his other documents, which could have been counter-checked, the young man said he and the other overseas-based Guyanese were taken from the cell and placed to sit again on the bench.

“It was about 13:30 hrs and I told the officer that the situation is getting too complicated and that I had no intention of sitting there (on the bench) until 19:00 hrs to be sent back to Guyana.

“I offered to purchase a ticket to the United States and when told it would be a problem I said to any destination. I was told that I could get a flight to Guyana on Caribbean Star airlines for B’dos $349 the equivalent of in excess of US$170.”

The young man said after being told it was okay for him to return via the airline, the officer sarcastically remarked “how come you living in the US and can’t stand the cold.

He told him too that the BWIA officials in Barbados said the green card looked like a fake one.

Some 10 minutes before he was due to leave he was taken to another room where they again examined some 30 documents he had in his possession including his Visa card and business transaction documents.

The young businessman said his nightmare was still not over, as he was denied the return half of his ticket and receipt, the proof of purchase, when he requested it.

“They told me I don’t need it, but that’s my proof that I paid for it, also I was not returning on a BWIA flight, the man lamented.

The businessman said he is perplexed as to why the Barbados immigration officials never sought to interrogate him if they suspected he was carrying a fake document, and why he was only told of their suspicion when he began feeling ill.

He said he found it strange that the officials made no effort whatsoever to seek help to verify the authenticity of his documents, but were only bent on sending him back to Guyana.

He shuddered to think of the health of the other Guyanese who were left in the “cold room”, which he said he observed had a defective air-conditioning, either by design to allow excessive cold air into the room.

Prime Minister Gonsalves’ outburst on "hostile attitudes" came in a call he made for a more "people-friendly" approach by governments, institutions and organisations of the region in responding to the challenges for both economic and political integration, while delivering a lecture on Wednesday last at the inaugural lecture in the CARICOM-sponsored "Distinguished Lecture Series", in Trinidad and Tobago.

In criticising what he views as "outrageous attitudes" by some immigration services in the Caribbean Community towards fellow Caribbean citizens, he urged a more "sensible" and "realistic" approach by all CARICOM states in dealing with nationals of the region, by adopting attitudes that reflect "understanding of ourselves as people of a Caribbean civilisation"

He also commended the President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, for "doing the right thing" in making as an issue at regional meetings the problems, "the outrageous attitudes" often shown towards Guyanese, declaring:

"President Jagdeo has my full support in addressing this question...I also feel strongly about the embarrassment and inconveniences people from St.Vincent and the Grenadines and others from the OECS subregion encounter...":