Strip-searched Guyanese complains of harassment at Barbados airport
Stabroek News
February 18, 2003
A New York-based Guyanese businessman, who was detained at the Grantley Adams International Airport on Saturday accused of having fake travel documents, is seeking an apology from the Barbados government.
Thirty-six-year-old Mark Anthony Phillips would also like his ticket from Barbados to Guyana returned to him along with the receipt. Phillips met briefly with officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here yesterday afternoon to report his matter and is due to have further discussions with them on the issue this morning.
He told Stabroek News yesterday that he had travelled to Barbados for a short holiday on a four-day ticket on February 15 arriving on Flight BW 432 at 6:55 am.
He said the female immigration officer asked him where he was going to stay and he replied that he needed to check into a hotel. He told her he had money so he did not consider hotel accommodation being a problem.
But he said his travel documents were taken from him and he was escorted to a room where another female immigration officer questioned him about his purpose for travel to Barbados. He said he was there for a holiday but needed to check into a hotel. She told him that he needed to give an address where he could be contacted. She asked if he had money and he showed her his money. She checked his passport and he showed her his US Green Card. He recalled that the tourist booth to book hotel rooms was not yet open.
He was told to sit, then questioned once more, then told to sit again. After spending most of the morning sitting on a chair, he was directed to the customs area where his business briefcase and a small overnight bag were thoroughly searched. He was also stripped down to his underwear and given a body search after which the immigration officers thanked him for his co-operation. He was then taken back to the chairs where there were now about four or five other Guyanese who had been denied entry. After sitting there for about another 15 to 20 minutes he and another Guyanese who was carrying a US passport were told they were going to “the cold room.” This was at about noon.
The “cold room” was actually a prison cell, he said. It had two mattresses, iron bars, a hole in the door, a toilet and a bath. “It was indeed a cold room,” he said.
By about 1 pm, Phillips said that an immigration officer gave them a sheet each. By then, he said, that he felt himself becoming ill and he told the officer who brought the sheets. The immigration officer, he said, told them that when they come to Barbados they must do the right things. He replied that he had done nothing wrong and the officer asked him if carrying fake documents was not something wrong. He said it was the first time he was told why he had been denied entry. He said he had several other documents, among them credit cards and a medical scheme card to show that he had been residing in the US for some seven years. Someone then jokingly asked him how it was that he lived in the US and “could not take the cold.”
Knowing that he was being denied entry to Barbados, he told them he would like to get out of the country on the first flight and knowing the BWIA flight schedule said he would like to travel to the US. He asked to buy a ticket but the officer in turn asked him why would he want to travel to the US on a fake green card. He in turn asked why would he want to travel to the US on a fake green card in view of the high security alert there. Nevertheless, he said that the immigration officer went to the BWIA counter and returned to tell him that the ticket agent said she could not sell him the ticket.
He was told that the only country he could travel to was Guyana. He said if that was the case he wanted to get out on the first available flight. This was on a Caribbean Star flight at 2:30 pm. He paid for his own ticket and boarded the flight back to Guyana. He was given back his passport and green card when he was about to leave the country. He asked that his return ticket from Barbados and ticket receipt be returned but the immigration officer who detained him in the first place said he was keeping them because Phillips had no need for them.
Phillips said that he had been travelling since he was seventeen years for sports and cultural activities in the region and he journeyed to and from the US at least two or three times each month because of the nature of his business. He said he never experienced any harassment before. He had never been to Barbados as a visitor and took a spontaneous decision to go there for a brief holiday before Mashramani followed by Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago. He said that in the past he has previously used the same green card and passport when in transit at the Grantley Adams International Airport.
Numerous Guyanese have complained in the past about treatment at the hands of Barbadian immigration officers and President Bharrat Jagdeo publicly complained about this problem during a CARICOM event in Barbados last year. Other CARICOM dignitaries have also deprecated the attitude of Barbados immigration officers. (Miranda La Rose)
