The preliminary investigation into the strip-searching of a Guyanese man at the Grantley Adams Airport last month is expected to be out by next weekend.

After being relieved of US$300 by a Barbadian immigration officer on the grounds that the money was counterfeit the man was deported.

According to sources from Barbados, preliminary investigations were conducted at the airport in relation to the strip search of the man and a number of immigration officers questioned. However, the officers denied knowledge of the incident which took place on July 21.

When initial enquiries were made about the man being deported the following day there was no record of the deportation but a late entry appeared subsequently.

The man, 20, who prefers to remain anonymous, met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Rudy Insanally yesterday. Insanally updated him on the progress of the investigations.

The man has provided the Protocol and Consular Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with photocopies of the cambio receipt where the foreign exchange was purchased; the cambio stamp which was on a US$100 bill; the receipt which was paid in advance for hotel accommodation; his passport; airline ticket receipt; and a signed statement on his experience at the airport. These were forwarded to Guyana’s honorary consul in Barbados and the Barbados Ministry of Foreign Affairs to aid in their investigations.

The receipt for the foreign currency which the young man used when he travelled to Barbados indicated that the sum of US$1,200 had been bought.

President Bharrat Jagdeo, who is due to pay a State visit to Barbados shortly, had instructed Insanally to take a personal interest in the matter.

Meanwhile there have been reports out of Barbados that a number of Guyanese who travelled to the island during the Crop Over season were sent into a corner until they could identify the persons to whom they were going. Stabroek News understands that this treatment was only meted out to Guyanese and not other Caribbean nationals who travelled to the island.

One Guyanese, a woman employed at a local television station, reported that when she presented her passport to the immigration officer, he kept the document and she was sent into the corner. Then various immigration officials came around at different times asking her name. She repeated her name several times and eventually told one of them if he asked her name one more time she might forget it. After a long wait she was allowed to leave but has vowed not to return to the island.

The President, who has spoken out about the harassment of Guyanese in Barbados at several regional fora and more recently at the last CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Jamaica, reached an agreement with the Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur to allow Guyanese immigration officers to be stationed at Grantley Adams to ensure that Guyanese were not singled out for harassment. (Miranda La Rose)