Jamaica group to study airport abuse claims

TUE, MARCH 29, 2011 - 12:06 AM The Barbados Nation News

The Jamaica Association is still to take a position on reports that a Jamaican woman was verbally and sexually abused at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

President Peter Kerr told the DAILY NATION yesterday that the association had not yet come to a position on the matter, but Jamaicans were “feeling aggrieved” at reports of an inappropriate search by Immigration officials of Shanique Myrie on March 14.

He said the association would be looking to obtain from the various parties involved reports that would be reviewed at an upcoming executive meeting.

The association’s executive would make a determination on whether there was need to get the general membership involved in the matter, he reported.

Ever since the story broke in the Jamaica Observer newspaper, people have been airing views in the Press and the other media.

Authorities launched an investigation into the matter and last Saturday Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Maxine McClean told the Press there was no truth to the allegations.

McClean made it “absolutely clear that a thorough investigation had been carried out by the Immigration and Customs departments into reports that had been carried in the Jamaican Press suggesting that Shanique Samantha Myrie had been finger-raped by Immigration officers after she arrived on Barbadian soil”.

Following the announcement by McClean, Jamaica’s Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Ken Baugh said he would be raising the issue at the impending CARICOM Council meeting in Belize.

Baugh also encouraged Jamaicans to inform the government of any unfair treatment they experienced while overseas.

Jamaica’s National Security Minister Dwight Nelson also expressed strong views on the matter and wrote a letter to Public Defender Earl Witter, urging him to intervene. (YB/TS)