A New York-based organisation, the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), has condemned the deportation of 13 Jamaican nationals on November 19 from T&T. In a press release issued last Friday, the organisation denounced Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s statement that the deportation was “compliant with the law.”
It said: “The unjust deportation of Caricom nationals constitutes reprehensible violations of Articles 45 and 46 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) as well as the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). “They also especially flout settled law established by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in its landmark Shanique Myrie verses State of Barbados ruling.”
It added, while the court affirmed a member state’s right to deny a Caricom national entry, it likewise concurrently affirmed a Caricom national’s right to be granted entry into a member state, provided the following two limited exceptions: If the national would become “a charge on public funds” and if the national presents a threat to “public morals, the maintenance of public order and safety and the protection of life and health.
“The actions of the T&T immigration are, therefore, opprobrious violations of the law. “Suffice it to say Mrs Persad-Bissessar’s assertion that the actions of T&T immigration were lawful because the CCJ ruling gives immigration officers discretion to determine undesirability, is atrociously uninformed as the said ruling imposed strict restrictions on the exercise of such discretion.
“The Prime Minister’s comments therefore engender division among nations and dangerously undermine regional integration,” the CGID added.