Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 21, 2009 News
A United States of America citizen is convinced that the Barbadian Immigration authorities are targeting Guyanese despite assurances by Prime Minister, David Thompson, that the island is only interested in ridding the country of illegal immigrants.
Ingrid David, a Guyanese by birth, arrived on the island yesterday with her American daughter to spend a three-week holiday with relatives.
Although she presented an American passport, the Bajan Immigration authorities detained her for almost two hours at the Grantley Adams Airport while allowing her daughter entry to the island without much fuss.
Speaking to Kaieteur News from Christchurch Barbados, David said she believes that since her nationality showed her to be a Guyanese, she was singled out for special attention by the Barbadian authorities.
She explained that she arrived on the island yesterday on a large flight from the USA and while all the other passengers were processed quickly, an Immigration official requested that she sit on a bench while he consulted with his superiors.
David admitted that when asked for the address of the persons she would be staying with, she could not, since she thought that by being an American Citizen, she would have been allowed access into the tourism-oriented island.
“I thought that was enough. But this one officer was ‘going by the books’. I don’t know if they do this with everybody, but for me this was a clear case of me being specially targeted,” David told this newspaper.
She claimed however that she did provide the Barbadian Immigration officials with the names of the persons who were at the airport to collect her.
According to David, her daughter was allowed to leave the Immigration area to seek out the hosts but did not initially find them. This prolonged her stay on the ‘bench’.
She said that in the meantime, her teenaged daughter was becoming restless and even suggested that they leave the island.
But eventually the hosts were located and David and her daughter were allowed to enter the island, but not before she gave them a piece of ‘Guyanese tongue lashing’.
“I heard about the treatment of my countrymen in Barbados and I never thought that it would happen to me. I didn’t see them treat the other persons on the flight that way,” she said.
The US-based Guyanese said, though, that since she did not have the correct address for her hosts, she felt that the Immigration officials were just being meticulous.
But it was when they started asking questions about her hosts that alarm bells began ringing in her ears.
“They asked me where they were born, if they were born here (in Barbados). I can’t understand this,” David said.
Fortunately, David’s hosts are Guyanese but are citizens of Barbados by virtue of their mother being a Barbadian.
“They (immigration) don’t care if you have a US passport; once you are a Guyanese, they go through you with a fine teeth comb. I live in the United States of America and I don’t want to stay in Barbados. My ticket is a three-week ticket and I am just on a holiday,” David said.
She added that the experience has left a bitter taste in her mouth and she would rather be spending her holidays in her native land the next time around.
Meanwhile, her sister who traveled from Guyana to meet her in Barbados was also subjected to a stint on the ‘bench’ before being allowed into the island.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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