Minister Arni Walters who is responsible for immigration has clarified the current fingerprinting operation at the airport as a pilot. He further shed light by indicating it is not mandatory to participate. Based on the hue and cry by Barbadians in recent days we are therefore forced to ask what is the problem?
In the absence of proper communication from Senator Walter’s ministry, the public has been left to speculate where is the government going with this fingerprinting pilot! It is evident the current concerns being presented by Barbadians can be linked to the lack of proper communication by government on the matter.
The Opposition some may say have capitalized on the blunder to make political mileage. The honeymoon period for the Thompson government is over and it must be prepared to respond to legitimate criticism from the Opposition. Within two weeks the government in our opinion has made two obvious blunders, the other is the late delivery of invitations to the Opposition to attend the Ryan Brathwaite Tribute.
In the absence of clear information from government which details the policy position which gave birth to the fingerprinting pilot, BU can only offer a speculative position around the matter. We iterate the communication disseminated by Senator Walters about this matter has been below what is required from a government in 2010.
The public deserves to know more.
The matter of fingerprinting requires a shift in the way our little islands have practiced border security to date. The people in our culture who have historically been fingerprinted are criminals. In the absence of information from Senator Walters BU speculates that fingerprints are being taken to match against those in a database listed in the police criminal database. Barbadians in recent times have expressed the concern about criminals (deportees) being able to move easily within a CSME framework.
It is interesting to note former BLP Senator Andrew Bynoe first mooted the idea of fingerprinting incoming passengers back in 2006. Not sure if he meant to include locals as well! The Opposition through its Deputy Leader Dale Marshall has introduced the idea of individual freedoms being touched. Before the discussion is taken to that realm we need to hear a proper communication from government on the matter.
We do live in a democracy the last time we checked.
The USA as part of its strategy to combat terrorism introduced many measures which many Americans still believe trample the rights of individual freedoms. Barbadians deserve to know what is the strategic thinking driving the idea to introduce fingerprinting in Barbados.
Maybe the answer to the missing information is to be found in the Green Paper on the new Immigration Policy promised by the government.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.