Bourne: Let due

process prevail

GEORGETOWN - Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) president Dr Compton Bourne says the issue of undocumented immigrants in Barbados should be handled with much more sensitivity, adding that there are too many stories of people being rounded up.

Bourne, who is in Guyana as guest speaker at the 27th Annual Caribbean Conference of Chartered Accountants, said in an exclusive interview with the Stabroek News that he felt due process should be observed in the way the authorities implement the new immigration policy which targets Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nationals only.

The new policy, which was announced on May 5, by Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson, applies to all undocumented CARICOM nationals who entered the island prior to December 31, 2005, and remained undocumented for a period of eight years or more.

Acknowledging that the policy has spurred much debate in the light of reports of ill-treatment by immigration officials, particularly to Guyanese, Bourne said "that is not the proper way to do it".

Bourne, a Guyanese who resides in Barbados and heads the St Michael-headquartered CDB, said he felt the issue was one that had been very short of facts.

"I have never seen any statistics that tells one authoritatively how many Guyanese and CARICOM immigrants are in Barbados illegally. That has never been disclosed in all the public communication I have seen," he said.

Bourne said he felt the entire issue of undocumented immigrants was one that required much sensitivity.

"I think that it should be handled with much more sensitivity than it seems to have been handled with so far in Barbados. There are way too many stories in the media about the rounding up of people and I think that is not the proper way to do it," he reasoned.

He said due process should be applied if it was found that people were illegal and it was determined that they should leave.

"There should be a proper way to handle it. Rounding up people like prisoners in the dead of night is not the way to do it." (Stabroek News)