The Minister responsible for immigration, the Hon. Alfred Sears responded to claims made in one of the local morning dailies concerning the arrest of a woman that left her children having to fend for themselves.
Sears said, “I cannot speak to the facts of the situation. I saw a report. I’ve asked the Department of Immigration to provide me with the outcome of their investigation and once I’m fully briefed I will be able to speak to that particular case. But I can tell you that the mandate of the Ministry of Immigration is to be firm in the execution of its duty but to be humane and also to respect the dignity of all persons with which the Department deals.”
Sears, who was appoint Minister of Immigration after a recent cabinet shuffle by the Prime Minister commented in the state of the ministry. “The immigration department is a very hardworking department and it is an important instrument of national security because it is the entity which determines admissibility of persons into our country and it is projected this year we will have 8 million people coming in. And all of those persons who come into our country are subject to the determination of an immigration officer. Also to detect persons who are in the country and have not been lawfully admitted and to detain those persons in a lawful manner and with the appropriate judicial process those persons will be returned to their home countries. The Department also manages applications for work permits, for permanent residency status and also citizenship. So it is a very, very important and critical aspect of our national security system.”
