FORMER member of the British Guiana Volunteer Force and serviceman in Singapore, Malaysia, Germany and Northern Ireland forces, 75-year-old Cecil Sawh is of the view that there needs to be a better monitoring system at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport with respect to the information requested and given to Immigration Officers there.On Tuesday, the visiting United Kingdom (UK) national walked into the Guyana Chronicle where he spoke of certain developments at the airport which he considers to be strange to him compared to the previous times he travelled here.

He is of the view that some of the questions being asked by the Immigration Officers are not necessary, as he pointed to previous robberies committed on persons on their way from the airport or immediately after they arrived at their respective destinations.

The latest case of robbery against a visiting person occurred two weeks ago when an 83-year-old man arrived at his sister’s Georgetown home.

Cecil Sawh, who migrated in 1959, has been visiting Guyana from time to time. He said that when he arrived in Guyana last Friday and was passing through Customs, he noticed that the questions being asked of him were too many. He was asked where he was living, how much money he was travelling with and several other questions.

The man, who has experience in security, related that he was very concerned about the line of questioning and took a decision to respond to the questions in a certain manner, which did not provide the officers with the exact information that could possibly lead to him being attacked on his way to his local destination or as soon as he showed up.

LEAKING INFORMATION TO CRIMINALS
He said that based on the reports he had read about incidents of armed robbery in which visiting persons were victims, he is convinced that the immigration or customs officers are passing information onto persons outside the system about passengers.

Sawh proposes that the system for picking up and dropping off persons from the airport should be more structured. This would entail taxi drivers plying their trade at the airport stating their destinations before leaving the airport among other systems which could be explored.

The UK citizen also suggested that there be greater police presence along the East Bank Demerara route to ensure safe passage of passengers returning from overseas destinations.

Just recently the Guyana Police Force dismantled a gang which it said was responsible for robberies along the East Bank Demerara and illegal road blocks along several parts of the country when persons were robbed and beaten.

The persons who were held in connection with those illegal acts have been placed before the courts and weapons which were found in their possession were also connected to at least two murders and robberies on the East Bank.

A source close to the operations of the Immigration Department told this newspaper on Wednesday that the questions asked of the man might have been necessary, if he had been identified as a person of interest by a regional watchdog unit, which focuses on security within the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, in recent times, the Guyana Police Force Immigration Department has been rated as having the most polite members within the public sector, given the manner in which officers deal with members of the public at the airports, passport offices or even on the go.

By Leroy Smith