JAMAICA  OBSERVER  – Jamaica’s former Honorary Consul to Barbados Marlon Gordon says his staunch advocacy on behalf of Jamaican nationals who are being discriminated against in that eastern Caribbean country cost him his post.
Gordon resigned in a huff as Jamaica’s consular representative in that country in January, and the Barbados government had been less than welcoming of him because of what he says is his ‘no-nonsense’ stance on their wholesale disdain for Jamaicans.
“The Barbados government is upset because I talk up. They have made the post vacant in circumstances which have now exposed the Jamaican public to abuse. It is quite obvious that the government doesn’t want anybody to stand up,” he told the Observer.
Gordon was responding to queries by this newspaper about the treatment of his countrymen in Barbados after Jamaican Shanique Myrie recounted a horrific experience at the Grantley Adams Airport earlier this month.
She told the Observer she was subjected to a humiliating body search, bad-mouthed and locked up before being booted out of the island without explanation.
Gordon took time, however, to admit that some Jamaicans have not been the best ambassadors for their country while they are in Barbados.
“Some Jamaicans don’t make it easier. They come to Barbados and get involved in all sorts of activities. The Barbadian government has every right to protect their country, but everybody is suspected. Jamaicans who live here and others who come through are arbitrarily targeted for discrimination,” Gordon said.
Under international law, the former consul said, the receiving state cannot be forced to accept an honorary consul, hence the Barbadian government had the right to refuse his continuing in the position.
Nonetheless, he remains critical of the Jamaican government’s silence on the issue.
“The Jamaican government has been silent for too long. The Jamaican government has lost its position, as it seems they don’t want to disturb relations between Jamaica and Barbados. It seems they have no respect for their people in that regard,” he said.
Thursday’s the Barbadian online publication NationNews.com reported that officials in that country had launched a probe into the allegations about Myrie’s abuse at the hands of immigration officials.
That publication reported that Senator Harry Husbands, Parliamentary Secretary in the Prime Minister’s office — who has responsibility for immigration matters — said Myrie was denied entry to Barbados for good reason. However, NationNews.com did not elaborate on what those reasons were.
On Thursday, the Observer broke the story of how Myrie, who had travelled to Barbados for the first time to visit a friend, was humiliated as she tried to enter that country. She claimed she was forced to submit to invasive physical searches and verbal abuse at a Barbados airport immigration checkpoint.
Attempts to contact Jamaica’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Ken Baugh for further comment on the issue yielded no response as the calls went unanswered.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received a letter of complaint from Myrie and other Jamaicans and that the matter had been raised at the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) level.
The ministry’s spokesperson promised that the matter would be dealt with on a government-to-government level.
Meawhile, a  Barbados Nation article stated that Immigration and Customs authorities as well as Comptroller of Customs Frank Holder, have categorically denied the charges by the Jamaican as well as the existence of record  of an such activity pertaining to the complainant.
Parliamentary Secretary in the Prime Minister’s office, with responsibility for Immigration, Senator Harry Husbands, said Thursday there was no record of Myrie being searched by either immigration or customs officers and a full statement would be issued after more investigations.
Husbands also told the WEEKEND NATION that indications suggest that Myrie was a victim of human trafficking, a racket-like affair that existed between Barbados and Jamaica.
“Shanique Myrie, on arrival in Barbados, claimed she would have been staying with a female resident, but a closer investigation however revealed she was actually staying with a Barbadian man who actually facilitates the entry of non-nationals into the island,” he said.
Noting that authorities had become fully aware of the trafficking between the two countries, Husbands added:?“Wherever these cases of facilitating are discovered, regardless of what country the individual is coming from, whether it be a CARICOM country or an extraregional country, that person is denied entry.”