Immigration Officers take sickout action

SICKOUT action by Immigration Officers yesterday could very well cripple economic activity and compromise the country’s security on land and sea, Acting Assistant Chief Immigration Officer Nirmal Bhaggan warned yesterday. The country’s ports of entry, including Piarco International Airport went on high alert yesterday morning when more than 175 junior Immigration Officers at offices in Port-of-Spain and San Fernando, failed to turn up for duty. The officers took the action to protest non-payment of travelling and meal allowances. When at around 10 am the absence of the officers became apparent, officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advised Chief Immigration Officer Bisoondath Lackraj and Bhaggan to deploy senior officers to take over the jobs of their juniors.

The Piarco and Crown Point Airports were yesterday operated by a skeleton staff comprised mainly of managerial staff and senior officers who were previously on vacation. Those on vacation were called out to assist as all other officers were taking part in the massive sickout. At Piarco, officers were on duty and the flow of arriving passengers were described as “normal” by employees who worked closely with Immigration Officers. However, the Immigration Office in Port-of-Spain fared the same as the San Fernando office,  as only two officers were on duty to deal with the crowd. In San Fernando, 20 Immigration Officers did not report for duty at the department’s Coffee Street offices. This resulted in 150 persons being turned away from applying for new passports and seven ports of entry were left unsupervised until the arrival of senior officers. Bhaggan told Newsday he was forced to call out senior managers to take up duties at seven ports of entry in South Trinidad. For over two hours, ports at Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation Ltd, Galeota in Mayaro, Labidco in Brighton, La Brea, Kings Wharf, San Fernando and the cement plant at Claxton Bay were left unmanned. In addition, the Immigration Office at Richardson Street, Point Fortin, had to be closed.

Bhaggan said from a total of approximately 250 passport applications, the Coffee Street office was only able to process about 150 new passports, including renewals. Persons seeking residence were turned away. “The sickout must not be allowed to continue today,” Bhaggan said, “or the shipping and commercial activity on these ports will be severely affected.” Bhaggan said he was forced to reassign senior managers to the ports yesterday, but such redeployment could not be allowed to continue, he added, or the whole system would collapse. “This is a very serious situation. We man seven ports in South where there is a large volume of commercial activity. We must have sufficient manpower,” Bhaggan said.