Dear Editor,
I am venting my disappointment and disgust at the treatment I received at the Norman Manley International Airport on a recent visit to Kingston.
My trip was by no means pleasant or planned as I was attending the funeral of a family member who was murdered.
While I do appreciate the vigilance applied by the local authorities to combat drug trafficking, I am appalled at the process. I had no issue being "randomly selected", but to be asked to pull down my pants and pee in a cup in the presence of a female officer, and expose my breasts is just downright degrading and antiquated. With all the improvements done at Norman Manley, no one thought of investing in a body scanning machine to carry out these random detailed searches? What if I had refused?
With all the bad publicity about crime and violence, and having it affect my family directly, I was apprehensive about coming home for this funeral. But it was one I could not miss. Then came this experience on my departure. With all the legal ramblings recently in Barbados, do the powers that be not see the need for improvement in this area? Is this degrading experience a part of brand Jamaica?
I implore anyone with the authority to fix this. As a Jamaican returning home it surely was not an incentive to return and I am sure other innocent travellers who experience this humiliating search are of the same opinion.
Invest some funds in body-scanning equipment and stop subjecting travellers to these degrading forms of searches. We are not living in the stone age. Then again, perhaps after a lawsuit it will be deemed necessary.
I remain, even though violated, a Jamaican.
Shawn
godsgift25@live.co.uk
Airport anger
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I am venting my disappointment and disgust at the treatment I received at the Norman Manley International Airport on a recent visit to Kingston.
My trip was by no means pleasant or planned as I was attending the funeral of a family member who was murdered.
While I do appreciate the vigilance applied by the local authorities to combat drug trafficking, I am appalled at the process. I had no issue being "randomly selected", but to be asked to pull down my pants and pee in a cup in the presence of a female officer, and expose my breasts is just downright degrading and antiquated. With all the improvements done at Norman Manley, no one thought of investing in a body scanning machine to carry out these random detailed searches? What if I had refused?
With all the bad publicity about crime and violence, and having it affect my family directly, I was apprehensive about coming home for this funeral. But it was one I could not miss. Then came this experience on my departure. With all the legal ramblings recently in Barbados, do the powers that be not see the need for improvement in this area? Is this degrading experience a part of brand Jamaica?
I implore anyone with the authority to fix this. As a Jamaican returning home it surely was not an incentive to return and I am sure other innocent travellers who experience this humiliating search are of the same opinion.
Invest some funds in body-scanning equipment and stop subjecting travellers to these degrading forms of searches. We are not living in the stone age. Then again, perhaps after a lawsuit it will be deemed necessary.
I remain, even though violated, a Jamaican.
Shawn
godsgift25@live.co.uk
Airport anger
-->