Since early July, the complaint of extortion made against an airport immigration officer by James Efrimea has caused a major disturbance and division in the Immigration Department.
But, it has benefited him nothing; the Sierra Leonean is still stuck in jail pending deportation.
Tonight, his attorney says that his family is ready to pay his way back home - but the state won't let him leave! That's why he's going to the Supreme Court for a writ of Habeas Corpus. Here's OJ Elrington:
Orson 'OJ' Elrington, Attorney for James Efrimea
"Mr. Efrimea and his family have communicated to the government, the immigration department, and all relevant authorities that they have the financial resources to repatriate Mr. Efrimea to his home country."
"Regrettably, after weeks and weeks and weeks, and in our opinion, illegally and unlawfully keeping him detained, he has still not been released. Mr. Efrimea and his family retained us on August 29th, and from since that date, we have sent communications to both the immigration department as well as the ombudsman communicating our position to the government that he is willing and able to pay his repatriation fees."
"And so it is the normal course of conduct that once they have the necessary resources to be able to facilitate this repatriation, that he should be allowed to leave at the earliest convenience. This has not been the reality."
"And the reason that we have learnt this has not been the reality is because of a reason which is totally not in compliance with the law and has absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Efrimea. And so in our opinion, he is being illegally detained."
"It is our understanding that he is being detained so that he can provide evidence in criminal trials against the immigration department officers. That is no reason, absolutely no reason whatsoever to detain Mr. Efrimea. He should be released. And so on the next recourse, since we have tried the normal course that we have done time and time again with persons who find themselves in this position and the Immigration Department has complied with the proper rules and procedures. Normally delayed, but nonetheless they comply. In this situation they have simply not even responded to our letters. And so our only next available recourse is to make an application to the Supreme Court for Habeas Corpus to say that this man is being illegally held against his constitutional right."
"Habeas Corpus is Latin for produce the body. Meaning that the government and the authorities would have to provide a lawful reason why it is he is being detained. And once they cannot produce that then he must be released."
"And that is essentially what we have to do. But that again is an application that has to go to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court normally treats that with the highest level of urgency."
According to Elrington, he understands that the reason why Efrimea is not being allowed to leave is because the Department is trying to get him to testify against the Immigration Officers whom he claims extorted him.
Efrimea entered Belize illegally on July 7th and was deemed a prohibited immigrant. He was issued with an order to leave and when he made attempts to leave the country on July 10 through the PGIA en route to Cuba and had been placed on the flight, he was red flagged and taken off.
The allegation is that he paid two officers to allow him to leave.
